Market Report

Holding serve

With the Wimbledon Championships right around the corner, it makes sense to try to use some “tennis lingo” to describe Lake Martin’s real estate market. It turns out that, this month, the market data made it easy to find tennis terms that can describe the market. We did not find any “faults” with the data, and for property owners, there is much to “love” in the data (puns intended).

Ultimately, the best term we could find for May’s market data was “holding serve.” The reason we like that term is that everything stayed on course. That is, there was no “break” in the data trends or a loss of “serve.”

For the first time in recent years’ memory, there was no change in the median sales price for a single-family waterfront home and virtually no change in the average price from April to May of this year. The median price in April was $1,000,000, and the same price “held serve” in May at $1,000,000. The average price in April was $1,211,473, and the average price in May was $1,211,390, a difference of just $83.

As we mentioned above, there was some data for the owners of Lake Martin property to “love.” While the month-over-month price was unchanged, the year-over-year price was substantially different. The median price increased 17.6% from $850,517 to $1,000,000, and the average price increased 13.8% from $1,064,909 to $1,211,390. That is a pretty attractive “return of serve.”

Water-access and waterfront homesites

Both of these property classifications continue to “rally.” Water-access home sales are up 28.5% in market value ($32,799,701) and 14.6% in average sales price ($443,239). Higher prices for waterfront homes have created an opportunity for this classification. Last year, 74 purchasers opted for a house with access to waterfront amenities in a lake community while making a smaller investment.

Waterfront homesites are up 19.5% in market value ($65,488,507) and 54.9% in average price ($719,654). Scarce waterfront home inventory has made custom homebuilding a more attractive option, driving 91 new sales over the last year.

Inventory continues to lag

Inventory for single-family homes and condos is in a continued “backspin.” Overall inventory for waterfront residential is just a 3.86-month supply, where an 8-month supply would be considered normal for Lake Martin. This lower inventory continues to put a drag on residential sales volume, which is down 13.9% from last year’s data.

While inventory levels continue to lag, we recommend that potential buyers stay ready to “volley” an offer in quickly, otherwise it could be “game, set, and match” to another prospective buyer.

Our Realtors^® stay on top of the market and the newest property offerings. If you want to know more about the upcoming opportunities on the lake, give one of them a call today.