More vacation home buyers drive to Florida

U.S. vacation home buying trends are changing, according to the Wall Street Journal, and that’s affecting Florida, one of the largest such residential markets in the country. Depressed real estate prices are drawing more buyers to the market, but because of rising fuel prices and traveling costs, vacationers aren’t interested in journeying as far to shop for, and eventually live in, their second homes.

“People [increasingly] choose second homes that are a shorter drive rather than a plane flight away,” said Jed Kolko, chief economist at Trulia. A National Association of Realtors survey found the median distance between a buyer’s primary residence and vacation home declined for the first time in six years, by 19 percent to 305 miles.

Sales of these homes are picking up, and especially in Florida the Journal said. However, most of the buyers are coming to Florida from nearby states a short drive away. [WSJ]