Another luxury lakefront property closed this month with 39497 Lake Drive, a 3806 square foot 6 bed, 4.5 bath, Cape Cod style waterfront property closing at 1.95M after spending 564 days on market. Originally listing at 2.1M, this home finally sold at 1.95M after lowering its listing price to $1,999,999.
Built in 2000, this home was in like-new condition and in a deep water west facing location on a 12,525 square foot lot with 76 feet of lake frontage. This home's superior location and excellent condition reflects the higher sales price of $512 per square foot.
This latest closing marks the 11th lakefront sale of the year. At this time last year, there had been 13 lakefront closings. Although the number of waterfront sales is slightly off last year's mark, their values have remained strong with the current average and median sales prices in 2015 currently at $1,346,272 and $1,255,000 respectively and the average and median price per square foot currently at $432 and $484 respectively.
Although lakefront values are currently higher than last year, this increase is likely due to deep-water lakefronts making up the far majority of sales. In light of Big Bear Lake's water levels being about 12 feet from full, most buyers are looking at the higher priced deep-water lakefronts as their only palatable option.
On the other hand, when the lake was down much further than it is now in 2014, a few savvy homebuyers bought shallower water Big Bear lakefront homes and made quite a profit just a year later when Mother Nature arrived and the lake was once again nearly filled. With talk of a long awaited El Nino heading our way this winter, I will be curious to see if shallow water lakefronts become a more popular option for less risk adverse real estate investors later this year.