In Chicago, Baby Boomer-Fueled Vacation Home Purchases Are Good, Not Surging.

Byline: Mary Umberger

Jul. 5--As usual, it's the Boomers.

Given the blame (or credit) for creating a demand for everything from SUVs to Botox, the Baby Boom generation also has been tabbed for fueling the recent real estate rampage and driving the rate of home ownership to record highs.

Now housing analysts say that these Boomers, spurred by alluring mortgage-interest rates, stock-market jitters and a yearning for a place to unwind, are poised to do the same thing for vacation homes.

The number of second homes in the U.S. has zoomed from 1.7 million in 1980 to 4.1 million in 2001, according to census figures and the National Association of Realtors. And that may be just a start: By 2010, about 10 million Americans will own two or more homes, according to American Demographics magazine.

"I'm expecting a tremendous surge in the second-home market," said John Burns, a real estate industry consultant in Irvine, Calif. "The typical second-home buyer is 53 years old, and [with the aging of the population], those numbers are going to grow…