- Page views of for-sale listings in 20 popular vacation/second-home destinations are up almost 50 percent from last year.
- Listings in areas that include the Jersey Shore, Cape Cod, Key West, Fla., and Myrtle Beach, S.C., are among the most "favorited" in the U.S.
- Pending sales in more than half of vacation-home markets analyzed are up at least 30% from last year, compared to pending sales nationwide up 22.2%.
Traditional vacation destinations are experiencing higher interest from would-be homebuyers, perhaps in part because of changing buyer priorities and new telework opportunities shaping consumers' options of where and how to live as the pandemic wears on.
Growth in page views to local for-sale listings, the share of homes that are saved on Zillow and annual growth in pending sales in vacation-home-heavy areas are all largely outpacing national rates, according to a Zillow analysis. We examined 20 metro areas with a population of 65,000 or more where the local share of homes that are vacation homes was at least five times the national share (a minimum of 19.6% of homes in each area are vacation homes). These areas include:
- Ocean City, N.J. (49.5% of homes are vacation homes)
- Cape Cod, Mass. (36.8%)*
- Brainerd, Minn. (35.6%)
- Park City, Utah (35.2%)*
- Naples, Fla. (30.2%)
- Marinette, Wisc. (29.5%)
- Salisbury, Md. (27.7%)
- Key West, Fla. (24.9%)
- Traverse City, Mich. (24.8%)
- Sevierville, Tenn. (24%)
- East Stroudsburg, Pa. (23.9%)
- Myrtle Beach, S.C. (23.6%)
- Lebanon, N.H. (23.1%)
- Cape Coral, Fla. (22.7%)
- Show Low, Ariz. (22.2%)
- Lake Tahoe, Calif. (21.6%)*
- Panama City, Fla. (20.5%)
- Watertown, N.Y. (20.1%)
- Punta Gorda, Fla. (20%)
- Hilton Head, S.C. (19.6%)
Combined, page views of for-sale listings in these areas were up almost 50% in August from a year ago, compared to a 37% increase in page views nationally over the same period. Page views to homes for sale in the East Stroudsburg area — in the heart of Pennsylvania's scenic Pocono Mountains — almost doubled (up 90%) year-over-year in August.
And people aren't just looking at homes in these areas — they're "favoriting" them on Zillow more often as well, marking and saving them to come back to or share later. Homes for sale in Key West, for example, are favorited 8.7 times more often than listings nationwide. In Hilton Head and East Stroudsburg, listings are getting more than five times the number of saves as the typical U.S. home listing.
Previous Zillow research has shown highly favorited homes sell faster and for more money, and it's likely no coincidence that growth in pending sales activity in these areas is also outpacing the national rate. In almost three-quarters (14) of the 20 areas analyzed, year-over-year growth in pending sales in the week-ending Sept. 26 (the latest week in which data is available) was higher than the U.S. growth rate of 22.2%.
Vacation towns have always beckoned buyers attracted to natural amenities including easy ocean, lake or mountain access and robust retail and restaurant scenes serving seasonal visitors and year-round residents alike. It's too early to tell how this recent surge in interest will unfold, and if many would-be vacation-town home buyers are looking to make a permanent move, planning for the short-term in the face of the pandemic or are simply engaging in escapist behavior online and imagining what could be. But for many, owning a second home or primary residence in a traditional vacation area could help meaningfully shift the traditional work-life balance away from the daily commute into the city and toward a deeper local connection.
| Region Name | Share of vacation homes | YoY Growth in Page Views | Ratio Share Favorites | YoY Change in Pending Sales |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ocean City, NJ | 49.5% | 37.9% | 2.3 | 38.1% |
| Barnstable Town, MA | 36.8% | 58.5% | 2.8 | 21.0% |
| Brainerd, MN | 35.6% | 59.6% | 1.6 | 35.2% |
| Heber, UT | 35.2% | 53.5% | 1.0 | -2.2% |
| Naples, FL | 30.2% | 59.3% | 4.0 | 70.4% |
| Marinette, WI | 29.5% | 37.9% | 0.8 | 16.4% |
| Salisbury, MD | 27.7% | 34.7% | 2.4 | 32.4% |
| Key West, FL | 24.9% | 72.4% | 8.6 | 52.6% |
| Traverse City, MI | 24.8% | 41.9% | 2.9 | 31.8% |
| Sevierville, TN | 24.0% | 42.0% | 2.7 | 29.3% |
| East Stroudsburg, PA | 23.9% | 89.7% | 5.2 | 313.8% |
| Myrtle Beach, SC | 23.6% | 18.1% | 2.7 | 144.5% |
| Claremont, NH | 23.1% | 66.3% | 3.1 | -9.0% |
| Fort Myers, FL | 22.7% | 53.3% | 3.7 | 54.1% |
| Show Low, AZ | 22.2% | 60.9% | 1.5 | 9.2% |
| Truckee, CA | 21.6% | 33.1% | 1.4 | 12.2% |
| Panama City, FL | 20.5% | 74.4% | 4.1 | 23.6% |
| Watertown, NY | 20.1% | 66.7% | 1.7 | 38.8% |
| Punta Gorda, FL | 20.0% | 51.8% | 3.1 | 153.3% |
| Hilton Head Island, SC | 19.6% | 60.0% | 5.6 | 55.4% |
| United States | 3.9% | 37.1% | N/A | 22.2% |
Methodology
Zillow analyzed 2019 1-year American Community Survey data from the U.S. Census Bureau to determine which metropolitan areas had the highest concentration of vacation homes out of all housing units. The top 20 markets with the highest share of vacation homes were used as a subset to determine if these "vacation towns" were becoming more popular than the US overall. Zillow utilized "save" data to get the number of times housing units were saved on zillow.com as an indication of interest. The sum of all saves over a one-month time span (August 23-Sept. 23, 2020) was compared to the total number of housing units in the metropolitan area, and this ratio was then compared to the value for the US overall. Places with a higher ratio of saves to housing units than the US are deemed to have increased interest. Page view data compared views on for-sale listings in August 2020 and August 2019. Only for for-sale listings were included, and page views by agents and other industry professionals were excluded to better reflect only consumer demand for homes. Additionally, Zillow utilized weekly newly pending sales data for the week ending Sept. 26 to determine the year-over-year change in newly pending sales counts for the vacation towns compared to the US overall.
*In this brief, “Park City,” “Lake Tahoe” and “Cape Cod” refer to the Heber, Utah, Truckee, Calif., & Barnstable Town, Mass. metropolitan areas, respectively, as defined by the Census Bureau. We chose to use the former three names for familiarity.
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