This post is a continuation of my earlier Lake Martin Real Estate Sales 2009 – Year In Review.

In that post, my two main points were:

1.     Number of Homes Sold Was Up, therefore 2008 Was The “Bottom”
2.    Average Prices Of Homes Decreased

In this post, I will address the trends of Lake Martin waterfront lots sold in 2009, and also try to take a look at the future of the prices of Lake Martin homes.

Lake Martin waterfront lots sold in 2009 are still slow moving and low priced

Every statistic we discussed in the previous post dealt with waterfront homes (or condos, or townhomes) only. If we consider lot sales only, we see that they have not yet seen the sales increases that homes have. Additionally, I think that prices have decreased even more than homes have in 2009.

Take a look at the number of waterfront lots sold* on Lake Martin from 2006 to 2009:

You can see that we are still down in terms of number of lots sold.  Please keep in mind these are TOTAL lot sales, taken from the entire Lake Martin MLS, all reporting brokerages, everyone.  In 2006, 55 lots sold all year.  2007 sold 34.  In 2008 – the bottom year in home sales – sold 18.  In 2009, 19 were sold.

I guess you could say that since 19 is greater than 18 then we are on the way back up.  But 1 is not much of a difference and doesn’t signal as a dramatic a change in direction.

Again, I think the big difference here is that many of those lot sales were builders that planned to build spec homes.  Funding (and logic) for that dried up with the drought of 2007 and the banking crisis of 2008.  As a result, there are quite a few foreclosed waterfront lots out there for sale, and the prices look like 2004.

One “good” thing about decreased lot sales is it slowed down the spec home building that contributed to the over supply of Lake Martin homes for sale.  It caused a spike of lake homes for sale, especially in 2008.  See the chart below for numbers of homes for sale on the entire Lake Martin MLS:

SELLERS – This chart should convince you that you must really do a good job of staging, pricing, and marketing your Lake Martin lot. Marketing especially is important.  You can’t just stick a sign in the yard anymore.  We will create a custom marketing plan to help your lot stand out from your competition. Please email us at info {at} lakemartinvoice {dot} com or call John Coley or John Christenberry now.

BUYERS– If you are looking to buy a waterfront lot on Lake Martin, you’re in luck. Right now is the best time in about six or seven years to buy one. Prices are (for the most part) rolled back to those of years ago, you have many from which to choose, and the home sale comeback should give you some assurance that everything will be OK. Contact us now to help you sort through them all and find the best deals.

Related Posts:

Lake Martin Real Estate Sales 2009 – Further Study (coming soon)
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 sales on Lake Martin.