National buyer agent’s-eye view of the market

While in Vegas getting my certificate in Green Housing, I had lunches and dinners with successful exclusive buyer agents from all over America. Here’s what they said about the second home/retirement market:

Colorado:
Summit County: It’s a mature resort area, where demand is steady. There’s more skiing than Utah and lakes for boating in the summer. 75 percent of the land is public, so the land for homes is scarce. Demand there is steady and high.
In the Boulder area, there are hot spots in town where homes are selling in two weeks. Meanwhile, twenty-five minutes out of town, foreclosures abound. My agent-friend, Chris said of his market, “We are schizo, but we are not unique.”

This is a pattern that I heard about all over the country (and in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico). There are people with a lot of money still buying expensive second homes.

In other places, sales are way down. Many are falling off the edge, financially. The inequity seems deeper in other places than here in Massachusetts.

So, what’s going on? Is this a generational shift, with “Baby Boomers” cashing out? Or does the theory from The Atlantic Monthly about desirable places staying high make sense?