For an increasing number of homeowners, one is not enough.
Second homes have been heating up in recent years with sales rising to 359,000 in 2001 from 264,000 units in 1991, according to the National Association of Realtors.
This decade-long upswing is linked to a combination of economic and demographic factors. In the ’90s, Baby Boomers entered their peak earning years and many accumulated wealth from the technology boom and run-up in the stock market. Interest rates for mortgages have remained low. Changes in capital-gains tax laws in 1997 prompted many empty-nesters to downsize their primary residence and reinvest profits in vacation property.
More recently, second-home sales have been sparked by a decline in the stock market and an increase in the cocooning trend.
“Today people are spending more money on their homes,” says Ann Clark, a principal of Nicholas Clark Architects in Chicago. “They want to feel more secure about what they do have and are investing money on things that they can touch and feel.”
Though cities are cleaner and better managed than in the past, this remains a time of “urban anxiety,” which has led second-home buyers to rural areas, observes John McIlwain, a senior fellow at Urban Land Institute, a real estate think tank in Washington D.C.
“With the war, we’re aware that we’re making a lot of people angry,” McIlwain says. “Every time there’s a code red or orange, it remains in the public’s consciousness. Some people like the comfort of knowing they have a place in the country they can escape to if something bad happens in the city.”
Not only are more people buying second homes, they’re buying them earlier in life. According to a Realtors survey, the median age of second-home buyers in 2001 was 46, which means Baby Boomers (now 39 to 57) are driving this market.
Notorious for redefining whatever stage of life they enter, Boomers also take a different approach to vacation homes — from where they’re buying to how they’re using properties.
Among recent trends: Second-home buyers are gravitating to getaways that are closer to their primary residences.
“Although people are taking shorter vacations, they’re going away more frequently,” says Sandra Kulli, a real estate marketing consultant in Malibu, Calif.
That means second-home owners don’t want to rely on airlines to get away, especially if they want family and friends to join them, so they’re warming up to properties within driving distance.
Case in point: Jean Barbato of Oak Park bought a second home in Colorado about four years ago but sold it this spring. She and her husband are building their “second” second home near South Haven, Mich. “The Colorado house was beautiful, but it was two flights away,” says 49-year-old Barbato. “If you wanted to go there, you really had to plan ahead. And it was difficult to get everyone’s schedule to jibe, which doesn’t make for spontaneous family gatherings.”
Their new vacation home will be on a bluff overlooking Lake Michigan. “The scenery isn’t as dramatic as Colorado,” Barbato says, “but it’s only a couple of hours away. We’ll be able to use it a lot more often.”
Another reason second-home buyers seek closer proximity: Retirement has been redefined.
“There’s not so much of a cliff-like drop-off between working and not working,” says Nicolas P. Retsinas, director of the Joint Center for Housing Studies at Harvard University. “A lot of people aren’t going to retire at age 62 or 65 but will continue to work either full- or part-time. And because people are still working, it makes sense to buy a second home that’s close to their primary network of social support.”
How much time driving?
The distance second-home buyers are willing to drive depends on how often they want to use their getaways. Some road warriors are willing to drive up to eight hours, but others want to spend only an hour or two behind the wheel.
Indeed, Clark is doing a redesign for clients who bought a second home in Barrington Hills, an hour’s drive from their primary residence in Chicago’s Lincoln Park neighborhood. Though Barrington Hills is a suburb, her clients’ 8-acre property has a surprising pastoral quality. “It’s an amazing transformation from suburbia to full-blown country,” Clark says. “You turn onto a tree-lined road and suddenly you feel completely private. There’s an equestrian feel to the land that reminds me of horse country like Bucks County, Pa.”
Because owners are using their second homes more often, many are buying larger properties that are more complete.
High-speed Internet access is a hot button for buyers who plan on working from their second homes, says Harry Frampton, president of East West Partners, a resort developer in Vail, Colo. “We also put a den and office in every home, something we didn’t do five years ago, but it’s become the norm now.”
Many second-home owners want larger places to entertain their friends and family. Especially for empty-nesters who have downsized their primary residences, the second home becomes the logical gathering place.
And families are getting together more often. “Family values and the desire for community were accelerated by 9/11 and remain strong,” says Kulli, the Malibu consultant. “After 9/11, Baby Boomers began saying, `Nothing is for sure. We want to buy [a vacation home] now.'”
A neutral territory
For couples who may have divorced and remarried, a vacation home can become valuable neutral territory. “It’s not a house that was either `his’ or `hers,'” points out Linda Searl, a Chicago architect. “Because there are no predetermined or exclusive memories, the second home then becomes the place where everyone feels comfortable.”
Though Boomers want their second homes nearby for easy access, they also demand a change in pace. “They want to be somewhere that’s different enough to be a physical and mental respite from their everyday lives,” says Diana Permar, founder of Permar Inc., a real estate consulting firm in Charleston, S.C.
And a golf course or beach is not enough. Today’s second-home buyers are searching for places with multiple attractions, Permar says: “The bar has really been raised. People are seeking balance in their lives. There’s more awareness of mind, body and spirit. Baby Boomers want recreational activities, but they also want cultural and intellectual pursuits. They want to connect to real, authentic places.”
That quest for balance, along with rising prices and increasing density in traditional resort areas, is causing vacation-home buyers to consider new venues. Small towns, especially those anchored by a university, are becoming magnets for second homes. Planned developments with lush landscape and unusual amenities are also stirring interest.
Take The Pinehills, a 3,000-acre, master-planned development in Plymouth, Mass., about 45 miles south of Boston. It didn’t target the vacation-home crowd, but at least 10 percent of its residents are second-home owners, says marketing director Donna Tefft.
