While some people may not have enough money to go on vacation this year, due to job loss or unlucky investing, the vacation rental industry is seeing an overall growth. Why? Many vacation property owners are deciding to rent out their second homes to vacationers this year, when they haven’t previously.

According to HomeAway, Inc., the world’s largest online vacation rental marketplace, homeowners can average about $20,000 annually. The National Association of Realtors reports that there’s been a sharp decline in second home sales for the second year in a row, and even two thirds of vacation homeowners who won’t be renting this year are looking at the possibility of renting in the future.

The rental season is longer this year than ever before as well. In 2007, vacation homes were available for rent, on average, for 12 weeks, but that average is 15 weeks this year. Many consumers are turning to the Internet to find such rentals, with 74% of vacation landlords advertising online. Says HomeAway’s CEO, Brian Sharples,

“The down economy has had a significant positive impact on the vacation rental market. NAR’s survey shows more second home owners than ever are realizing that from the get-go they can offset the cost of ownership and in many cases profit from their second homes by renting them out.”

Image via press release.

Conor Dougherty wrote an interesting story for the Wall Street Journal’s RealEstateJournal.com last week. In it, Dougherty covered a new trend: Second-home buyers are drastically changing the nature of large slices of rural America.

You can read the story here. The main thrust is that as affluent retirees and other wealthy buyers purchase second homes on remote areas, they bring with them demand for interior-design studios, spas and organic supermarkets. These shops are now popping up in these areas. It’s a dramatic change. According to the Journal’s story, some residents of these areas consider this trend the most significant change to their areas since the interstate highways first came through.

Of course, such change has its good and bad sides. On the positive side, the new shops are a nice amenity for the residents of these rural areas. On the negative, the influx of wealthy second-home buyers can drive up property values so high that longtime residents of an area can no longer afford to live there.

On the whole, then, I’d say that negative outweighs the positives — at least for those longtime residents.