At least once a month, Bob Ritter and his wife, Mary, head totheir getaway place for a long weekend respite from their busy livesin the Minneapolis-St. Paul area.
In Minnesota, the land of more than 10,000 lakes and even morelake homes, that's hardly unusual. What isn't so typical is that theyhead south for the weekend.
Way south -- to Naples, Fla.
The Ritters are among a growing number of people who head to theairport rather than the highway to visit their weekend homes.
"It's epidemic," said Ritter, a Realtor who has four clientstrying to downsize to smaller homes in the Twin Cities so they canbuy a weekend place out of state.
What's driving the trend?
Time and money. Baby boomers, in particular, don't want to wasteeither and they're finding that sunny, faraway places like Florida,Arizona, California and even Mexico are good places to invest both.
Second-home prices are enjoying double-digit appreciationthroughout the nation and many popular destinations are in resortsthat offer maintenance-free living only a few hours away by plane.
"The second-home market is really on fire," said David Hehman ofEscapeHomes, an online marketplace for second homes. "Baby boomersare prioritizing their lifestyles and picking destinations thatcenter around their recreational interests."
A growing number are willing to go to great lengths to pursuethose interests.
Hehman said that while most people want to be within three hoursof their weekend destination, more than a third of all second-homeshoppers surveyed nationwide by his firm said they are willing totravel 1,500 miles -- requiring air travel that's equivalent to athree- to five-hour drive. That's double the number who were willingto travel the same distance five years ago, he said.
While the stock market has partially recovered from its tumble ofa couple of years ago, the experience has left more people lookingfor alternative investments, and they're increasingly tempted by realestate, even if it's halfway across the country. Nationwide, themedian second-home price rose almost 27 percent between 1999 and2001, according to the National Association of Realtors.
That's not news to Jeff Scislow.
The Apple Valley, Minn.-based Realtor, who is still years awayfrom retirement, said that after watching the value of his MarcoIsland, Fla., condominium grow from $427,000 to $650,000 in just twoyears, he caught the bug. Since buying that first getaway, he'sbought another one in Marco and six more in central Florida.
"I'm buying these places sight unseen," said Scislow, who addedthat more of his clients are doing the same thing.
"They have money and they want to invest it," he said. "Businessowners and various executives that are highly paid want to protecttheir money and haven't found that the stock market is the bestplace." Real estate, he said, "seems to be a safe place."
Scislow is counting on rental income to make the payments and payfor upkeep, and he's hoping the appreciation continues.
But that's not what's motivating all second-home buyers. WalterMoloney of the National Association of Realtors said that accordingto a 2002 survey, 78 percent of all second-home buyers planned to usetheir property for recreation. Among those who already owned avacation home, 84 percent had no plans to rent it.
"But there has been increasing interest in purchasing forinvestment," Moloney said.
Scripps Howard News Service
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