Lake Martin Is High, But So Is Real Estate Inventory

April 21st, 2008 Buying Tips, Lake Martin, Seller Tips John

Spring rains have filled Lake Martin faster than almost anyone expected – in the first 3 months of 2008 we went from bone dry to runnething over.  Will the waterfront real estate market bounce back in three months, too?

Not likely.  There is still a lot of inventory to sell which I think will continue to make 2008 a great time to be a buyer.  To wit:

A comparison of the first quarter sales in 2008 shows that in the entire Lake Martin residential waterfront market on the MLS(*), there were fewer sales this year than in 2007.

If you look back to the post where I reviewed Lake Martin waterfront sales in 2007, you will remember that January – March 2007 saw 43 waterfront properties sold:

The same statistics in the first three months of 2008 in the Lake Martin MLS shows sales of only 17:

Is it time for sellers to to give up?  Will 2008 see only 58 waterfront homes (17 * 4) sold?  Of course not.  History shows us that the four months February – May of every year counts for almost 50% of residential waterfront sales on Lake Martin.  We still have half of that critical period to go before we get a better prediction on 2008.

Also remember – January and February 2008 sales were also affected by the drought.  Just look at news reports from that period – they were dire.  Some people openly wondered if the lake would EVER come back.  The water level really didn’t start shooting up until the last week in February – when it rose a whopping 4 feet in 7 days.  Since then, spirits have been buoyed and more buyers are crawling the coves.

So can sellers relax?  Will Lake Martin’s water level comeback springboard the real estate market back into the raging sellers’ market of 2005?

Not likely.

There is still a lot of inventory.  There is a lot of competition for the buyers’ attention.  It is still very possible to sell in this market (the fact that my lights are on testify to that fact).  I am telling all of my sellers that we must continue with intense focus on the golden trinity of real estate: pricing, marketing, and staging.  As a seller, you must do all 3 exceptionally well in order to sell on Lake Martin right now.  The sellers who get overconfident now will be the last to sell this year, guaranteed.

Are you considering selling your waterfront property now that Lake Martin’s water is up?  Or maybe you just wonder how the last 24 months have affected its possible value?  Call or email John for a no guilt, no hassle, pain free Comparable Market Analysis.  See the contact info at the top of this page.  If you don’t want to sell after we talk, no hard feelings – I promise.

(*)Disclaimers:  All of the above info was taken from the Lake Martin Area Association of Realtors’ Multiple Listing Service.  Accuracy is not guaranteed but deemed reliable.  The above does not include sales by FSBOs or developers that sell privately and not through the MLS.  But, I do think that the above represents a very large majority of all sales on Lake Martin.

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