Let Me Try to Explain High Cost Housing.

I live in a sociable neighborhood where the parents (of which I'm one) get together for the occasional barbecue or New Year's Eve party. After we're done discussing our kids' academic or sporting achievements or ringing our hands about too much time spent in front of the Game Boy, the talk ultimately falls to real estate.

Stop me if you've heard this one: topic "A" is always the exploding price of homes - not just in our Beltway neighborhood but vacation properties, be it a home at the shore, the lake or up in the mountains. Here's a refrain I've often heard (as well as said): "If only we had bought four years ago."

Yes, not only are home prices on fire - so are values in resort areas, a topic I've written about before in this column. And even though I have looked at buying a shore property (for personal use as well as an investment), I'm still too chicken to go down that road of playing landlord and real estate investor. Yet, that voice keeps going off in my head (or is that my wife talking?) - if only I had bought four years ago.

What happened four years ago? The stock market bubble - particularly tech stocks - burst and investors began searching for new places for their money, finding it's better to own something real (as in real estate) as opposed to something "e-centric."

Homes selling for $175,000 at the Jersey Shore four, five years ago now fetch $500,000. Don't believe me? Look it up.

Of course, even though I don't want to handle the financial stress of being a second-home homeowner, it appears that thousands upon thousands of Americans have been snapping up second homes like wild fire. Who says so? The National Association of Realtors, that's who.

According to a new study, NAR says the sale of second homes (vacation and investment properties) accounted for 36% of all homes sold last year. That's right - 36%. That's more than one-in-three. Is that a phenomenal number or what? Yes it is.