Vacation Home Sales Rise In 2011 & Continue In 2012!

Each real estate market area is unique is how it performs and how it adjusts to this slow turn in the economy... they do NOT all operate the same. The PURTEE Team has been talking in our BLOG about the beaches of Tampa Bay and how the recovery has swiftly turned the pendulum into a HOT sales market!

According to the National Association of Realtors, "sales of investment and vacation homes jumped in 2011, with the combined market share rising to the highest level since 2005. NAR’s 2012 Investment and Vacation Home Buyers Survey, covering existing- and new-home transactions in 2011, shows investment-home sales surged 64.5 percent to 1.23 million last year from 749,000 in 2010. Vacation-home sales rose 7.0 percent to 502,000 in 2011 from 469,000 in 2010."

Vacation-home sales accounted for 11 percent of all transactions last year, up from 10 percent in 2010, while the portion of investment sales jumped to 27 percent in 2011 from 17 percent in 2010. NAR Chief Economist Lawrence Yun said investors with cash took advantage of market conditions in 2011. “During the past year investors have been swooping into the market to take advantage of bargain home prices,” he said. “Rising rental income easily beat cash sitting in banks as an added inducement. In addition, 41 percent of investment buyers purchased more than one property.”

Here on the beaches, we have see inventory dwindle and distressed properties easily absorbed... often before they even hit the market! Nationwide, all-cash purchases have become fairly common in the investment- and vacation-home market during recent years: 49 percent of investment buyers paid cash in 2011, as did 42 percent of vacation-home buyers. Half of all investment home purchases in 2011 were distressed homes, as were 39 percent of vacation homes. Here in Tampa Bay, the all-cash percentage currently exceeds 63%!

Some interesting statistics from NAR’s 2012 Investment and Vacation Home Buyers Survey, conducted in March 2012:

• Eight out of 10 second-home buyers said it was a good time to buy. Nearly half of investment buyers said they were likely to purchase another property within two years, as did one-third of vacation-home buyers.


• The typical vacation-home buyer was 50 years old, had a median household income of $88,600 and purchased a property that was a median distance of 305 miles from the primary residence; 35 percent of vacation homes were within 100 miles and 37 percent were more than 500 miles. Buyers plan to own their recreational property for a median of 10 years.


• Eighty-two percent of vacation-home buyers said the primary reason for buying was to use the property themselves for vacations, or as a family retreat. Thirty percent plan to use the property as a primary residence in the future, and only 22 percent plan to rent to others.

In our local area, as inventory for sales has dwindled so has inventory for rentals. Even snowbirds traveling to the Tampa Bay are are finding their property to secure for next year harder and harder to find. This is a primary reason some of these renters are turning into buyers in order to secure their own place that they can count on year after year.

At this very moment, The PURTEE Team has 6 bank owned distressed properties in various stages with the bank prior to their being listed for public sale! Want to be on the inside track? Email us today at info@floridagulfproperty.com