Head for the hills.
Sevierville, Tenn., located in the heart of the Smoky Mountains, ranked as the No. 1 market to buy a vacation home. The cap rate for properties in Sevierville was 10.3%, while the median sale price for homes was nearly $240,000. In the report released Tuesday by vacation-rental management company Vacasa, housing markets were ranked based on their cap rate, a commercial real-estate metric that cross-references the net rental income with the purchase price.
Read more: Is Trump’s tax law helping or hurting the housing market?
The Great Smoky Mountains National Park is the most-visited national park in the U.S., with more than 11 million tourists visiting last year. That’s nearly three times as many people as Yellowstone National Park in 2018.
Sevierville wasn’t the only town in the Smoky Mountainsto rank highly. Whittier, N.C., ranked fourth on Vacasa’s list. Mountain towns located in other parts of the country have strong vacation markets as well. IKillington, Vt., a popular ski resort town came in at No. 2.
Outside of mountainous areas, Florida reigned supreme in terms of the strength of its vacation markets. Nine of the top 25 markets on Vacasa’s rankings are located in the Sunshine State.
While most of these are popular beach destinations, two of the markets (Kissimmee and Davenport) are located in the central region of the state and a short drive from popular attractions like Walt Disney World DIS, -2.06%, Universal Studios CMCSA, -2.41% and SeaWorld SEAS, -1.58%.
| Rank | Market | Median home sale price | Capitalization rate |
| 1 | Sevierville, Tenn. | $239,976 | 10.3% |
| 2 | Killington, Vt. | $208,828 | 9.3% |
| 3 | Davenport, Fla. | $255,390 | 8.4% |
| 4 | Whittier, N.C. | $178,000 | 7.9% |
| 5 | Kissimmee, Fla. | $264,863 | 7.2% |
| 6 | Dauphin Island, Ala. | $345,281 | 6.7% |
| 7 | Myrtle Beach, S.C. | $213,950 | 6.2% |
| 8 | Key West, Fla. | $763,109 | 6.1% |
| 9 | Fort Bragg, Calif. | $509,500 | 5.9% |
| 10 | Big Sky, Mt. | $585,000 | 5.4% |
| 11 | Blue Ridge, Ga. | $273,000 | 5.4% |
| 12 | Gulf Shores, Ala. | $345,135 | 5.3% |
| 13 | Panama City Beach, Fla. | $347,430 | 5.3% |
| 14 | Warren, Vt. | $262,003 | 5.3% |
| 15 | Marathon, Fla. | $639,000 | 5.1% |
| 16 | Kihei, Hawaii | $708,161 | 5.0% |
| 17 | Scottsdale, Ariz. | $513,301 | 5.0% |
| 18 | Orange Beach, Ala. | $475,026 | 4.8% |
| 19 | Harbor Springs, Mich. | $256,303 | 4.7% |
| 20 | Rhododendron, Ore. | $315,744 | 4.7% |
| 21 | Ellijay, Ga. | $243,000 | 4.7% |
| 22 | Seaside, Ore. | $373,258 | 4.7% |
| 23 | Waikoloa, Hawaii | $575,422 | 4.6% |
| 24 | Cocoa Beach, Fla. | $370,406 | 4.6% |
| 25 | Destin, Fla. | $484,154 | 4.5% |
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