Lake Martin – End of Summer Real Estate Report: Vital Signs
By: Adam Yager, Realtor®
For those of you who have been keeping up with the trend in the real estate market for this year, this may be no “new news” for you. However, I gear these statistics from a national level down to the “Lake Martin Level”. If you have read my other articles, you know I have an immense desire to keep things simple.
What’s Going On?
In general, the economy is doing well. Hallelujah. What else does that mean? Prices heated up, interest/borrowing rates went up. Now, home prices are higher and its costing you more to borrow. That being said, as history tends to repeat itself, the proverbial “invisible hand” and the Fed has come into action to make sure we don’t have the disaster of epic proportions that the year 2008 brought to us (that’s the simple version).
More insight from people smarter than I, here: https://money.usnews.com/investing/real-estate-investments/articles/2018-08-01/when-do-rising-interest-rates-hurt-the-residential-real-estate-market
LAKE MARTIN
What a HOT Summer it has been. Literally and figuratively. However, as the Autumn and College Football season have arrived (amen), we will start seeing things cool off. Again, both literally and figuratively. Here is the scoop:
Sales Volume:
- Residential/Single-Family-Detached:
- Increased 3.2% over 2017
- Condos:
- Decreased 8.7% over 2017
- *Heavy increase in condo prices are causing a drag on sales. Condo market was very hot at the beginning of the Summer. However, the kick in prices has caused sales to drag drastically. *
- Decreased 8.7% over 2017
Average Sales Price
- Residential:
- Increased 13.9% over 2017
- Average Sales Price = $595,320.
- Increased 13.9% over 2017
- Single-Family-Detached:
- Increased 14.3%
- Average Sales Price = $691,202
- Increased 14.3%
- Condos:
- Increased 5.5%
- Average Sales Price = $296,469
- Increased 5.5%
**Note: part of the increase in the average sales price is contributed to higher-end homes selling. This does not…does not…does not.. mean that every single-family-detached home increased 14.3% in value across the board.**
Sales Price / List Price Ratio
(i.e. What your homes sells for / What your home was on the market for)
- Residential:
- SP / LP = 95.2%
- Single-Family-Detached:
- SP / LP = 95.3%
- Condos:
- SP / LP = 94.2%
Units Sold
- Residential:
- Decreased 9.4% over 2017 – Due to higher average prices and increased rates.
- Single-Family-Detached:
- Decreased 8.0%
- Condos:
- Decreased 13.5% – Supply very low and prices increased. Look for sales to decrease further.
Days On Market
*Average DOM (Days on Market) for a Lake Martin home is 150 – 180 days.*
As of right now, the average DOM for a Single-Family-Detached home is 160 days.
In Summary
The market is healthy. The fact that we are witnessing the market adjust itself (i.e. prices cooling off and more supply (inventory) rebounding), we will continue to see the downward pressure on home prices for Lake Martin. This will slide Lake Martin down the hill from the strong seller’s market it resided in during the Spring and Summer months. The playing field is leveling out for those buyers who are debating a lake home purchase. On the other hand, this should not elude to the notion that homeowners/sellers will now be in a disadvantaged position, because they will not.
As always, if you are thinking of buying or selling, you need someone with expertise of the Lake Martin market to guide you. I would love to have the honor of being your guide and teammate through the buying or selling process.
-Adam
