There are quite a few financial benefits to owning a vacation home.

But the mortgage crisis and worries about a sagging economy caused sales to fall 31% last year. We bought 740,000 vacation homes, down from a record 1.07 million in 2006.

The National Association of Realtors says the median sales price for a vacation home dropped 2.5%, from $200,000 to $195,000 last year.

Indeed, vacation homes suffered more than the rest of the residential market. For all homes, including primary residences, sales fell 12.8% and the median price declined 1.8%

Prices declined the most in some of the best-known and most coveted resort areas.

In East Hampton, N.Y. -- a popular place for summer homes on Long Island -- home values dipped more than 10%, from $1.1 million to $985,000, real estate data company Suffolk Research Service Inc. told Bloomberg News.

The average vacation home buyer in 2007 was 46 years old with a median household income of $99,100. But with the housing market in turmoil, even baby boomers -- the 76 million Americans ages 44 to 62 -- are postponing the purchase of vacation homes.

"Second homes are discretionary purchases, and there is a natural tendency to pull back from big-ticket items in periods of uncertainty," Lawrence Yun, the Realtors' chief economist said in the report. "The other factor is the disruption in the mortgage market, with a significant tightening of credit during the second half of 2007."