[Mark Calabria] said the primary reason for the upsurge in second-home buying is "demographics, hands down." The survey found that the median age of second-home buyers in 1999 was 43. That figure is in line with the leading edge of the American baby boom generation, that bulge of population now between the ages of 36 and 54. The Census Bureau reports the median age of all vacation homeowners is 52.

Real estate sales on the Eastern Shore of the Chesapeake are booming these days, particularly in tiny, scenic Talbot County with its almost 600 miles of waterfront. That boom also is evident in many other vacation communities around the country, as demographics, tax law changes and stock market wealth have worked together to dramatically fuel second-home buying among mostly white, well-off Americans.

"It's becoming to Washington like the Hamptons are to New York," said real estate broker Kurt Petzold of Chesapeake Bay Properties in Easton. Owners fly into the Easton airport for the weekend on corporate or private jets. Waterfront lots on deep water, which is required for big sailboats, can fetch up to $1 million. Weekenders boat over to one another's homes or to quaint waterfront restaurants for lunch and dinner. Golf courses are springing up to cater to this crowd, whom agents describe as younger, wealthier and glitzier than ever before.