Cash buyers keep second home sales steady

The market share of vacation and investment-home sales held steady in 2010, although the sales volume declined with the overall market, according to the National Association of Realtors.

NAR’s 2011 Investment and Vacation Home Buyers Survey, covering existing and new-home transactions in 2010, shows vacation-home sales accounted for 10 percent of transactions last year while the portion of investment sales was 17 percent, both unchanged from 2009.

“Despite extraordinarily tight credit conditions for purchasing a second home, the market share for vacation and investment homes held steady,” said Lawrence Yun, NAR’s chief economist “A sizeable number of buyers made deals with all-cash offerings.”

All-cash purchases have become prevalent in the second-home market in recent years: 59 percent of investment buyers paid cash in 2010, as did 36 percent of vacation-home buyers.