"All the stars have aligned for the second-home market," economist Lereah said.
Some housing watchers say they have been taken by surprise by the size of the second-home market.
Hans Wachtmeister takes to the slopes near condominiums at Wintergreen Resort, less than a three-hour drive from the Capital Beltway.
(Photos Stephanie Gross For The Washington Post)
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"There's significantly more second homes out there than we realized," said Walter Molony, a spokesman for the real estate association in Washington. "It's a much larger share of total home sales than we previously understood."
In 2003, the NAR estimated there were 6.6 million second homes in the country and that second-home sales represented 5 percent to 6 percent of total home sales. A new report the association plans to release next month will show that that number is much higher. Vacation homes alone total about 6 million, according to the report, and that doesn't include second homes bought for investment only.
According to the association, its earlier study underestimated the size of the number of second homes because the market proved hard to measure. Questionnaires sent to second homes often weren't returned because the homeowner didn't live there, Molony said. The new survey was done via the Internet.
Measurement errors aside, the number of Americans buying second homes has spiked dramatically, particularly in the last two years, according to economists and ad to brokers working in resort areas.
And it's happening all over the place.
Dennis Hanlon, a broker in Park City, Utah, said the second home market in Western ski resorts started heating up in the fall of 2003, and then took off in 2004.
"All of the resorts through the Rocky Mountain region -- Park City, Sun Valley, Jackson Hole, Vail, Steamboat Springs, Telluride and Breckenridge -- were really busy last year, with record sales," said Hanlon, president of the Rocky Mountain Resort Alliance.
He said the market started heating up after four years of flat sales and relatively stagnant prices, which he said were caused by the dot-com bust in California, the decline in the stock market and an ailing national economy.
Ski resorts have their challenges. Most of them have been busy trying to transform themselves into four-season resorts to attract people outside of the winter season as the number of skiers continues to fall each year. From Whistler to Wintergreen, mountain resorts are promoting golfing, tennis, hiking, cycling, musical festivals, wineries and other cultural activities lure people year-round.
In resorts such as Park City, the efforts are paying off, Hanlon said.
In 2004, Park City did $1.2 billion in real estate sales compared with $750 million the year before, he said. Hanlon said about three-quarters of the sales at the Western ski resorts are second homes, with the remainder primary residences.
Kyle Lynn, associate broker at Wintergreen Real Estate Co., said his brokerage started to notice an uptick in sales at the four-season mountain resort near Washington soon after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. He said buyers were looking for a serene and safe environment close to home.
