Leisure Living: Prices holding up in ski areas

Nationally, the median price of a vacation home was $195,000 in 2007, down nearly 3 percent from the previous year. The median price for an investment property was unchanged at $150,000.

The West region accounted for 24 percent of vacation home purchases, second to the South region’s 41 percent, the NAR reported.

Several of these Western resort towns were once mining towns or hippie refuges, giving them an off-the-beaten-path feel. Aspen, for example, is an international destination for many rich people who don’t want their names in the paper, such as Kevin Costner and Jack Nicholson.

“I call it `stealth wealth,’” said Janet O’Grady, editor of Aspen Magazine. “Aspen has always been a bastion of old money and quiet money.”

And these buyers can afford to wait.

Many agents “are telling their sellers, `Look-it, if you don’t have to sell, this isn’t the right time to do it,’” said Dennis Hanlon, a broker with Prudential Utah Real Estate in Park City, said

“People that are putting their houses on the market, they’ve got a wonderful place to come to if it doesn’t sell,” Hanlon says. “In many cases they’re renting it and it’s making good income for them … They can sit on it and they can hold out this downturn.”

Several Internet listing sites offer online listings of second homes, such as ResortScape.com and LandWatch.com, both operated by a single company, SecondSpace. Other sites for vacation home listings and real estate agents who specialize in second homes include HomeAway.com and EscapeHomes.com.

Both SecondSpace sites have a total of about 1 million listings of second homes and land for sale. Gary Cowan, vice president of products for SecondSpace, said he’s seen a significant uptick in visitors interested in South Lake Tahoe, Calif., and Coeur d’Alene, Idaho.

Cowan also pointed out some emerging, more affordable second home markets in the West that are attracting interest: Sequim, Wash.; Bishop, Calif; St. George, Utah; and Lewiston, Colo.

The SecondSpace sites also attract foreign investors with an eye toward buying a property in the West, a consistent source of demand for U.S. second homes.

The NAR’s Profile of International Home Buying Activity for 2008 showed 55 percent of international buyers of U.S. homes viewed it as a vacation home, and more than 70 percent of agents said the activity level from foreign buyers has stayed constant over the past five years.

Because of the weak dollar, Cowan said, “A lot of (foreign buyers) are seeing great bargain opportunities … in properties that once were totally out of reach.”