For the first time since the pandemic-era housing boom, the volume of second-home mortgages rose in 2025.

Borrowers took out 4.1% more second-home mortgages than they did a year earlier, according to an analysis released Tuesday by Redfin. First mortgages also increased 1% year over year, though that was slower than the 2% increase recorded in 2024.

The uptick in second-home mortgages was partly driven by the “base effect.” Because originations had fallen to half of pre-pandemic levels in 2024, even a modest rebound translated into a noticeable gain.

“That means that even a small pickup in demand for vacation homes — supported mostly by wealthy Americans — was enough to produce the first annual increase in four years,” the analysis said.

Redfin analyzed 2025 data by income level, race and age. It found that 85.2% of mortgages for vacation homes — a term the analysis used interchangeably with “second homes” — went to high earners, who had a median income of $294,000 in 2025. White homebuyers accounted for 81.5% of mortgages for those homes, while 58.7% were Gen X borrowers, defined as people who were 45 to 60 years old in 2025.

By comparison, 5.6% of vacation-home mortgages went to Hispanic homebuyers, with Asian and Black homebuyers accounting for 5.2% and 2.2% shares.

“Vacation homes are making a modest comeback, but it’s a very different market than it was during the pandemic,” said Chen Zhao, Redfin’s head of economics research. “Today’s second-home buyers tend to have the financial flexibility to make a big, discretionary purchase even in an expensive housing market, while many would-be buyers of primary homes are sidelined by high costs.”

Zhao added: “Vacation homes are less appealing for regular Americans than they were during the pandemic because mortgage rates are much higher now and rentals are less lucrative.”

While the report noted that “the vast majority of mortgages go to buyers of primary homes,” second homes accounted for 2.7% of originations in 2025, up slightly from 2.6% in 2024. But that is well below the peak of 5.1% in 2021, when emergency Federal Reserve policies designed to stabilize the economy pushed mortgage rates to record lows.

Second-home originations increased in 25 of the 50 most populous metro areas in 2025. The largest shares were in West Palm Beach, Fla., the Jersey Shore and Palm Springs, Calif.