This really didn’t come as a shock to any of us, but the National Association of Realtors has just reported the number of people buying vacation homes fell 30 percent last year.

“We expected vacation-home sales to fall given the impact of a declining economy on discretionary purchases,” said Lawrence Yun, NAR chief economist, in a news release.

12% of the homes bought in 2007 were second homes compared to 9% in 2008. 30% of those homes were bought with cash.

Nationwide, second-home prices were also down significantly. Here in Colorado, prices were not down as much but inventory is up and volume of sales is down about 40% to 60% depending on the town.

Among other findings:

• The typical vacation-home buyer in 2008 was 46 years old, had a median household income of $97,200, and purchased a property that was a median of 316 miles from their primary residence.

• Twenty-six percent of vacation homes were purchased in small towns, 23 percent in a rural area, 23 percent in resorts, 20 percent in a suburb and 8 percent in an urban area or central city.

• 70% of vacation homes purchased in 2008 were detached single-family homes, 18 percent condos, 5 percent townhouses or row houses and 7 percent other.

The survey, conducted in March, includes answers from 1,924 usable responses.