Sales of vacation homes increased 30 percent in 2013 from the previous year with 62 percent of buyers using a mortgage to finance their purchase and the rest paying in cash for their new properties, according to a survey from the National Association of Realtors. The NAR’s 2014 survey of investment and vacation homebuyers revealed that 717,000 vacation homes were purchased last year, the most since 2006. Overall, survey results showed that home sales in the first half of 2013 saw stronger recovery in many local markets. These sales were spurred by low mortgage interest rates and affordable house prices. However, the recovery slowed in the second half of the year in many areas due to low housing inventory. The median sales price of a vacation home last year was $168,000, up 12.5 percent from 2012. It was the second year with a price...