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The appeal of owning a vacation home, or purchasing a property as an investment, has remained consistently strong over the past year, according to the National Association of Realtors.

Covering existing- and new-home transactions, NAR’s 2011 Investment and Vacation Home Buyers Survey shows vacation-home sales accounted for 10 percent of transactions last year, while the portion of investment sales was 17 percent — both unchanged from the previous year.

“Despite extraordinarily tight credit conditions for purchasing a second home, the market share for vacation and investment homes held steady,” said Lawrence Yun, NAR chief economist. “A sizeable number of buyers made deals with all-cash offerings.”

All-cash purchases have become prevalent in the second-home market in recent years. About 59 percent of investment buyers paid cash in 2010, as did 36 percent of vacation homebuyers.

Foreclosure or trustee sales accounted for 17 percent of investment purchases and 11 percent of vacation-home sales in 2010, compared with 5 percent of primary purchases. The median vacation-home price was $150,000 in 2010, down 11.2 percent from $169,000 in 2009, while the median investment-home price was $94,000, which is 10.5 percent below the $105,000 median in 2009. By contrast, the median primary residence price declined a relatively modest 4.5 percent to $176,700 last year from $185,000 in 2009.

The typical vacation homebuyer in 2010 was 49 years old, had a median household income of $99,500, and purchased a property that was a median distance of 375 miles from his or her primary residence; 31 percent of vacation homes were within 100 miles, and 41 percent were more than 500 miles.

Investment homebuyers had a median age of 45, earned $87,600, and bought a home that was fairly close to their primary residence — a median distance of 19 miles.

Lifestyle factors continue to be the primary motivation for vacation homebuyers, with the desire for rental income driving investment purchases.

Jim Woodard writes for Creators Syndicate, www.creators.com.