NANTUCKET (Daily Mail) — Vacation homes are being dumped at a rapid rate as fresh fears of a housing market crash — and a shrinking pool of renters — rattle sellers.
The number of people buying second homes has plunged to its lowest level since records began, and is under a third of what it was during the pandemic boom.
A toxic mix of sky-high mortgage rates, soaring maintenance costs, and a widespread return-to-office push is fueling the trend.
The sleek, contemporary residence in Fort Lauderdale was listed for sale
In 2024, just 86,604 mortgages were issued for second homes across the United States.
That’s a 5 percent drop from the year before and down dramatically from the 258,289 in 2021.
At the height of the pandemic, remote workers who could afford it were fleeing big cities in droves and buying up homes in sunny spots like Florida and California.
Maine¿s Cumberland County, home to Portland, has seen a rise in listings
Those days are over.
Vacation homes (second homes) made up just 2.6 percent of all US mortgages last year, according to a new analysis from Redfin. That’s half what it was in 2020.
Redfin began keeping records in 2018, when there were 175,644 second home mortgages in the US. They rose after that steadily until 2021 and have been falling since.
‘Most people aren’t buying vacation homes at all because mortgage rates and insurance costs — especially for waterfront properties — have skyrocketed,’ said Lindsay Garcia, a Redfin Premier agent in Fort Lauderdale.
IBeachside homes are being dumped at a rapid rate by sellers who fear the markets crashing
t’s even worse for owners who depend on rental incomes to keep the home.
Airbnb demand has crashed and rental rates are priced too high, and landlords who want a quick profit just aren’t getting it.
Even the ultra-wealthy are ditching the vacation home.
They’re too expensive to hold onto while the markets are so risky.
In 2024, the average second home cost $495,000.
The second-home purge has come as a shock to local realtors in Maine
Mortgage rates have skyrocketed, driving up the overall monthly cost of maintaining a second home. It’s just not worth it for many.
Some were simply forced to sell as in-office mandates came back and full-time remote work is no longer an option.
In particular, Florida, once a vacation home buyers playland, is seeing the most second home listings hit the market.
In Miami, vacation-home mortgages plunged 32.2 percent in 2024.
Orlando, Fort Lauderdale, West Palm Beach and Tampa also saw huge drops.
Florida has a major problem due to rising insurance premiums, soaring HOA fees, and the constant threat of natural disasters turning many buyers off.
in the Northeast, Maine is also seeing a problem.
Second-home owners there are racing to offload their properties, spooked by fears of a house price crash and their financial future.
Maine once topped the nation for vacation ownership — nearly 1 in 5 homes there were second residences as of 2019.
Local realtors say it’s mostly Baby Boomers dumping their properties after their stock market portfolios took a hit during the recent tariff crash.
‘People tell me, “I’m really concerned about what’s going to happen over the next year or two with my retirement, Social Security, and my money,”‘ Portland realtor Tom Landry told DailyMail.com.
‘People’s funds are way down, and they have this other asset — they want the cash.’
Listings have tripled rom just over 1,000 in February to more than 3,000 in March — most of them vacation homes.
‘What is really driving it is a collective anxiety — they lived through the 2008 crash, and now they’re thinking, “I have to get out now.”‘
Yet, one area in the Sunshine State has held strong.
In West Palm Beach, second-home mortgages made up 5.6 percent of all mortgages, the highest percentage across the US.
But — shocker — those buyers tend to be rich, white, and over 45, says the study.
Nearly 9 in 10 (86.4 percent) earn over $280k a year.
Gen X buyers (ages 45-64) were the biggest group of second home buyers.
Baby boomers were the only age group that increased their vacation home purchases last year.
White buyers accounted for nearly 80 percent of all second-home mortgages across the US.
Some metros did see an uptick in second home buying.
Detroit, San Francisco, and San Jose all saw increases, although they were small. Less than 2 percent of all local mortgages were second homes.
So the days of the beachside bungalow or mountain cabin are gone — most people are still trying to find out how to purchase home number one.
By MARIANNE GARVEY/Daily Mail
