WEEKEND INVESTOR --- Vacation Homes Beckon --- Market Conditions Are Improving in Some High-End Locales; Here's a Guide
If you're thinking of buying a second home in the next five years, this might be your best opportunity.</br></br>After being battered during the housing bust, the vacation-home market is showing signs of life. Reports of bidding wars are trickling out of some of the locales that bore the brunt of the housing bust, and brokers in other markets, while not sounding the "all clear," at least say conditions aren't getting much worse.</br></br>Near-record-low mortgage rates, bargain prices and dwindling home inventories are bringing some once-untouchable markets within reach for the first time in a decade, say housing-market experts.</br></br>Those factors are "creating a sense of urgency," says Pam O'Connor, president of Leading Real Estate Companies of the World, a broker network. "People feel like they might miss this window."</br></br>Salt Lake City resident Donna Peeters says that is one of the reasons she wants to step up her search for a second home in Santa Barbara, Calif. She and her husband started thinking about buying a vacation home a couple of years ago, she says, and have seen prices fall as they waited. They are looking for a place close to the beach, and expect to spend about $2 million cash.