A recent report from Redfin says mortgage applications for second homes soared 84% year over year in January 2021. As more and more people become accustomed to working from home, the demands for more space and more flexible living quarters has pushed the second home market to peak levels. The report also cites that home prices in seasonal towns rose 19% year over year in December 2020 indicating that more and more people are looking for alternatives to urban living.
“Several of Redfin’s hottest neighborhoods of 2021 are located in vacation destinations, including Lake Tahoe, Mountain House, CA and the Lakes Region of New Hampshire. The majority of the top 10 hottest neighborhoods on that list experienced double-digit growth in home values and sales in 2020.”
While some areas within the US are experiencing an ultra-competitive housing market this may be an opportune time to explore vacation homes internationally. You can find many here on HighFlyRE. Research by Skift indicates that there is latent demand for travel and “the working-from-anywhere trend has the potential to blur permanently the lines between leisure and business travel.” These conditions make it even more enticing for US travelers to vacation internationally once the pandemic subsides.
