{"id":985517,"date":"2026-07-28T08:05:11","date_gmt":"2026-07-28T12:05:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.marketnewsdesk.com\/index.php\/redfin-reports-vacation-home-mortgages-tick-up-for-first-time-since-pandemic-boom\/"},"modified":"2026-07-28T08:05:11","modified_gmt":"2026-07-28T12:05:11","slug":"redfin-reports-vacation-home-mortgages-tick-up-for-first-time-since-pandemic-boom","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.marketnewsdesk.com\/index.php\/redfin-reports-vacation-home-mortgages-tick-up-for-first-time-since-pandemic-boom\/","title":{"rendered":"Redfin Reports Vacation-Home Mortgages Tick Up For First Time Since Pandemic Boom"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Redfin Reports Vacation-Home Mortgages Tick Up For First Time Since Pandemic Boom<\/b><\/p>\n

Second-home purchases are rising because affluent buyers are fairly active in today\u2019s housing market; additionally, demand dropped so low in 2024 that even a small pickup resulted in an annual increase<\/i><\/p>\n

SEATTLE–(BUSINESS WIRE<\/a>)–
\nU.S. homebuyers took out 4.1% more second-home mortgages in 2025 than they did a year earlier, according to a new report<\/a> from Redfin<\/a>, the real estate brokerage powered by Rocket. That marks the first annual increase in four years, following declines from the pandemic-era peak in 2021 until 2024.<\/p>\n

\nBy comparison, mortgages for primary homes ticked up 1% year over year in 2025 after rising 2% in 2024.<\/p>\n

\nThis is according to a Redfin analysis of Home Mortgage Disclosure Act (HMDA) data covering purchases of second homes, primary homes and investment properties in the U.S. from 2018 to 2025. The term \u201cvacation home\u201d is used interchangeably with \u201csecond home\u201d in Redfin\u2019s report.<\/p>\n

\nSecond-home purchases are starting to rebound\u2014and outpacing growth in purchases of primary homes\u2014because affluent buyers, who are less constrained by today\u2019s high housing costs and economic uncertainty, are driving the market<\/a>. Vacation-home buyers are wealthier than people purchasing primary homes: 85% of 2025\u2019s vacation-home mortgages went to high earners, who had a median income of just under $300,000. That\u2019s compared with a median overall U.S. household income of $88,000<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\nRecent Redfin research<\/a> shows that demand for luxury homes is growing much faster than demand for non-luxury homes, and second homes are more likely to fit into the luxury category. The typical second home was worth $515,000 in 2025, versus $395,000 for primary homes.<\/p>\n

\nThe uptick in second-home purchases is also partly the result of a base effect: Purchases dropped to half of pre-pandemic levels in 2024, so there was a lot of room to grow. That means that even a small pickup in demand for vacation homes\u2014supported mostly by wealthy Americans\u2014was enough to produce the first annual increase in four years.<\/p>\n

\nWhile second-home purchases have ticked up, they\u2019re far less common than they were before and during the pandemic. That\u2019s largely because record-high prices<\/a> and elevated mortgage rates have cooled the housing market as a whole; many Americans are priced out of buying one home, let alone two.<\/p>\n

\nZooming in on the second-home market, demand is still fairly low largely because vacation homes aren\u2019t a necessity the way primary homes are; a lot of would-be buyers backed off when housing costs skyrocketed in 2022. Additionally, the pandemic-era forces that fueled the vacation-home boom have faded; as more workers return to the office, fewer people have the flexibility to make use of a second home. And for buyers hoping to generate rental income, the economics have become less favorable as both the long-term and short-term rental markets have cooled.<\/p>\n

\n\u201cVacation homes are making a modest comeback, but it\u2019s a very different market than it was during the pandemic,\u201d said Chen Zhao,<\/a> Redfin\u2019s head of economics research. \u201cToday\u2019s second-home buyers tend to have the financial flexibility to make a big, discretionary purchase even in an expensive housing market, while many would-be buyers of primary homes are sidelined by high costs. Vacation homes are less appealing for regular Americans than they were during the pandemic because mortgage rates are much higher now and rentals are less lucrative.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Americans Buying Vacation Homes: Wealthy, White, Gen X<\/b><\/p>\n

\nRedfin also took a look at who bought vacation homes in 2025, breaking down the data by income level, age and race:<\/p>\n