Renters seem to be the beneficiaries of changing American vacation habits, quirks of weather and, in many resort areas, a swelling supply of luxury rental properties.

While real estate prices have shot up, rental prices have, for the most part, held steady from Cape Cod to Lake Tahoe.

Prices have been pretty much flat,” says Krae Van Sickle, a broker with Allan Schneider Associates in the Hamptons.

But last-minute bargains are also, for the most part, rare. And some of the best properties will be gone by the time the season begins.

The summer-rental market is a fragmented one, dependent on local conditions and fashions–the cold weather that delayed the rental season in Nantucket hasn’t deterred rentals in Napa, for example. But if there’s one thing that holds true around the country, it’s that vacationers have been waiting longer to book their rentals in recent years, which means that desirable rentals are available later into the season.

“It gives me great indigestion,” says Nancy Borino, director of luxury lodging for Chase International, which sells and manages properties around Lake Tahoe. “Guests are booking last minute–sometimes two or three weeks out. We’ll sit with some inventory, whereas two or three years ago, we were booked ahead.”

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As temperatures dropped to the 40s and a northeaster spread across the region last week, real estate agents grumbled that the harsh winter and gloomy spring are contributing to the decreased bookings, which are down 10 to 20 percent at some destinations.

”People have been so cold they haven’t been able to think that summer is actually coming,” said Sherry Purdy, owner of Sandpiper Realty in Edgartown on Martha’s Vineyard.

Until this month, Sandpiper’s vacation rentals had dropped close to 30 percent on Martha’s Vineyard. Now, the company, which handles about 700 properties, is down about 19 percent.

”People are really slow to the draw this year,” Purdy said.

Nantucket, which often receives bookings a year in advance, is also seeing significant drops in the volume of summer rentals. Kate Ranney Sayle, co-principal at Denby Real Estate, said July is especially soft this year.

”In these last few weeks, it’s quieter than usual,” Sayle said. ”People often don’t plan on their summer vacations until it feels like summer . . . and it definitely has not been feeling like summer.”

Real estate agents said they don’t think the weakened economy is a major factor in the summer rental lull because that usually translates to more people renting and fewer people buying vacation homes.

On Martha’s Vineyard, Purdy urged landlords to resist raising prices because there is a large amount of inventory available and no increase in demand.

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“I’d say it’s just as strong as last year,” said David Cron, a partner at Island Real Estate in Vineyard Haven.

At Tea Lane Associates in West Tisbury, broker Mary Jo Goodrich also reports a strong market, with rents staying about the same.

“We are about on par with where we were last time,” said Judy Federowicz of Coldwell Banker Landmarks in Vineyard Haven.

“The places that have kept their rents in a good place, who have repeat tenants, they are pretty much fully booked,” said Ann Floyd of Sandcastle Realty in Edgartown. “The houses that are renting the best are the ones that have stuck with the same rents for a year or two.”

Vineyard rental agents report that property owners have been able to ask for and get the same rents that they were charging last summer. Those rents usually range from about $1,200 a week for a small house with no special amenities to $25,000 a week for a large house with ocean frontage.

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Second-home sales swelled last year, according to a study released recently by the National Association of Realtors. Sales of vacation properties rose nearly 20% from 2003 to 2004, to a total of 1.02 million. Nevertheless, Washington D.C.-based Travel Industry Association of America predicts that the vacation rental market overall will grow 67% in the next decade.

That means rental prices will only continue to rise. Years ago, a beach house in the Hamptons or Nantucket could be rented from Memorial Day to Labor Day for several thousand dollars. That same house this summer will probably fetch between $100,000 and $300,000. Think that rent is going to come down anytime soon? Short of a complete economic collapse–and even then–don’t count on it.

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