One Little, Two Little, Three Little… Houses?

Some of us collect antiques. Diane Pyshos collects houses.

She and her husband have three, according to the Chicago Tribune. Along with their son, they manage to live in all three, which is pretty nice in spite of the clothing or grocery mishaps. Not that she’s complaining. The family loves their existence, split between two homes in Michigan (a mere five miles from one another) and one in Chicago. They’re thinking about — yes — a fourth, in Arizona.

The surprising thing is that a combination of demographic / economic factors is making this commonplace.

“We call them ’supersplitters,’” said Bill Jacobs, a demographic analyst in Seattle, in reference to people who own three or more places.

Jacobs’ firm studied second-home ownership for WCI Communities, a real estate developer in Bonita Springs, Fla., that coined the term “splitters.” The term was created to distinguish the emerging profile of second-home owners from the more traditional “snowbirds,” who most divide their time seasonally. Splitters are likely to bounce around, relatively speaking, between their many properties. Supersplitters, with three or more, take that practice to another level entirely.

The numbers are hard to calculate, as some third properties are strictly investments, others are for personal use and others are a blend of both. There has also been a revival of interest in time-shares and the creation of so-called fractional ownership of properties (like condotels), both of which have Americans thinking about third homes in record numbers. It’s a trend that is changing the multiple-home ownership demographic from only the rich to the “economically comfortable.”

“Income is tilting toward the top end of the scale,” said Peter Francese, a demographer in Exeter, N.H. “One-fifth of all households take home 50 percent of the money in this country. So multiple homeowners might have a ski condo in the winter, a summer place on a lake and a regular house that they live in the rest of the time. It’s a small segment, but significant. We were surprised at the incidence rate. It was higher than we expected.”

A national study of 1,743 homeowners found that 20 percent own a primary residence and second home, while nine percent — the supersplitters — own a primary residence and at least two other homes. The National Association of Realtors estimated about a year ago that about 44 million second homes exist in the United States (made up of approximately 7 million private vacation homes and 37 million investment units).

The Realtors said that of the people who bought second homes in 2004, 38 percent said they’d likely purchase another home within two years.

“It’s absolutely a real phenomenon,” said Francese, founder of American Demographics magazine. “There are a lot of reasons why it’s happening. An awful lot of people are skittish about the stock market, but real estate, that’s viewed in the general public as a sure thing.”

Indeed, the biggest force behind third-home ownership has been mortgage rates, which until recently have been at record lows. Then there’s a crop of baby boomers who not only are in their peak earning years, but who also flush with home equity from their primary residences and looking for a place to put it. They’re also in the position where the second homes they buy may also double as retirement destinations. Expanded routes and lower air fares have also put more destinations within reach, while telecommuting makes it possible to extend time at getaway spots.

Pyshos and her husband, for example, conduct their businesses at home. She is a mortgage broker, and he’s an architect. With the exception of weekly 90-minute drives to their Chicago house for client meetings, they work out of their Michigan residence(s). While having two homes within five miles of each other is unusual, figures find that supersplitters are likely to have at least one of their second homes. A familiar arrangement is a family that has a suburban home, a condo downtown and a third place at a beach or lake area within a few hours’ drive.

But does this trend have growth potential?

“I think there’s going to be a backlash, in terms of second and third homes. People are going to understand that owning these things is a lot of work,” said Brooke Warrick, a market researcher whose California firm, American Lives, studies consumer behavior for the real estate industry.

So if you’ve been thinking about taking out a Florida home equity loan and turning that into a second or third vacation property, you certainly are not alone. If you can swing it financially, great, but think long and hard before you get hamstrung by rising rates and difficult upkeep.