The share of second home lock rates was on the upswing at the end of 2021, after dipping mid-year from an all-time high of 5.7 percent in the first quarter. That’s according to a market report from Pacaso, a real estate marketplace for second homes.
The report shows that in the first quarter, the percentage of second home mortgage rate locks hit its highest recorded level, 5.7 percent. The percentage dropped to 4.6 percent in the second quarter and 4.5 percent in the third but rebounded in the fourth quarter to 5 percent.
“Looking back at this past year, we saw the percentage of second home sales decrease in the second and third quarter, after peaking in the first three months of last year,” Pacaso CEO Austin Allison said in a release. “In April of last year, however, people stopped to take a beat, to see how things would shake out in what everyone hoped would be a post-pandemic reality. For some, that also meant going back to the office, and perhaps not coincidentally, second home sales started to slow. But these last few months, many employers finally decided to make remote work more permanent. This seems to have spurred renewed interest in second home ownership.”
The largest year-over-year increase in second home rate lock transactions, 65 percent, took place in Sumter County, Fla. St. John’s County in Florida also saw an increase in transactions, with second home mortgage rate locks up 9.7 percent year-over-year.
“For the past year we’ve been tracking up-and-coming second home hot spots,” Allison said. “And actually, Sumter is a perfect example of the kinds of locations we call ‘vacation-destination-adjacent’ that have been catching our eye. If established second home destinations are like Broadway, these emerging nearby destinations are like Off-Broadway, and their moment in the limelight – or the sunshine – is coming.”
According to Pacaso’s report, 43 of the 50 counties tracked saw double-digit price growth in second home prices in the fourth quarter. Mono County, Calif., (bordering Yosemite National Park), topped the charts in terms of price growth, with a median purchase price of $790,000, up 83.7 percent year-over-year.
Atlantic County, N.J. (home to Atlantic City), saw the biggest annual declines in second home median sale prices, down 14 percent.