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An analysis of mortgage rate-lock data by economists at brokerage and listings portal Redfin says that demand for vacation homes ticked down again in August, and are lower than they’ve been since mid-2017.

Rate-locks, given when a mortgage lender pre-approves a homebuyer and guarantees an interest rate for a fixed number of days, for second homes across the country sat at 47 percent of pre-pandemic levels, while rate-locks for primary homes were only off 33 percent, Redfin said. And on a year-over-year basis, rate-locks for second homes were down 19 percent in August compared to 14 percent for primary homes.

The analysis used data from Optimal Blue.

“The plunge in mortgage locks for vacation homes comes after they skyrocketed during the pandemic, hitting a peak of 88.5% above pre-pandemic levels in October 2020,” Redfin’s researchers wrote. “Affluent Americans jumped at the chance to snap up second homes with record-low mortgage rates during a time when many of them could work remotely from vacation towns. Demand for primary homes jumped during that time, too, but the increase was much more modest, reaching a peak of 16% above pre-pandemic levels in late 2020.”

The researchers blamed two factors: a run-up in costs thanks to home-price appreciation and a big jump in interest rates, and the return of employer mandates to work in the office. A small, Redfin-commissioned survey conducted in May and June showed that up to 1 in 10 home-sellers could be deciding to move based on return-to-work policies at their home.

Remote-work policies are widely thought to have fueled a surge in homebuying and home prices in vacation destinations across the country.