After reaching it's lowest point in almost 13 years at 16 feet 11 inches from full last December, our wet winter has resulted in more than a 4 foot rise in lake levels with many more acre feet of water expected to melt from the surrounding mountains and runoff into the lake this spring.
Currently at 12 feet 10 inches from full, it is anyone's guess as to how much more the lake will rise. It seems the most popular guess is that we may see the lake rise 3 to 5 additional feet by summer. The way in which the snow melts has a big impact on how much water makes its way to the lake. If the snow melts quickly from high temperatures or rain storms, most of the runoff will make it to the lake and we'll see significant gains. If we have a cool spring, the snow will melt slowly and much of the water content will be absorbed as ground water.
Of course, there's also the likelihood of more snow storms before mother nature is finished with winter. Having lived in Big Bear for about 25 years now, more often than not we get lulled into thinking spring has arrived then get surprised by a late season storm.
Any way you look at it, Big Bear lakefront home owners will benefit from the rising lake levels. The 14 lakefront home sales we had in 2016 were the fewest on record going back to at least 2002 when sales data moved online. This drop in sales was likely due to the low water levels and fear of continued drought. Already this year, we've seen a few shallow water lakefront homes go into escrow in anticipation of higher water levels. It seems there will be more optimism in the Big Bear real estate market moving forward in 2017.