vera gibbons, how do you, you do that? okay, i'm ready to buy a new home. basically prices have been rising so. . >> more people have been doing it, they were up 30% in terms of vacation homes. 13% of all residential transactions, that's the highest percentage since before the housing crash. people are jumping in there, the wealth effect, they're feeling optimistic. the stock market was up. and they jumped in. i would imagine the trend would continue if people are in the overall market. cheryl: we did a segment earlier this week on buying something overseas. >> interesting. cheryl: your point is if you buy a vacation home, you should be able to drive there. >> you should be able to drive there. the vast majority of vacation homebuyers pick a place within driving distance. you got to check the house, maintenance, upkeep. you want to keep it convenient. cheryl: and close by. >> some people buy a place on a whim, they haven't checked the area out. pay attention to these things and don't look at the investment potential. zillow has a really good interactive too

vera gibbons joining us with more. so we've seen this uptick in the housing market. is it still cheaper to buy than rent? >> it is. about 38% cheaper versus 4 # 4% last wreer. so the gap is definitely narrowing. but if you look at theneeded for mortgage about 15% versus # # 2% in the pre-bubble years. >> so let's talk about affordle affordability affordability. who is suffering the most? >> california markets are somewhat unaffordable. home values are rising faster than in-comes. to afford a median priced home in san francisco it takes nearly 43% of the average resident's income. 14% of homes in san francisco are considered affordable. so very small percentage. >> new york looks down right cheap on that list. >> compared to california. and they will only go up from there because mortgage rates are rising. expected to go to 5%. so affordability as we know and love it will take a hit. mortgage rates go up buyerby one percentage point purchasing power goes down bay 11y 11%. >> so how much time do we have? >> it should rise to 5% by the end of 2014. but i wouldn't necess