Purchasing Power
When to buy—or not buy—your vacation home.
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While most of her customers do their homework before they start looking, an increasing number purchase homes on a whim. “They come on vacation and they are having a fantastic time, and then the day before they are leaving on a 7 a.m. flight, they stop by to inquire about real estate,” says Dopkin. “They just don’t want to go home.”In the same way that Aspen aficionados fall in love with the rugged Rocky Mountains, those who head to Arizona fall for the arid desert landscape and its numerous lush greens on which to play golf. “So many of my buyers come to visit, discover they love the weather and the golf, and decide to buy,” says Walt Danley, who has been representing real estate in the Scottsdale area for 28 years. His buying season revs up in January, when the popular Barrett-Jackson classic car auction comes to town. “They come to buy a car and end up buying a house,” Danley says. “It’s very spur of the moment.” Like Dopkin, Danley says that his buying season, although busiest from January to May, is not as seasonal as it used to be. “We used to shut down during the summer, yet last year my best month was August.”
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Those brave enough to bare the scorching desert heat during late summer are
likely to be rewarded with a bargain, but Danley says the market, especially in
such desirable areas as Paradise Valley, has been holding steady. “We have a
good inventory and a nice selection of homes, so it’s not likely that you’ll see
multiple offers,” he says. What you will see is a lot of new construction. “I
sometimes worry that the spec builders I know will be hurt because there won’t
be enough buyers, but the market has remained strong,” Danley adds. (Click image to enlarge)The steady vacation home market is being fueled by the baby boomers, some 76 million strong. Thanks mainly to them, vacation homes are currently the fastest-growing segment of the real estate market, and it is predicted to keep growing until 2014. The buying spurt has created enough momentum to nudge even those who are not ready to buy that second home to writing a check. “They are buying prematurely,” Danley explains. “They tell me that they don’t need to buy for six or seven years, but since they have the money, they want to buy now before the market gets away from them.”
In such red-hot beach locations as Naples, Fla., Aubrey Ferrao, president of the Gulf Bay Group of Companies, the developer of Naples’ Fiddler’s Creek, says 75 percent of the community’s sales happen between November and April. “Those who come back during the off-season are the ones who couldn’t make a decision the first time,” says Ferrao, who notes that Naples has seen its home prices appreciate steadily around 21 percent, and the lack of developable land has fueled the market’s prices. “They are buying more quickly than they did five years ago because they don’t have a lot of choices left—there is not much land left in Naples proper,” he says. “They know if they don’t buy now, it is going to cost them more next year, so they are buying years before they are set to retire.”
While this anxious group of buyers has no problem buying now and playing later, they do have some demands when it comes to finding the right vacation home. In Tahoe, they desire the view; in Aspen, they want to be close to the ski action and town; and in Scottsdale and Paradise Valley, gated communities are the location of choice. In Naples, it is all about the beach, and at resort communities such as Fiddler’s Creek, it is about the amenities. “Life is complicated enough without having to worry about your house,” Ferrao says. Fiddler’s Creek gives prospective buyers a taste of what’s to come by turning the task of buying a vacation home into a vacation itself. Through its “Fly and Buy” program, prospective buyers check into the property’s Marco Beach Ocean Resort, where they can relax at the beach or pool between site visits. “If they buy, we pick up the tab for their stay,” says Ferrao.
Carol Dopkin Real Estate, 800.920.1186, 970.920.1186, www.caroldopkin.com
Fiddler’s Creek, 800.583.7536, 239.732.9300, www.fiddlerscreek.com
Matt Hanson, Truckee River Homes, 866.582.6111, www.tahoetruckeehomes.com
The Walt Danley Group, 800.845.2070, 480.991.2050, www.waltdanley.com
