I finally got a chance to calculate the average and median prices of Big Bear lakefront homes that were sold in 2011. It was nice to see that both price measures turned upward bucking the consistent downward trend we have seen since 2007. Take a look at the figure below showing the average and median prices for Big Bear lakefronts over the past 10 years.
After a significant drop in prices from 2009 to 2010, last year saw a nice uptick of about 10% in both the median and average sale prices. Once again, since there are so few lakefronts sold each year (there were only 16 lakefronts sold last year), these price indicators tend to be somewhat volatile. All it takes is just a few sales on the far higher end or lower end of the sold price range to sway the numbers in either direction.
Regardless, a price increase is always better to see than a decrease.
You can also see that there was a slight rise in prices from 2008 to 2009 followed by a significant slide in prices. So one year of appreciation does not necessarily mean we've seen a market recovery, but it sure leaves more room for optimism than seeing another year of price declines.