Vacasa Releases Top 25 Best Places to Buy a Vacation Home for 2022

Newly ranked vacation rental markets boast strong cap rates and climb to the top of Vacasa’s fifth annual report

PORTLAND, Ore.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Vacasa, North America’s leading vacation rental management platform, released its fifth annual Top 25 Best Places to Buy a Vacation Home report today. Each year, the company ranks its top 25 markets* to purchase a vacation home based on capitalization (cap) rate, or rate of return on your investment. The report ranking also factors key data points, including median home sale price and annual gross rental revenue, to help guide buyers to markets that have an attractive investment profile and are vacation rental friendly.

“According to a recent analysis by Redfin, global market conditions are reportedly slowing home sales after years of historically high demand and low inventory. As a result, the real estate market is stabilizing and allowing prospective buyers to search for the right home with less pressure than they may have experienced a year or two ago,” said Vacasa’s Senior Director of Real Estate Daned Kirkham. “The ever-changing real estate market highlights the importance of having an agent who specializes in vacation rental destinations and homes to help buyers select the best investment.”

According to this year’s report, buyers should consider vacation homes in waterfront destinations as the vast majority of markets are waterfront or water adjacent, including this year’s number one destination, Lake Anna, Virginia. Demand for waterfront properties has been reflected in Vacasa data throughout the past year. The 2022 Vacation Rental Buyer Report revealed that short-term rental buyers are most interested in beach markets, up 10% over 2021. On the guest side this sentiment also rings true: sunny beaches dominated the 10 most-searched cities in Vacasa’s 2022 Vacation Rental Search Report.

However, not all of the 2022 markets are beachy (or new!). A handful of repeat locations from the 2021 Top 25 Best Places to Buy a Vacation Home report also made the 2022 list, in addition to newcomers like Phoenix and Tucson, Arizona; Sylva, North Carolina; and Nashville, Tennessee; representing popular desert, urban and mountain destinations among buyers.

To view Vacasa’s full Top 25 Best Places to Buy a Vacation Home report, click HERE.

*Our Methodology

To determine its ranking of top vacation rental markets, Vacasa analyzed home sales and vacation rental performance data from the last twelve months for vacation destinations throughout the country where Vacasa and its licensed subsidiaries manage at least 50 units, half of which that have been under Vacasa’s management for at least 12 months and there are 250+ non-Vacasa managed vacation rentals. To determine average gross rental income (homeowner revenue made from bookings, excluding any fees) for a market, we averaged 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 market: property taxes, utilities, insurance, and property management fees.

About Vacasa

Vacasa is the leading vacation rental management platform in North America, transforming the vacation rental experience by integrating purpose-built technology with expert local and national teams. Homeowners enjoy earning significant incremental income on one of their most valuable assets, delivered by the company’s unmatched technology that adjusts rates in real time to maximize revenue. Guests can relax comfortably in Vacasa’s 35,000+ homes across more than 400 destinations in North America, Belize and Costa Rica, knowing that 24/7 support is just a phone call away. In addition to enabling guests to search, discover and book its properties on Vacasa.com and the Vacasa Guest App, Vacasa provides valuable, professionally managed inventory to top channel partners, including Airbnb, Booking.com and Vrbo.

For more information, visit https://www.vacasa.com/press.