Second-home purchases are rising because affluent buyers are fairly active in today’s housing market; additionally, demand dropped so low in 2024 that even a small pickup resulted in an annual increase. 85% of last year’s second-home mortgages went to high earners, 82% went to white people, and nearly 60% went to 45-64 year olds. Second homes were most common in West Palm Beach, the Jersey Shore and Palm Springs. homebuyers took out 4.1% more second-home mortgages in 2025 than they did a year earlier. That marks the first annual increase in four years, following declines from the pandemic-era peak in 2021 until 2024. By comparison, mortgages for primary homes ticked up 1% year over year in 2025 after rising 2% in 2024. This is according to a Redfin analysis of Home Mortgage Disclosure Act (HMDA) data covering purchases of second homes, primary homes and investment pro…

They had a median income of $294,000 in 2025. Just under 3% went to low-income buyers, who had a median income of $69,000. White people: More than four in five (81.5%) vacation-home mortgages went to white homebuyers. Hispanic and Asian homebuyers trail far behind, with 5.6% and 5.2% of vacation-home mortgages, respectively. Black buyers took out 2.2% of them. Gen Xers: Nearly one-third (31.1%) of vacation-home mortgages went to 55-64 year olds, and another 27.6% went to 45-54 year olds (Gen Xers were 45-60 in 2025). Next come 35-44 year olds (18.6%), 65-74 year olds (14.1%) and people under 35 (5.4%). The share of total mortgages that went to second-home buyers was essentially flat from 2024 to 2025: 2.7% of all mortgage originations last year were for second homes, up marginally from 2.6% in 2024. That’s down from a peak of 5.1% in 2021. The vast majority of mortgag…