Lake Martin Magazine

After a strong showing in 2011, I was curious to see if 2012 would continue the winning ways. I consulted the Lake Martin Multiple Listings Service. It is the best repository of real estate sales in the area. It showed that for the first four months of the year, 61 waterfront homes have been sold on Lake Martin.

It’s like Christmas for real estate numbers geeks. What? Yes, there is a small segment of us nerds who are really into real estate, but also love to study the numbers behind the business. A high spot in our year is when the National Association of Realtors (NAR) publishes their annual Profile of Home Buyers and Sellers.

Have you ever arrived at your lake house, only to be shocked to see a dock construction crew busily working on your neighbor’s dock? Or maybe you have been awakened early Monday morning to the sounds of power saws and nail guns? Were you worried that your neighbor was building a crazily huge dock that would block your view of beautiful Lake Martin? Maybe you have never worried about something like this, but now that I mention it…

Is building on Lake Martin back in style? My answer is yes. Why? Lake Martin, like the entire country, experienced an abrupt shut off of home construction from 2007 to 2009 as the banking and real estate bubble finally popped. Much of that bubble was fueled by “spec homes” – defined as homes built by a builder, as a speculation to sell.

John Coley is the owner of Lake Martin Voice Realty in Eclectic. He and his wife, Palmer, live in Pike Road with their two sons: Jack, 8, and George, 7. Coley also writes a real estate blog – Lake Martin Voice.