Baby Boomers Helping Boom

Vacation and investment home sales accounted for 4 out of 10 residential transactions nationally last year, according to the National Association of Realtors, and the booming baby boomers are the reason why.

Vacation homes sales increased 16.9%, while investment purchases increased 15.7%. Vacation home buyers are typically making life-style changes to improve their quality of life.

The NAR statistics were gathered in two separate surveys in an attempt to show the changing trends of real estate purchasers.

Some 41% of vacation home buyers said they intend to use their new property for vacation, 31% as a family retreat and 28% to diversify investments. An increasingly high number of investors are entering the second home market seeing second homes as a dual benefit.

The second home market is expected to be helped by changes in Florida’s insurance regulations in a special series of meetings conducted by the state legislature in coming weeks.

Governor elect Charlie Christ has called the state’s home owner’s insurance crisis his number one priority to get a handle on in office. It is unclear whether the state’s insurance issues will be handled prior to his taking office before the first of the year.