The attraction is easy to see, for The Pinehills offers the mixed bag of amenities many Boomers crave. Though it’s a new development, the Plymouth area is rich in history. In fact, Old Sandwich Road, a historic colonial road, runs through the development. For golf fans, there are two courses — designed respectively by Jack Nicklaus and Rees Jones — but there are also walking trails, tennis courts, swimming pools and other recreational pursuits. A 178-acre town square, under development, will give residents access to retail and commercial businesses. Yet approximately 2,000 acres will be preserved as open space.
“We initially planned to buy for investment, but then fell in love with the project,” says 42-year-old Cecilia Barry, who is building a house in The Pinehills off the 16th fairway. “My husband is a golf fanatic, but there are plenty of other things to do, such as boating, fishing, cross-country skiing and walking trails.”
And though The Pinehills is only an hour from her home in Cambridge, it’s a different world for Barry. “The setting at The Pinehills transports me psychologically,” she says, referring to woods and meadows on the property. “It’s so gorgeous, it forces you to relax.”
The Pinehills’ abundant open space also was a big attraction for other second-home owners, such as Dan and Debbie Stebbins of Ramsey, N.J. The Stebbins wanted to be near the beach, but avoid the congestion of Cape Cod.
“Here we don’t have to live on Cape Cod to enjoy the ocean,” says 50-year-old Debbie Stebbins, noting that The Pinehills is just a few miles from the beach. “I like Cape Cod, but it wasn’t where I wanted to have a year-round home.”
Being close to restaurants and cultural attractions in Boston was another plus, and Plymouth has a commuter train station. What’s more, The Pinehills’ sense of community appealed to Stebbins. “We weren’t interested in going to a traditional neighborhood where it can take a while to get established,” she says. The Pinehills is only two years old, so everyone is a newcomer, which makes it easier to get to know people.
Today’s second-home buyers are more socially and environmentally aware. “They want to feel good about what they’re buying,” says Permar, the Charleston consultant.
That’s triggering a number of conservation projects with lower densities, such as Balsam Mountain Preserve. This development near Asheville, N.C., has 350 homes on 4,400 acres, but 2,000 of those acres will remain as a nature preserve.
A similar, albeit smaller, development is Tryon Farm in Michigan City, Ind.
On a former dairy farm, approximately three-fourths of Tryon Farm’s 170 acres will be preserved as open land. Homes are clustered but carefully designed: Everyone has a view of Mother Nature, but neighbors aren’t peeking into each other’s windows.
“I was attracted to Tryon Farm because it was a community with environmental concerns,” says 54-year-old Linda Buczyna, noting the developer was restoring wetlands and replanting prairies.
Buczyna’s vacation home at Tryon Farm is only an hour’s drive from her two-flat in Chicago’s Ukrainian Village, which enables her to get a “country fix” without going to a lot of effort. “For 170 acres, the property is extremely varied. There are wetlands, prairies, dunes and woods,” Buczyna says. “I can walk and not see people. I can stretch my eyes to the horizon instead of being limited by buildings. Having that kind of solitude and silence is really appealing and rejuvenating.”
And though Buczyna has access to a lot of land, she doesn’t have the headaches or expense of maintaining it.
What’s more, prices were affordable. Homes at Tryon Farm range from about $120,000 to $380,000, whereas nearby beachfront property on Lake Michigan would be three or four times higher.
“It doesn’t bother me that I’m not on the lake,” Buczyna says. “My dream was to be in an outdoor setting. I thought I’d have to go much farther away to get it. I never thought of Indiana.”
Buczyna adds that Tryon Farm gives her the perfect blend of privacy and community. “If you want to visit with people, you sit out on your front porch,” she says. “If you want to be quiet, then you sit out on your back porch.”
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Factor these into your decision
In addition to travel time and affordability, there are a number of other factors to keep in mind with a getaway home:
– Security: Because a getaway home often is unoccupied, security is a particular concern. Get to know your neighbors and arrange for one of them to visit your home once or twice a week. Consider providing the neighbor with a key, so he or she can conduct a quick inspection.
If neighbors aren’t a solution, install a security system.
– Rules and regulations: Don’t assume that the quickest way from your house to the beach is the best one. Check the ground rules. “There are a lot of private beaches. Sometimes, you’re right across the street from the beach and you think you can use it, but you can’t,” said Louis Price of Coldwell Banker Residential Brokerage in New Buffalo, Mich.
Most real estate agents “know what beaches everyone can use and if there’s a homeowner’s beach or an association beach,” Price said. Check with agents for other rules and regulations as well.
– Maintenance: It takes more than a mortgage to pay for a home. And, while that doesn’t come as a surprise to homeowners, taking care of a getaway place can be more complicated.
If your getaway isn’t meant for all seasons, you’ll need to prepare it for winter.
“Check your pipes and set the heat at a lower temperature during the winter if you’re not there to make sure the interior stays heated,” Price said.
If it’s not heated, you’ll need to drain the pipes.
“Most of the people who come here are pretty savvy as far as their money and what they can afford. Very rarely is someone turned down for a loan on a second home in our area,” Price said. He noted that a first-time home buyer is more likely to encounter problems, “but with second-home people or vacation-home people, they rarely have problems with financing.”
Finance in the Chicago area or at point of purchase? Price believes it’s preferable to finance your mortgage locally, “because the people [where you purchase a property] know the markets. You can pretty much get a mortgage out of the Chicago area without much of a problem, unless the bank doesn’t know the local area. Sometimes a city bank doesn’t know about septic tanks and wells. And a local lender isn’t afraid of those things, but sometimes a lender from city might be unsure.”
But nothing’s set in stone. “You can finance mortgage anywhere you want to,” said Brian Henley, Century 21 Crosstown in Paw Paw, Mich. “Over the Internet, if you want.”
— T.J. Becker
