September Lake of the Ozarks Real Estate Update

The latest data, just as my previous reports, further solidifies a recovery trend. The number of lake homes sold this year is up 39.9 percent above the low point of 2010. That’s a gain of 5.4 percent from last month’s recovery number of 34.5 percent. Sales prices fell 8 percent from 2011. When the market peaked in terms of units sold in 2006 it took until 2008 for the sales prices to quit climbing. I feel we’ll see the same in reverse during recuperation. The low peak for units sold was in 2010 and I believe by the end of 2012, we will see values to begin to increase across the market. We have already experienced this in a few select price points and property types here at the lake. Reports from Realtor.com show residential listing inventory has fallen 19.3 percent from July 2011. This trend, along with a 2.6 percent year-over-year median list price increase last month, points to some stability in the real estate market slowly coming along this year. The area with the greatest inventory reduction is Oakland, California. In the Top 10 turnaround towns, according to Realtor.com, the lowest median time on the market is less than two months. In the case of Oakland, less than one month. If all real estate is local, what’s this have to do with the market at Lake of the Ozarks? Just as we lagged behind the nation in experiencing a drop in values as well as units sold, I feel we are ahead of much of the country in an improving marketplace. That being said, we are primarily a second and vacation home area. When the rest of the country sees improvement in the full time residential areas, it opens the door for more of these homeowners to look to second home purchases. Condo sales are still up 17.8 percent over the 2009 low spot however, we did loose some ground over last month with a drop of almost 10 percent from the 27.4 percent increase I reported in August’s column. Sales prices were down only a slight 1.2%. Fall appears to be coming on strong, condo and lake homes currently under contract total over a fourth of all the condos and lake homes closed so far this year. If you’ve been hesitant to list your home, I feel that this fall will be an excellent time to get in or back in the marketplace. If you would like a detailed sales report on your specific property type or neighborhood, or would like information on the best buys at the lake, contact C. Michael Elliott & Associates at866.Your.Lake or cme@yourlake.com View thousands of lake area listings at www.YourLake.com. You can also log your opinions on Michael’s real estate blog, www.AsTheLakeChurns.com