Just 13.8% of American Families Own a Second Home or Other Residential Property. The Typical One Is Worth $280,000

Detailed summary

A lake cabin sounds like the dream until the roof, the insurance bill, and the tax code show up. Before you sign anything, one simple question could reveal whether a second home is a getaway or a trap.

Many people dream of a lake cabin or a beach condo, but far fewer actually own one. The Federal Reserve's Survey of Consumer Finances shows that just 13.8% of American families owned residential property other than their main home in 2025. That's up from 12.9% in 2022. So the second home is still a minority thing, but it's slowly getting more common.

The category covers more than vacation homes. It also includes rental houses, condos that get leased out, and any other residential real estate a family owns but doesn't live in full time.

For families who own one, the median value rose from $246,200 in 2022 to $280,000 in 2025, a 14% increase. These figures are in 2025 dollars, so that gain reflects the increase after inflation.

The median is the middle value. Line up every owner from the cheapest property to the priciest, and the median is the one right in the middle.

Opening of the article, excerpted from Yahoo Finance. To read the rest, open the article on the publisher's site.