Vacasa [1], a vacation rental management platform, has released its Best Places to Buy a Winter Vacation Home 2022-2023 report [2] which found that Wallowa Lake, Oregon claimed the number one spot on the list, with the median home sales price at $282,237.
The report, Vacasa’s fourth annual list, uses estimated cap rate, or the annual rate of return-on-investment (ROI), to help evaluate which winter markets could deliver the best returns for vacation rental homeowners and investment property owners.
“Over half of the destinations on this year’s list are newcomers to our report, which is in part due to the cap rate compression we’ve seen in many top markets as home prices trended up in 2021 and early 2022,” said Daned Kirkham, Vacasa’s Senior Director of Real Estate [3]. “However, market dynamics have shifted in recent months for both primary and second home real estate. Interest rate hikes since last spring are causing the once-red-hot housing market to cool off a bit, giving buyers renewed negotiating power.”
Rounding out the top 10 and following Wallowa Lake, Oregon on the list of “Best Places to Buy a Winter Vacation Home” were:
- Poconos, Pennsylvania (with a median home sales price of $298,067)
- Bear Lake, Utah (with a median home sales price of $377,061)
- South Fork, Colorado (with a median home sales price of $387,173)
- Banner Elk, North Carolina (with a median home sales price of $457,608)
- Ludlow, Vermont (with a median home sales price of $459,888)
- Warren, Vermont (with a median home sales price of $369,829)
- Girdwood, Alaska (with a median home sales price of $508,051)
- Teton Village, Wyoming (with a median home sales price of $2,131,796)
- Lake Pend Oreille, Idaho (with a median home sales price of $935,395)
To determine its ranking of top vacation rental markets, Vacasa analyzed home sales and vacation rental performance data from the last 12 months for vacation destinations throughout the country where Vacasa or its licensed subsidiaries manage at least 50 units. To determine average gross rental revenue (homeowner revenue made from bookings, excluding any fees) for a market, the average actual performance data for Vacasa managed units in the past 12 months, and adjusted that number to reflect assumed usage by the owner. To calculate average cap rate, we considered the averages of the following in each state: property taxes, utilities, insurance, and property management fees. Markets with strict permit caps or regulations that make it difficult to operate a short-term rental were removed from the list.