Lakefront market statistics can be misleading since there are so many variables that affect price. So on a rainy Friday afternoon, I am taking a closer look at 2013 lake sales with the intent of giving a better feel for prices. First, I limited the 2013 sales to the five lakes that I get the most inquiries about homes for sale with lakefrontage on them; Darling, Carlos, Le Homme Dieu, Ida, Latoka and Miltona. Then, I took out any sales of properties with less than 100 feet of shoreline. I also stripped out any sold properties with less than three bedrooms. My next planned step was to filter further by elevation (steps down to the shoreline), shoreline type and whether or not the home needed updating. But, I determined it wouldn’t be too subjective.
The high sale was $850,000 for a Lake Darling home and the low sale $170,000 for a Lake Miltona home. Those two figures don’t give a very good feel for our market though as you probably can guess the $170,000 property might have some features that don’t appeal to the majority of folks. As a result, the new owner of that property got a great buy and will be spending summers at a prime lake and having a great time. More helpful statistics are the median price and the mean (average) price. The median sale price is $420,000 and the mean is $427,307. Stripping from the results any lake home with two bathrooms is the most helpful in my opinion. That changes the median price to $620,000 and the mean to $572,756.
