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This story is telling of how the secondary and vacation home markets may be slowing across the country. North East Florida typically gets a big boost when the Players Championship (golf) and the Isle of Eight Flags Festival come to town. These events bring many northerners with deep pockets who tend to buy local real estate during their visits.

But not this year. After a blitz by agents and brokers to market the properties during these events, the results were disappointing to say the least. Is the mad rush to buy second homes by baby boomers dwindling? Or are people being cautious until the market shakes out?

If Florida starts to lose the second home market, the pressure on housing prices will intensify in the near term.

In Ponte Vedra and Amelia Island, tourists attending upscale events and vacationing in the summer were once prime buyers for condominiums and houses in St. Johns and Nassau counties, lured by the beaches and laid-back lifestyle.
But with the sluggish real estate market especially dogging investment properties and second homes, the summer festivities haven’t jump-started sales as agents had hoped. Sales volume and prices dropped throughout the region this May over last year, according to figures from the Florida Association of Realtors.
It wasn’t for lack of effort.
Sellers were out in force during this year’s The Players Championship in May. The event draws elite golfers, and a legion of their affluent followers, to Ponte Vedra every year. Realtors were everywhere. Representatives of Summer House, a condominium conversion development there, hit the streets. Signs were ubiquitous, urging worn-out spectators to walk to TPC next year - from their new home nearby.  via Jacksonville.com

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