2024 May Market Report

In this blog, I’m going to give you the 2024 May Market Report for Lake Martin real estate. I will go over the home sales on Lake Martin so far this year. I’m also going to give you waterfront lot sales, some general prices of home sales, and also an interesting trend that I have found.

Waterfront Home Sales through May 2024 on Lake Martin

First, the meat and potatoes of this whole thing, I’ll start with waterfront home sales through the end of May 2024. So far, we’ve sold 106 waterfront homes throughout the whole lake. That number is all agents, all brokerages, everybody in MLS. Last year, we sold 90 homes. Therefore, when compared to last year during the same time period, sales are up actually about 17% which surprised me. 

Waterfront Home Sales Inventory on Lake Martin

When you look at inventory, this is where it gets interesting. Waterfront home inventory on Lake Martin for May 2024 is 210 homes for sale. In May 2023, we had 125 for sale, and so we’re actually up 68%. You might be surprised by that, but I wasn’t and neither should you. If you’ve been watching our YouTube channel, we’ve been going over these numbers because this is a year old trend. To view our year end report in 2023, you can click on the link HERE. We’ve been watching this inventory trend very closely, and that is what is affecting prices. That is what I think is affecting the overall market more than anything. I even read some people that do other market reports, and now they’ve finally admitted that inventory is up. I’ve been saying this for nearly 18 months, if we just watch the meat and potatoes. We’re up 68% versus last year. You may say, “Well okay, John, you’re cherry picking.” No, in April we were up 64% compared to the prior year. Right now, we are at 210, so that’s 25% above our five year average. So, it’s not just a cherry-picking month. We’re actually up 25% above our five year average, and we were up 8% in April. It’s been about five years since we could say that in the Lake Martin Market we are above our five year average of home inventory, things for sale.

Waterfront Home Sales Price Range on Lake Martin

In this part of the blog, I will answer some general questions on home prices for sale right now. The lowest waterfront residence for sale is a condo in Stillwaters priced at about $324k. The highest priced thing on the market is a $6.2 million house in the Trillium neighborhood (click here for more info on Trillium). It is on the Kowaliga Bay side of the lake. 

Percentage of Waterfront Home Sales by Area

Here, I’m going to try to answer the question of where these home sales are happening. So far, by the end of May 2024, 50% of our sales are happening on the Blue Creek side of the lake. I’m defining Blue Creek as near Chimney Rock and all the way over to StillWaters. The north part of Lake Martin is about 30% of sales. In the Kowaliga Bay area, there are about 7% of home sales. Then, if we look west of Kowaliga Bridge, it’s about 13% of sales. That is everything West, so this includes the Real Island, Parker Creek, and Oakachoy Creek areas. To give you some perspective, last year the east side of Lake Martin was 38% of sales and the north side was about 24%. Therefore, the east side is trending up a little bit so far this year. I don’t think that is a really big deal because it is just five months of the year.

Waterfront Lot Sales May 2024 Market Report on Lake Martin

What about waterfront lots? Waterfront lots are also up. This time last year, year to date, we sold 20 waterfront lots through the Multiple Listing Service. So far this year, it’s 24. This is all agents and all brokerages. Therefore, we’re up 25% in sales.

Waterfront Lot Sales Inventory on Lake Martin

Also, inventory is up about 10%. This time last year we had about 70 lots, and right now we have about 77. Like I’ve talked about in previous times, a trend I see on Lake Martin is that lot sales tend to lag about a year behind waterfront home sales. When I try to predict where lot sales are going to go, I look at homes the previous year. In comparison to last year, homes increased about 10% of things for sale, which is interesting for our waterfront lots.

Surprising Trend – Water View and Water Access 

A trend that I mentioned earlier is the trend in water view and water access homes. What does that mean? Lake Martin is a very small vacation market in the middle of nowhere, and so real estate here has its peculiarities. One of the peculiarities that we have is homes that are on the water in our MLS are called “waterfront.” However, we have a category in our Multiple Listing Service called “water view” or “water access” homes. A water view house is a house that’s by the water and can see it. A water access house is a house that has deeded access to it. A trend that we’ve been seeing since Corona is an upswing of water view and water access homes. This is because prices for waterfront homes have gone up so much over the past 10 years. We really see a burgeoning market in water view and water access, so l’m keeping my eye on this market segment. 

Water Access and Water View Inventory on Lake Martin

Right now, we have 46 water view and water access homes on the market. Comparing that to 210 waterfront residences or homes that are for sale right now, it is almost a quarter of the market. 

Water View and Water Access Sales Price Range on Lake Martin

What does it cost to get into one of these homes? The range is very widely right now. We have a house that’s on the low side that is about $85k to have either a view or access. On the high side, we’re in the low $700k or about $712k. The interesting trend with this is that it is just like the waterfront homes. The better the view, even if you’re not right on the water, tends to drive the price. Right now, I have a water view/water access home for sale in the Village that is awesome, and I think it’s a great example of this. By the way, here’s a link to it. The address is 105 Loft Circle, Dadeville, and it is great one!

Condo Sales Market through May 2024 on Lake Martin

Another question I get a lot is about condos. I had a client thinking about selling their condo, and they said they had seen a lot of condos on the market and asked if this is a good time to sell a condo. I looked up the numbers, and here’s what l found. Right now, at the time I looked it up, there were about 184 waterfront residences for sale. At that time, 36 of those were condos. Therefore, about 20% of our waterfront residential market right now are condos. Is that high or low? Well, compare that to about 16% in 2023. My client was right. That’s about 25% more, and so I am seeing right now during May numbers that there are about 25% more than usual condos on the market. 

Condo Sale Price Ranges by Size

What does it cost you? These are very general numbers, but for a two-bedroom condo I’m seeing about mid $400k. For a three-bedroom condo in general is about mid $600k. Therefore, I think it’s a good time to sell a condo, but it is just like any other time. You have to price it right. Make sure to follow the sales holy trinity of real estate which is pricing, staging, and marketing. If you do all those three things well, then of course it’s a great time to sell a condo.

Wrap Up on 2024 May Market Report – Lake Martin Alabama

This wraps up the 2024 May Market Report. If you’ve got questions about this I’d love to be the one to help you out. If you’re a buyer and you’re curious if this is the right time to buy for you, then contact me at the number on the top of this page. Are you looking for specific things on Lake Martin? I’ve been doing this a while and would love to help you out. Like I said earlier, Lake Martin is a big lake and this is a small, funky niche market. I love introducing people to the lake because it is so fun, but it can be quirky. You have to know your numbers if you’re going to make an investment like this. I’d also love to help sellers. Right now is the time of year where I’m going on listing appointments and advising people on how to market their property. I’m John Coley with Lake Martin Voice Realty. I do this full-time and would love to help you sell your property. You can call me, send me an email, or use our CONTACT PAGE. 

For more blogs about real estate, check out the links below:

Lake Martin’s Property Tax Increase

October 2023 Sales for Lake Martin