McMansion for Rent: Sign of the Times

If you're a homeowner wondering whether to rent your sweet vacation spot or ride it out, the answer may depend on your location. In Florida, where 62,401 foreclosure filings last month placed the state second behind Nevada in foreclosure broker RealtyTrac's rankings, the threat of investors turning vacant housing into a glut of vacation rental properties courts disaster.

However, in a luxe locale like Aspen, where broker Tom Carr of Leverich and Carr says home sales are projected to fall from $2 billion in 2008 to less than $1 billion this year, rental provides an income option for home sellers who refuse to come down on their prices.

HomeAway's Sharples doesn't blame the owners, but says potential buyers are also looking to rental potential to take the bite out of premium purchases.

"The realtors that I've talked to in Aspen have all figured out that the best way to sell vacation real estate is to add a rental component to their pitch to potential buyers," Sharples says. "They never used to do that, but the majority of the buyers they're talking to want to know something about the rental potential to hedge their bets."

-- Reported by Jason Notte in Boston.

>To order reprints of this article, click here: Reprints