Middle class buying second homes

Middle-class Americans are taking a lesson from the rich: There is no place like a second home.

Sales of second homes last year made up more than a thrid of all residential sales, according to a new study by the National Association of Realtors. Of those, 13 percent of those homees were purchased as vacation homes and 23 percent as investment properties. This total is up 16.3 percent over 2003 results.

Data compliled by the Census Bureau shows there are 43.8 million second homes in the US, including 6.6 million vacation homes and 37.2 million investment properties, compared to 72.1 million owner occupied homes.

The typical vacation-home buyer is 55 years old and earned $71,000 in 2003, while investment property buyers had a median age of 47 and eared $85,700.