A luxury home in Promontory, a 6,500-acre expansive retreat near Park City. Many homebuyers seek vacation homes that bring them closer to the mountains or water. Jason Olson, Deseret Morning News

When he did so, Nielsen joined the ranks of Americans buying up vacation retreats and investment properties.
      In fact, demand for second homes is booming, according to a recent report by the National Association of Realtors.
      Of all U.S. homes purchased or built in 2004, second homes made up 36 percent of the mix, compared to 34 percent in 2003, according to the report.
      Walter Malony, spokesman for NAR, said the number of second homes purchased or built in 2004 actually may be even higher, due to the small number of survey responses returned from second-home addresses.
      "The biggest factor here is demographics," Malony said. "You've got the baby boomers really driving it. They're in the peak years. The historic age for buying a vacation home has been the late 40s. The boomers are going to be impacting this market at least for another five to 10 years."
      While Nielsen, 35, is not among the ranks of baby boomers, he shares the same itch to stake a claim in the second-home market.
      After purchasing a 1.5-acre lot in Timber Lakes, a mountain subdivision east of Heber City, Nielsen started construction this year on a $175,000 log cabin.
      "I think we'll spend every weekend up there," Nielsen said. "We want a place to go crash after boating and be able to get up and go again."
      Although most people want to be within an easy drive of a second home, Malony said, a number of people are willing to travel to be near mountains or water, the most popular escapes.

Last year, Rick Federico, chief executive officer of P.F. Chang's China Bistro, built a $3 million second home in Promontory, a 6,500-acre expansive retreat near Park City. Federico, who lives in the Phoenix area, makes the journey to his Utah home a couple of times each month.
      "I can be sitting at my house and at the last moment       decide I want to go up to Utah, and I can be door-to-door in about three hours," Federico said. "I plan on keeping it. Hopefully my kids' kids will use it someday. I didn't build it to flip it."
      In 2004, there were nearly as many second homes in Summit County as primary residences, at 9,435 and 11,560 units, respectively, according to Blake Frazier, county auditor.
      In the same year in Washington County, where golf and warm weather have drawn thousands of retirees, there were 5,138 second homes and 32,966 primary homes.
      Melisa Miller, a spokeswoman for Promontory, said the exclusive ranch community, which features an 18-hole golf course, has drawn second-home buyers from as far away as Japan and England.
      Last month, Promontory launched a new neighborhood, generating more than $53 million in revenues in one day from the sale of 83 lots.
      "The average price was close to $700,000 per lot," Miller said. "Last year we sold 150 lots."
      While many people, like Federico, are purchasing homes for vacations or family retreats, the NAR report shows that most second-home buyers are purchasing primarily for investment.
      In 2004, 23 percent of all homes purchased were for investment, while 13 percent were vacation homes.
      According to 2003 data from the U.S. Census Bureau, of the 43.8 million second homes in the United States, 37.2 million were investment properties, while 6.6 million were considered vacation homes.
      "Our definition of second homes has changed with the buyer shift toward investment property," David Lereah, chief economist for NAR, said in a prepared statement. "We see that second homes are a much larger share than the conventional mind-set of them being mostly vacation homes."
      Dennis Hanlon, associate broker at Lewis, Wolcott & Dornbush's Deer Valley office, said his clients are looking for second homes that will appreciate over time.
      "As families grow up they scatter, and people are looking for a central spot for the families to gather for vacations and reunions," Hanlon said. "By the same token, people want their property to be a good investment."

The ranch community of Promontory has drawn second-home buyers from as far away as Japan and England. Jason Olson, Deseret Morning News

Four years ago, Hanlon purchased his own second home, a condominium near Park City Mountain Resort, for strictly investment reasons.
      Hanlon paid $120,000. Today, he says the condo is worth at least $150,000.
      "For about the last 12 to 18 months it's been very busy," said Hanlon, who sits on the NAR national resort committee. "The biggest drawback we have is that there is very little for sale, and there is no land."
      According to the NAR report, the distinction between investment and vacation buyers is wide.
      For instance, 86 percent of vacation-home buyers do not rent their property, compared to 21 percent of investment buyers.
      And 27 percent of vacation-home buyers will make their second home a primary residence after retirement, compared to 14 percent of investment properties.
      "Ultimately the second home could become our first home," Federico said. "We wanted to be in an area that when we decided to hang it up that you could actually spend more time — six months out of the year — at what is now the second home."
      Federico's excitement over his second home convinced him to invite his officers and directors to spend a weekend at Promontory. He recently held one of P.F. Chang's board meetings there.
      That led to the company's president, chief financial officer and director of marketing all purchasing property at Promontory.
      But don't count on Federico buying a third home.
      "This is my first and only second home," he said. "I'll let somebody else build one at the beach, and then we'll just swap out."