A new report from Lake Homes Realty in Hoover, Alabama, shows that lake home and lot listings have escalated to $5.9 billion since February of this year. Over the past five months, lake properties have been flooding the market with a total of almost 74,000 currently for sale in 34 states across the nation.
All 34 states covered experienced increased listings, with the exception of Massachusetts and Montana. In Texas, these unique waterfront listings surged by 2,000, to almost 14,699—nearly 6,000 more than in Florida. In fact, Texas took the lead in lakefront property listings, followed by Florida with 8,745 and Tennessee with 5,906. North Carolina and Georgia rounded out the top-five list with over 4,000. Other notable locations are Minnesota, Alabama, Michigan, Washington, and Missouri, with just over 3,200.
Glenn S. Phillips, CEO and chief economic analyst at Lake Homes Realty, told The Epoch Times that the market is still rebounding from historical lows of lake homes for sale in 2021 and 2022. “The selection of appropriately priced lake homes still needs to be improved,” he said. “It’s basically a seller’s market for lake real estate.”
Mr. Phillips admitted he was surprised that Texas took the number-one spot for lake properties. “Texas is such a big state, and it has everything,” he said. “Everyone thinks of Texas as a dry, dusty place with lots of cattle ranches, but the fact is there are thousands of lakes throughout the state.”
Describing the Texas lake real estate market as “red hot,” Mr. Phillips noted that some 1,344 homes are listed for more than $1 million. “Forty-five percent of those searching for Texas lake property are between the ages of 45 and 64, and 62 percent of them are searching on their smartphones,” he explained. Fifty-five percent of searchers for these homes and lots are male and a sizable portion hail from places like Chicago, Oklahoma City, Minneapolis, and Los Angeles.
While Florida also offers a plethora of lakes that people pay a premium to be near, Phillips said some of them are not swimmable. “The most common reason for that is alligators,” he quipped. “Still, we are all drawn to water, and people like the beauty of a lake on their property.”
Florida’s Lake Butler is actually listed as the most expensive area for real estate, with the average price of a lake home at $3.9 million, followed by the state’s Lake Down, with average property costs of $3.7 million and Heron Lagoon at $3.4 million. Montana’s Flathead Lake properties typically garner prices at $3.8 million, while Washington’s Lake Washington prices are closer to $3.4 million. All are listed among the top-five most expensive lakes for home listings.
“In general, though, the southern states tend to offer more affordable listings, particularly in Tennessee and Florida,” added Mr. Phillips. “Many lake buyers also know what they want—some have grown up there or vacationed there. Others, like retirees, are looking for their dream homes by a lake, but within proximity to a major city.”
A majority of retirees are able to offer cash for these homes, he noted. Many second-home buyers also opt for cash deals, especially people coming from the Northeast or California. “These buyers are typically not worrying about mortgage interest rates,” he said. “They probably wouldn’t be looking at lake properties if they were.”
Nicole Anderson, broker associate with The Anderson Team at Ramsey Realty Group in Lake Cypress Springs, Texas, told The Epoch Times she wasn’t that surprised about Texas taking the nation’s lead for waterfront listings. “Texas is the second-largest state, and it’s full of both large and smaller lakes,” she said. “Lake Cypress Springs alone lies within two cities, covers 3,500 acres, and has about 1,200 homes on the lake.”
Ms. Anderson noted the area is primarily a second-home market, with most of her clientele comprised of younger professional couples or families with young children. A recreational area, Lake Cypress Springs offers swimming, water sports, and fishing. “It’s not huge when compared to the Great Lakes, but it has been voted the most beautiful lake in Texas by ‘D’ (Dallas) Magazine,” she added. “About 90 percent of our homebuyers are from the Dallas-Fort Worth area, which is just two hours away, making it a great weekend escape as well.”
But those seeking a waterfront bargain may be out of luck here: the average price for a single-family home at Lake Cypress Springs is $1.6 million. “This is not the norm now,” explained Ms. Anderson. “Prices skyrocketed during COVID when everyone from the city flocked to the area.” Abnormally low inventory has inflated prices, which were at an average of $882,000 at the end of 2022.
Unlike some other lake communities, Lake Cypress Springs has not been attracting many retirees. “I think the main reasons for this are the fact they we’re located in rural east Texas, which is about 100 miles from large airports and major health care facilities,” she said. The area also has very few real estate investors, as the lake community does not allow any short-term rentals.
One of the many other perks of living on Lake Cypress Springs is its substantially lower taxes, due to its location outside of the city limits. Taxes on a home in the lower $2 million range could run about $15,000 a year, while taxes on a property less than $900,000 could be just $5,000 a year.
Lake Homes Realty’s list of the top-five lakes for the number of home listings puts Lake Michigan, Illinois, at the top, with 1,209, followed by Lewisville Lake, in Texas. Washington’s Puget Sound grabbed the third spot with 650 listings and Lake Norman, North Carolina, is a close number four with 603 listings. The fifth most popular lake in terms of current home listings is the Lake of the Ozarks, in Missouri, with 588.
Matt Schrimpf of Berkshire Hathaway’s Lake Ozark Realty in Missouri notes that Lake Ozark has always been a draw for vacationers from areas like St. Louis, Chicago, Omaha, Des Moines, and other surrounding cities. “I like to refer to it as ‘the Hamptons of the Midwest,’” he told The Epoch Times, referring to Long Island, New York’s famous upscale vacation destination. “Years ago, it used to be more of a family resort, but now it’s become a haven for the wealthy.”
Smaller “fixer-upper” homes are still available for as low as $200,000, but the average single-family home there is listed at $600,000. Home prices can also climb to over $6 million. “The area is consistently voted as the top water sports lake in the U.S.,” added Mr. Schrimpf.
Like many other vacation areas, Lake Ozark’s home sales swelled during the pandemic, when people began working remotely. “We also got a lot of media attention from the Netflix ‘Ozark’ series,” he said. “Everybody knew about this place.”
Many of his buyers are seeking vacation homes that can also serve as investments for rentals. “We also see a lot of retirees,” he said. “Most of them are people who had been coming here for years as vacationers.”
The Lake of the Ozarks is actually one of the largest man-made lakes in the country. It covers 55,000 acres, stretches 92 miles, and offers over 1,150 miles of shoreline.
“Lake home buyers, and home buyers in general, are more informed than ever,” added Mr. Phillips. “I still expect the 2023 transaction count to exceed 2022 by 10–15 percent as increasing inventories of lake properties for sale across the country make this possible.”
