Virginia's vacation home hotbeds

If you're in the market for a vacation home — and who isn't? — now might be the perfect time to buy.

Driving the news: Across the country, demand for second homes is down more than half from pre-pandemic levels, fueled by high costs, a cooling short-term rental market and a pullback in remote work, per a new Redfin report.

Why it matters: Softening demand could translate into softening prices, and maybe even bargains, if you're lucky.

If you're looking, it might be worth considering these Virginia vacation home hubs.

• Wintergreen and two towns near Lake Gaston along the North Carolina border, Bracey and Gasburg, are the cities with the highest share of vacation homes in Virginia.
• The typical home value in those areas is $432,300, $162,500 and $219,000, respectively, according to Zillow.

State of play: Vacation homes make up just 2% of homes in Virginia, Axios' Tory Lysik and Simran Parwani report, analyzing census data.

• That's compared to the national average of 4%.
• Of note: The Census Bureau defines vacation homes as those that are vacant for "seasonal, recreational or occasional use."

Worth noting: Coastal Virginia doesn't rank in the top three, in part because of census-designated places. By those metrics, only about 50% of the homes in Virginia Beach, for example, fall under the "seasonal, recreational or occasional use."

Go deeper: Airbnb has a plan to stop you from booking a hotel this summer.