What’s the waterfront real estate market doing right now for Lake Martin?

2015 was a record year for the Lake Martin waterfront market. Was that followed up with another huge result so far in 2016?

Let’s take a look at the latest results from the Alabama Center for Real Estate (ACRE). They are my trusted source for the data for all the real estate markets in Alabama.

Below is a chart from ACRE. For August 2016 – 30 homes were sold (all agents and brokerages). Compare that to August 2015 – 37 homes were sold.  That is down about 19%.

If we look at our year to date numbers-  214 homes at Lake Martin were sold through the end of August 2016.  For the same period in 2015 – 245 homes were sold – resulting in a decrease of about 13%.

How about lots?  Waterfront lots year to date (again through August 2016) sold were 44.  Last year, 67 lots were sold at the end of August.  So, lot sales are down about 30%, which is a pretty significant number.

Inventory of homes is still way down – 25% from last year.  I’m still seeing a lot of pricing pressure because Lake Martin has a lot of homes for sale but fewer homes are selling.

What does all of this mean?  What is the interpretation?  I looked at the 5 year average waterfront home sales for the month of August and also the 3 year average of sales.  The average for 5 years in August is 30 and for 3 years is 36 – still sort of inconclusive.

I think we still need more information – let’s see what the 4th quarter is going to do and also I would like to see what the 1st quarter of 2017 will do. And then we can decide if 2015 was an anomaly – the Muhammed Ali of all years or a sign of a general trend that means we hit a market peak in 2015.

I don’t know yet, but I can promise you I will stay on top of the numbers and do my best to keep you updated.

If you have any questions about this or more specifically how these numbers affect your home give me a call or email me – John Coley at 334-221-5862 or [email protected].