Lake Lanier Blog

As promised, I wanted to give you the numbers on the sales activity on Lake Lanier for the 1st full quarter of 2008.

There were a total of 24 sales that closed between 1/1/08 and 4/1/08. Of those closed sales 4 closed in January, 8 closed in February and 12 closed in March, 2008. An additional 9 homes went under contract in this same time period.

The 9 that pended, they were broken down as follows:

1 Sale in the upper $300,000 range

1 Sale in the upper $400,000 range

3 Sales in the $500,000 range

2 Sales in the $700,000 range

2 Sales in the $800,000 range

Of the 24 sales that closed between 1/1/08-4/1/08 they were broken down as follows:

4 Sales in the $200,000 range

5 Sales in the $300,000 range

3 Sales in the $400,000 range

6 Sales in the $500,000 range

0 Sales in the $600,000 range

1 Sale in the $700,000 range

2 Sales in the $800,000 range

1 Sale in the $900,000 range

2 sales in the 1 Million range

As expected the pending and closed sales went up each month from January to April.

**In comparison to last year, in the same time period, there were 64 closed sales between 1/1/08-4/1/08. Here are some stats on the comparison:

1/1/07-4/1/07 the AVERAGE sales price was $628,000 and the average list to sales price ratio was 4%. The average days on the market before the home went under contract was 77 days.

1/1/08-4/1/08 the AVERAGE sales price was $613,900 with an average list to sales price ratio of 6%. The average days on market before the home went under contract was 99 days.

These are mathematical average of all sales combined. As an appraiser we would define this market as STABLE, not declining. It is too small of a variance to say it was declining.

Based upon the numbers shown above it would appear that the $500,000 price range is the most popular pending and closed sale. There were more than expected number of sales in the $300,000 and below range.

Now to the LISTINGS: There are approximately 322 listings of Lake Lanier homes with boat docks in place. Here is how they break down:

25 listings from $400,000 and under

76 listings from $400,000 to $600,000

95 listings from $600,000 to $ 800,000

50 listings from $$800,000 to 1 Million

69 listings from $1 Million to $3 Million

6  listings from $3 Million to $5 Million

1  Listing over $14 Million and most of you know which one this is!

Overall weighted average of listings comes in around $895,000. Based upon an average of 6% list to sales price ratio, average sale would be $841,300.

So it appears that the average sale price over the next quarter will be higher than the first quarter of 2008 and higher than the first quarter of 2007.

So buyers, you have alot of homes to chose from in every price range. Have fun looking and make 2008 the year to buy because as you can see, the prices will just continue from this point forward to go UP!

The lower price range bracket will continue to dimmish and those in the upper price brackets will continue to rise. Almost 24.0% of the 322 listings are 1 million and over!

I hope this information has been helpful and as always.....If you are even thinking of buying or selling on lake lanier.....call an EXPERT......Yours truly!

Thanks for stopping by and Be Safe on the Lake.

We had the pleasure of interviewing Michael Lapina, Chief Park Ranger for the Army Corps of Engineers on Lake Lanier.

Check out our interview, which anyone who is thinking of buying, selling or visiting our great Lake, will want to hear! Great information and a little bit of history too about Lake Lanier and the Corps of Engineers.

Here is the direct link to the interview. Sit back and listen in!

Interview with Michael Lapina-Chief Park Ranger-Corps of Engineers

Be safe on the Lake and have a great day!

We are very excited about our new venture. We have started a new radio show broadcasting live in our Atlanta, GA studio, every Friday afternoon. The show is all about Lakefront Living, Recreation, Real Estate and Business.

We had our first show Friday, April 4th and we had 3 fantastic guests in the studio with us: Lake Lanier Islands, JOA Marine and Ty Ginac, a Lake Lanier Realtor with Ben Ray & Associates.

www.lakefrontradio.com

Click on the link above, then click on the pod cast icon and listen to the show, then save our site to your favorites and you can even have it downloaded to your Ipod or MP3 player.

For the next several shows, we will be covering Lake Lanier. There will be loads of great information for anyone thinking of moving here or buying on the Lake.

In the next few days I will post another blog about March pending and closed sales on Lake Lanier. From what realtors are telling me, activity in March has been fantastic. People are starting to look and buy on the lake once again, so if you are in the market, do not lose out on this opportunity to buy before prices start their upward climb.....and trust me they will!

Have a great spring break and be safe on the Lake.