No Down Side Down East?

Nowhere in the country is the trend of second-home ownership more profound than in the rural mountains of northern New England. Maine has the highest percentage of second homes in the country, followed by Vermont, notes the Hartford Courant. Given the significant price appreciation over the past few years - as much as 18 percent in some areas of Vermont - Arthur Woolf, publisher of the Vermont Economy Newsletter, believes most of those second-home buyers would withstand even a 20 percent downturn with little or no harm.