Maybe you thought a vacation home with a million-dollar view and daily golf weren't in your retirement equation. Think again, says Gordon Snyder, a Realtor in Scottsdale, Ariz.
Many second-home buyers there opt for gated communities with walking trails. Golf is par for the course because the Scottsdale area boasts many links that welcome the public.
These days, it takes a lot less green to live among the greens. Single-family home prices in the Scottsdale area have fallen about 40 percent to 45 percent from the peak in 2006, according to Arizona State University's Realty Studies center. In the Phoenix metro area, the median price of an existing single-family home was $144,700 in the second quarter of 2010, versus $257,400 in 2007.
"The second-home buyer that comes to mind to me wants four bedrooms, really nice amenities like 8-foot doors (and) granite countertops,'' Snyder says.
But don't get too greedy. "People come out here and think, 'I am just going to lowball and make a steal on a home,'" Snyder says. "A lot of sellers have already made those adjustments."