Redfin Reports Demand For Vacation-Home Mortgages Fell 40% in 2023 As Housing Costs Rose to Record High - Seite 2

Just 3% of all mortgages went to second-home buyers in 2023, down from 5% in 2020

The share of total mortgages that went to second-home buyers also dropped last year: 2.8% of all mortgage originations in 2023 were for second homes, down from 3.6% in 2022 and 5.1% in 2021.

The vast majority of mortgages go to buyers of primary homes: They took out nearly nine in 10 (88.6%) mortgages in 2023, 87.2% in 2022 and 89.2% in 2020. The remainder go to those buying investment properties, with 8.6% of all mortgages taken out in 2023 used for investment properties, compared with 9.2% in 2022 and 5.9% in 2020.

Vacation-home demand hasn’t picked up in 2024

An early look at this year’s data shows that demand for second homes hasn’t picked up in 2024. Mortgage-rate locks for second homes have been sitting near their eight-year low since the beginning of this year, according to a separate Redfin analysis of data from Optimal Blue. They declined 7.3% from a year earlier in April. By comparison, mortgage-rate locks for primary homes declined 1.6%.

Please note that Optimal Blue data is different from the HMDA data used in the rest of this report. Optimal Blue data is a leading indicator because it measures mortgage-rate locks (an agreement between a buyer and a lender that locks in a rate for a period of time; roughly 80% result in home purchases) as opposed to mortgage originations, and it includes a sample of U.S. mortgages rather than all U.S. mortgages.

The people who are buying vacation homes: Affluent, white, Gen X

High earners: The vast majority of people who took out mortgages for vacation homes in 2023 were—unsurprisingly—high earners. Nearly nine in 10 (86%) second-home mortgages issued last year went to high-income buyers. Just under 3% went to low-income buyers. (The nationwide median household income of home purchasers in the HMDA data is $178,000 for high-income buyers and $65,000 for low-income buyers.)

White people: Nearly four in five (79%) vacation-home mortgages went to white homebuyers in 2023. Asian and Hispanic homebuyers come next, with 6.4% and 6.2% of new vacation-home mortgages, respectively. Buyers who identify as more than one race took out 5.4% of second-home mortgages, and Black buyers took out 2.7%.

Gen Xers: 29.5% of vacation-home mortgages went to 55-64 year olds in 2023, and another 28.6% went to 45-54 year olds (Gen Xers were 43-58 in 2023). Next come 35-44 year olds (21%), 65-74 year olds (11.4%) and people under 35 (6.9%).