Market Report

Promising start for 2024

The numbers are in for our first market report of the year, and we are pleasantly surprised at the overall direction of the market—UP. Our regular readers of this report know that each month we take a look back at the sales results for the last 12-month period and compare those results with the same 12-month period from the prior year.

For this report, we are using the results for waterfront residential sales for the 12-month period ending on January 31, 2024.

This time last year, we noticed that the overall number of sales and sales volume were lagging due to a lack of inventory and higher interest rates. That lack of inventory, however, resulted in higher average sales prices. The average increase in the 2023 January report versus the 2022 January report was 19.4%.

This year’s report indicates that the average price has risen again over last year by 16%. The average price for all residential (single-family, condominiums, and townhouses) has risen to $1,182,806. The average price for single-family lakefront homes rose to an all-time high of $1,339,469.

While the dollar volume in 2023 was 16.3% lower than in 2022, this year that trend made a dramatic reversal, increasing 6.3% for all residential and 8.5% for single-family. The total dollar volume for residential sales increased to $292,520,563.

The total number of unit sales is still affected by the lack of inventory. There were only 52 single-family homes for sale at the end of January, which is a 3.12-month supply. That low supply resulted in a decrease year-over-year of 7 property sales. That result was an improvement over last January when there were 98 fewer sales versus the 2022 figure.

Judging from the sales for the month of January 2024, we think the market will continue the trends noted above. There were 19 new pending sales reported this January for $21,788,000 versus January 2023 when there were just 13 sales and $16,471,000 in volume. Closed volume for this January was $11,167,500 versus last January’s volume of $4,886,042. (January is the lowest-volume month of the year. January sales average 4.5% of the annual tally.)

What to look for

While inventory of available property is slightly higher, we do not expect to see a significant increase this year. In fact, properly priced property is still selling quickly. We also expect that higher interest rates will have an impact on the spring market. Rates have begun to moderate the last several months, and a slight decrease in late spring is likely to give buyers more buying power.

Given the slightly improved inventory level and likely improvements in rates, we predict a very good market in 2024. To stay informed on the state of the Lake Martin market, contact one of our agents today.