Lake Martin Voice Realty
June Home Sales Jump at Lake Martin
The waterfront real estate market on Lake Martin, Alabama, continued its hot streak into June. Twenty three homes were sold in June of 2012, versus 22 in June of 2011.
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Last week I was doing some macro economic type research for a buyer that was interested in a home in the Preserve at Stoney Ridge. He asked me how waterfront home sales on Lake Martin looked so far this year, and I responded that I thought we had a really good chance to have a spectacular year, one that may even rival 2006. Lake Martin real estate sales are definitely tracking to beat last year, a widely viewed indicator of market health.
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According to the Lake Martin MLS*, the twenty three homes that were sold in June 2012 brings this year’s total to 116. That is well above the 103 that 2011 had through June, and certainly the 91 in 2010. In fact, we must go back to 2006′s total of 153 through June to see a competitor for this year’s pace.
Speaking of pace, it is only going to get faster when I report July 2012 sales. Judging from the number of homes that have already closed in the MLS for July, and then adding in some that might have actually closed but the agent has not changed their status yet, I think July 2012 will easily beat July 2011.
Then you can add in to the numbers some anecdotal evidence: everyone is busy. Realtors will always tell you they are busy, of course. But when I ask people like closing attorneys and home inspectors, and they tell me that they are over scheduled – I pay attention.
A Word On Status In The Lake Martin MLS
Many, many of the readers of this blog use the home search function (link at the top of the page) to constantly look around Lake Martin for a waterfront home, lot, or condo. I am super proud to be a major source of data for thousands of visitors to my site.
I often am asked,
Q: What does the “status” field mean in the Lake Martin MLS?
A: In the Lake Martin MLS, any time you look up the detailed info for a waterfront property for sale, it gives you one of these possible status indicators: 1.Active, 2. Cancelled, 3. Closed, 4. Expired, 5. Pending, or 6. Withdrawn. Here are my lay definitions of each:
- Active – this property is “For Sale” right now. Wide open.
- Cancelled – this property has been taken off of the market permanently. (At least until the seller decides to use another Lake Martin agent).
- Closed – sold – an offer has been made, accepted, contingencies worked out – and the sale has closed and ownership has changed hands. When I am trying to help sellers get an idea of what their property may be worth, I only consider “Closed” properties.
- Expired – this property did not sell during the listing period, and the listing has expired. No longer Active.
- Pending – Pending means that a buyer and seller have come to a written agreement on a contract to sell the property, but they are still in the period before closing when things like home inspections and title work are being done.
- Withdrawn – kind of like Cancelled but it could be a temporary thing. I think in our MLS an agent can take a property off of the Withdrawn list and re-activate it, but not so for Cancelled. To be honest, I am not sure why we have both Withdrawn and Cancelled.
I hope this helps in your search of the Lake Martin MLS. For more help on how to effectively search for your waterfront property on Lake Martin, feel free to call me at 334-221-5862 or by a contact form by clicking here or click here to go watch video tutorials I made about how to search.
Related Posts:
Lake Martin Lot Sales 2011
Lake Martin Real Estate Sales 2011 – Year In Review
Lake Martin Real Estate Sales 2010 – Lot Sales
Lake Martin Real Estate Sales 2010
Lake Martin Real Estate Sales 2009 – Year In Review
Lake Martin Real Estate Sales 2008 – Year In Review
Lake Martin Real Estate Sales 2007 – Year In Review
All Lake Martin Market Reports
(*)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 waterfront sales on Lake Martin, Alabama.
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There are well over 500 waterfront properties listed right now, and if we continue at the current rate, about 120 will sell by year end. That leaves over 3/4 of the sellers disappointed. Am I missing something, or is this normal? Are we still in a period of oversupply putting downward pressure on prices? Or is it normal for some reason to have a high rate of failed offerings on the lake? Perhaps you can do a blog post about unsold property. Give us your thoughts on common reasons properties fail to sell.
[...] June Home Sales Jump Lake Martin Lot Sales 2011 Lake Martin Real Estate Sales 2011 – Year In Review Lake Martin Real Estate Sales 2010 – Lot Sales Lake Martin Real Estate Sales 2010 Lake Martin Real Estate Sales 2009 – Year In Review Lake Martin Real Estate Sales 2008 – Year In Review Lake Martin Real Estate Sales 2007 – Year In Review [...]
Hey MGH, sorry for the slow reply but this is a big topic. Please keep an eye out for my September column in Lake Magazine. I take on a portion of this issue, from a buyer’s perspective. I attempt to answer the question if the Lake Martin real estate market sees big price drops or more “desperate” sellers in the fall. To address another part of your question, I think that there are a lot of over priced homes still on the market which heavily impact stats like days on market or months of inventory. Since I think that the golden trinity of selling a home is made up of pricing, staging, and marketing, I think that those that don’t sell can blame one or more of those. More often than not, it’s pricing. FYI Lake Martin is tracking to sell a little over 200 HOMES for the entire calendar year of 2012. Please see my most recent blog post of July sales results Market report. In general I don’t watch days on market as much as I do the current month’s sales versus the same month, prior year.