Local REALTORS discuss latest real estate activity in Vermont. Click here for full article.
When it comes to the second home market, Kyle Kershner of Ski Country Real Estate in Killington is seeing modest signs of a turnaround.
Kershner said he's not only shown more homes in the last four or five weeks but has several pending sales. He said that's an improvement over 18 months ago when the vacation home market was shut down.
"As I've said to a few people, there's a pulse," he said. "Last year at this time, it was purely on life support."
The reason for the current optimism is that a lot of consumer "angst has dissipated," replaced by a growing consumer confidence, Kershner said.
Buying a home is the largest investment most people will ever make so the recession and the accompanying job losses sent the national housing market reeling.
He said the problem was more acute when it came to the second home market.
"Vacation homes sales are by definition discretionary spending and we're still in a recession," he said, ''and the first thing that goes in a recession is discretionary spending, especially when you're talking about something as significant as real estate."