Mother Nature continues to work in cycles as record precipitation is hitting Big Bear Valley this January. In the midst of the third storm in 5 days, the Big Bear Valley has seen as much as 4 feet of snow with up to 2 inches of rain mixed in and it's still dumping.
As mentioned in previous lake level posts, this is the cyclical storm we had been counting on. Looking at the figure below, you'll see that we've experienced these types of weather events before in the winter of 2004/2005 as well as in the winter of 1992/1993. In both those winters, Big Bear lake's water levels returned to full (or near full) coming up from notably low levels.
Although still speculative, the expectation after the winter we have been having is that we will see the lake's water level rise to near full by next summer after the spring snow melt. We are still too far out to make any predictions, but it sure is looking good so far.
As well, the local ski slopes are seeing their strongest winter in years. The current inconvenience of these storms will likely be outweighed by the benefits these snows will have on the local economy over the next few months as ski conditions should be as good as they've been in years.
Ultimately, the biggest winners in the Big Bear real estate market will be the shallow water lakefront properties as many are predicting that all boat docks will be in the water and floating come July 4th. But the overall real estate market should see decent returns as the more visitors we see to the valley, the more real estate interest we receive!