[tzs]

That's the TL;DR for the least interesting part of the article since most would expect Florida to have the most.

It's well known as a major state to retire to, and many of the things that make a place attractive as a retirement destination also make it attractive as a vacation home location. And it is a high population state so when comparing by absolute numbers it would be the most obvious candidate for most vacation homes.

The interesting part is where it looks at percentage of homes in the state that are vacation homes. Florida is high by that measure too at 8.2%, but behind Maine and Vermont which are each over 15%, and New Hampshire at over 10%.

It is even a little behind Alaska (8.9%) and Delaware (8.6%). I bet not many people would have guessed that Alaska has a higher percentage of vacation homes that Florida.

Hawaii is also interesting. It has twice the population of Alaska, but only slightly more vacation homes (31.6k vs 29.2k).

[matwood]

FL, ME, and VT also allow for weather arbitrage. People winter in FL and summer in places like ME and VT.

[fn-mote]

> Hawaii is also interesting. It has twice the population of Alaska, but only slightly more vacation homes (31.6k vs 29.2k).

Common sense reasoning: people cannot afford to have their vacation home in Hawaii.

High prices, long and expensive flights.

[fragmede]

Yes but it's Hawaii. Common sense reasoning only lets you conclude that rich people have vacation homes in Hawaii, not some specific percentage relative to the rest of the states. I bet it if the math was done based on vacation land area, Hawaii would come up near the top, given Lanai. Probably places like Montana too.

[radpanda]

> I bet it if the math was done based on vacation land area, Hawaii would come up near the top, given Lanai

I’d be shocked if the parcels that Larry Ellison owns on Lanai are classified in a way that would show up as a vacation home. Typically rich large landowners in Hawaii are “gentleman farmers” who (ab)use agricultural tax loopholes.

https://jacobin.com/2023/06/agriculture-property-tax-break-u...