NEW YORK – The pandemic has made Americans more interested in buying second homes, and online vacation-home search traffic has reached a five-year high, according to an analysis by Point2Homes.com. Searches for houses for sale in popular second-home spots such as Big Sky, Mont., and Fort Bragg, N.C., are up 177% and 143% year over year, respectively. Overall, the website says interest in second homes has more than doubled since 2019.

Google search terms like “buying a 2nd/second home” or “buying a vacation home” have also climbed significantly since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic – by 235% and 103% year-to-year in July and August, respectively.

Interest has particularly taken off in luxury destinations. Places such as Lake Tahoe, Calif.; Nantucket and Cape Cod, Mass.; and Jackson Hole, Wyo., are seeing surging interest among buyers, and they’re trending in Google searches.

“With interest rates on the floor and work-from-home slowly becoming work-from-anywhere, buying a second home or a vacation home makes more sense than ever,” Point2Homes.com notes in its study. “As families have been forced to spend so much time within the four walls of their urban dwelling, vacation homes are becoming the best way to escape the pandemic-ravaged city life.”

Source: “Demand for Vacation Homes Reaches 5-Year High,” Point2Homes.com (Sept. 30, 2020)