It’s a Good Time to Buy a Vacation Home

By Broderick Perkins • For The Salinas Californian • November 19, 2010

Right now, the languishing housing market offers some lingering upsides for those who have investment dollars to burn.

Home prices are low, financing is cheap and inventories are bulging.

The planets have aligned over vacation rental acquisitions.

The road’s been rocky for real estate in recent years, but that means it’s a buyer’s market and a good time to grab a piece of the American Dream as a solid, long-term investment.

“Vacation homes are almost always a good investment,” says vacation rental guru Christine Karpinski, director of Owner Community for HomeAway.com, a portal for vacation rentals, hosting some 540,000 vacation rental listings.

“First, if you’re looking for a good long-term investment, real estate tends to be a good bet. Second, vacation properties have the ability to pay for themselves, and owners often earn a profit in rental income. Third, the investment comes with the desirable perk of having a place at the beach or in the mountains to call your own,” says Karpinski, a vacation rental owner herself and author of “How to Rent Vacation Properties by Owner, 2nd Edition: The Complete Guide to Buy, Manage, Furnish, Rent, Maintain and Advertise Your Vacation Rental Investment” (Kinney Pollack Press, $26.00).

Vacation rental space is the place more and more travelers opt for when they want a bargain getaway with accommodations that provide all the comforts of home.

According to Karpinski, here’s why you want to move on that vacation rental now.

> Prices are as low as they are going to go.

Property prices are as low as they’ve been in 10 years. Procrastination won’t keep them low. Analysts say the housing market is scraping bottom and poised to move up.

“I don’t take the plunge now, I’ll look back 10 years from now and say, ‘Why the heck didn’t I buy back in 2010?’” says Karpinski.

> Interest rates are likewise as low as they are likely to go.

Average mortgage interest rates for 30-year, conforming, fixed-rate mortgages have been hovering around 4 percent, according to Freddie Mac’s weekly Primary Mortgage Market Survey, down from 5.03 percent a year ago.