The US National Association of Realtors (NAR) 2012 Investment and Vacation Home Buyers Survey has found that the sales of investment and holiday homes in the US has soared over the last year.

The market share for these homes has now risen to its highest level since 2005.

The survey found that investment home sales surged an extraordinary 64.5 per cent from 749,000 in 2010 to 1.23 million in 2011. Vacation home sales also rose by 7 per cent to 502,000 from 469,000 in 2010.

Interestingly, owner occupied purchases fell by 15.5 per cent. Vacation home sales accounted for 11 per cent of all transactions in 2011 and investment sales jumped to 27 per cent of all sales, up from 17 per cent in 2010.

It was found that cash investors were quick to take advantage of the 2011 market and were not shy to swoop in and take advantage of the property bargains on offer. Rising income from rental properties was found to be beating the amount of cash that people had sitting in banks and cash purchases became increasingly common with 49 per cent of investment buyers and 42 per cent of vacation home buyers paying this way.

Other interesting results of the survey discovered that half of all investment purchases were of distressed homes as were 39 per cent of vacation homes.

The median investment house price was $100,000 in 2011 up from $94,000 in 2010. Vacation homes came in at $121,300 – a decrease of 19.1 per cent from the standard house price of $150,000 in 2010.

The survey also highlighted the most popular regions for people buying vacation homes and investment properties. When it comes to holiday homes, 42 per cent of those purchased last year were in the south, 30 per cent were in the west, 15 per cent were in the north east and 12 per cent were in the midwest. Only 1 per cent of holiday home purchases were outside of the US.

The most common area for investment properties was the south where 44 per cent were bought, 23 per cent were in the west, 17 per cent were in the midwest and 15 per cent were in the east.

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