Online Vacation Rental Bookings Still Growing, says Study

From PhoCusWright's Vacation Rental Marketplace: Poised for Change--
"The long-underestimated vacation rental industry has become more than a niche, with leisure travelers driving the growth of the $24.3 billion market.... Co-sponsored by 14 industry players and HomeAway, the world's leading vacation rental marketplace with more than 309,000 properties, the study also reports online vacation rental bookings will grow from $2.8 billion in 2007 to $4.6 billion in 2010. More than 40 percent of leisure travelers considered or booked a vacation rental in the past year."

Williams: Northern Arizona Property Bargains with Owner Carry

The credit crisis might an opportunity for lovers of the part of Northern Arizona that includes a nice little amenity called the Grand Canyon. John Rushton of Bankers Real Estate, a broker in Williams, AZ, the gateway town to the canyon from the south. told me last week that prices on such vacation-home sites as golf fairway lots, as well a lovely soon-to-be-developed pine and meadow-surrounded community called Escalante, have dropped dramatically -- over 45 percent in some cases. There are numerous parcels of land for under $100,000 and plenty of first-class homes for under $300,000. The key, says Rushton, is that since many owners need cash for mortgages on their primary residents they are willing to talk "owner carry" deals.

Williams, the closest major town to the Canyon, is right off I-40 and features a town devoted to the nostalgia of the old Route 66 that once ran through it. The area has lovely views of the San Francisco Peaks and fine fishing and hunting around the Kaibab National Forest (pictured above.) It's about a 2 1/2 hour drive to Phoenix's Sky Harbor Airport, but a world away in terms of traffic, heat, and pollution.

The Porches at Steamboat: Family-Friendly Houses, Reasonable Prices

Sales momentum at premier Colorado resorts has slowed, but The Porches at Steamboat, which I visited recently, offers multigeneration-sized single-family homes that would cost a whole lot more in Vail or Aspen. Looking for five-bedrooms? You’d have a hard time finding that big a house for $3-million in those towns. Yet the 5,000 square foot homes at The Porches qualify for that often-misused term “affordable luxury.”

To make The Porches unique in the Yampa Valley, co-developer Bruce Shugart and partners combined an amenity package with a neighborly atmosphere designed to woo those who want their children and grandchildren or grandparents with them in snow country. At the center: “The Barn,” a clubhouse whose wood floors, reclaimed from an 1883 barn in Pennsylvania, reflects Steamboat’s cowboy heritage. There’s nothing old-fashioned about its interior, which includes soaring windows and a generous exercise facility with Nautilus equipment. A concierge and property management team handles everything from stocking the fridge to producing poolside birthday parties.

The goal, says Shugart, is “an environment you can bring families to. We fill a niche – large private homes with services,” including ski shuttle and equipment storage at the base of the ski mountain less than a half mile away. The Porches also is marketing several of its homes – as six-week Private Residence Club fractionals starting at $340,000. And yes, the houses do sport rocking chair-ready porches.

Converting Your Home Into a Fractional Shares Property

With the market so constricted for vacation homes, the idea of buying only what a family really needs is appealing to more and more shoppers. Now, along comes a company offering to do the work of converting your vacation home sale into a fractional sale.

The outfit, Fractional Retreats LLC of Boise, Idaho bills itself as a nationwide fractional ownership consulting firm. For a seller, "we take care of all the details during the fractional conversion," said founder Daniel G. Morton. He said in a phone interview that the company currently is working on three sales: a $639,000 home in San Diego, a $1.8-million Mexico home (pictured above), and a $1.8 million North Carolina home.

The company notes that according to Ragatz Associates, the leading research firm in the field, "sales of fractional ownership have risen 48.9% over the past four years," even though the broader real estate market is in a general decline.