Lereah on NAR 2005 Sales Data

Responding to a National Association of Realtors (NAR) that showed that "Americans snapped up 3.34 million second homes in 2005 -- 27.7 percent for investment and 12.2 percent for vacation. That was up 16.0 percent from 2.88 million in 2004."

The baby boom generation is driving second home sales," NAR chief economist David Lereah said in a statement.

"They're at the optimum point in life when people become interested in second homes, they're at the peak of their earnings, interest rates remain historically low and boomers want to diversify investments," he added.

"Vacation-home sales will remain strong for the foreseeable future given the fact that baby boomers are favorably positioned in terms of affordability, as well as being at the stage in life when people are most interested in making that kind of a lifestyle purchase," Lereah said

On the other hand, investment home sales are likely to decline this year, in part because of higher interest rates," he added. Still, he said the long-term outlook for second homes sales was positive "because more people will be moving into the prime years for buying a second home.

Source: 'Americans buying record number of second homes-NAR' Reuters 5/5/2006.