I had an out of town commercial broker e-mail me a listing sheet on a property he was trying to lease for a local grocery store supermarket owner in Lake Ozark.  His cookie cutter flyer had the demographic stat on it that there are a whopping 3,500 people within a 10 mile radius!  I was embarassed for the guy,  and if I was the owner of the store I’d be less than pleased with that marketing effort.  This is the challenge when looking at demographics for any second home market because the Census Bureau measures population, income, home values of the primary residences in the area, not the second homeowners in the area.   There are probably 50,000 to 100,000 people in that radius during out busy season in summer.  

According to NAR, second homeowners are typically;

• Affluent with a median income of $120,600 versus the national median of $51,680
• Married(75%)
• Middle-aged (generally, in their mid-fifties)

A Harvard study also reported that second home owners are more likely to have substantial financial liquidity, and particulary savings accounts with balances in excess of $20,000.  This is another reason we are likely not seeing the # of foreclosures at the Lake that other markets are experiencing right now. 

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