Lake Norman is known for its remarkable sunsets.  As a matter of fact, many of my Lake Norman waterfront buyers will choose a west facing home just for the opportunity to enjoy daily, spectacular sunsets.

But, don’t under estimate our sunrises either!  I took this photo last fall early one morning.  As is sometimes the case, at dawn the lake is blanketed with a beautiful foggy mist.  (As in my photo below).  When the sun rises, the mist gives way to a crystal clear sheen as in my photo above.

To make your desktop calendar, go to the round button at the top of this site’s home page entitled: “Lake Norman Calendar”.  Click on this button and up will come an image of my Lake Norman photo wallpaper calender for September 2010.  All you have to do is right click and select “set as background”.  If you would like a copy of this photo without the calendar, just send me an email.  

While I have great fun taking pictures of Lake Norman, I would love to use one of your favorite photos depicting life here in Lake Norman!. If you’d like to submit a photo or an idea for a future calendar, please send it to…  

Articles of Interest 

Lake Norman Relocation and Resource Guide

 Relocating to Lake Norman

Lake Norman, Our Inland Sea

Lake Norman Real Estate: How YOU can search for Lake Norman’s ”distressed properties”!

On June 10th, 2009 we got some stunning news regarding our Lake Norman real estate market.  Mega developer Crescent Resources LLC announced that they had filed for Chapter 11.  Crescent Resources, a joint venture between Duke Energy and Morgan Stanley Real Estate Fund, has been responsible for creating and developing Lake Norman’s most prestigious and popular communities including The Point, The Peninsula, The Harbour at The Pointe, The Farms, Sailview,Northview Harbour and their latest venture Falls Cove.

It wasn’t until July 15th 2010 that Crescent Communities broke their silence and sent out a news alert to Realtors announcing that they had emerged from their Chapter 11 Bankruptcy on June 9, 2010, touting their still developing communities of The Point and The Farms and announcing some interesting changes and news regarding their struggling, newest venture, Falls Cove located north of Mooresville.

With the exception of Falls Cove, I am constantly showing property in all of the Crescent Communities.  For buyers looking for upscale communities with great amenities the Crescent communities are some of the best available on Lake Norman on both the east and west sides of the lake.

I decided to do a side-by-side comparison of these 7 communities’ sales and homes on the market as of today, August 26, 2010 to see if the numbers reflect my own experiences:

* All of these numbers are from the Charlotte Regional Multiple Listing Services

** These numbers include waterfront and non-waterfront listings

Active Listings/Months of Supply: If you look at the months of supply, you can see that The Farms and The Harbour at The Pointe are slightly out performing the others. However, considering that The Point and The Peninsula have many $1 million plus waterfront homes, they are actually doing quite well and all four of these communities are out-performing our overall Lake Norman real estate market.  What is worrisome to see are the months of inventory of Northview Harbour and to a lesser degree Sailview and Falls Cove.

Closed Sales Year-To-Date 2010:  Again, Northview Harbour stands out (in a bad way) with only 2 closed sales in the past 8 months.  From my perspective, Mooresville leads the Lake Norman sales activity in general these days which is reflected by the sales in The Point, The Harbour at the Pointe and The Farms.  Popular schools, low taxes, an ever growing supply of restaurants, shopping and services and the light at the end of the tunnel for the widening of Brawley School Rd. all contribute to this trend.  Sailview, which is in Denver on the southwest side of Lake Norman, is still a popular location because of its convience to Charlotte and the newly completed Hwy 16.  That leaves Sherrills Ford kind of hanging in the wind.  Located on the northwest side of Lake Norman, it is farther from shopping and amenities and doesn’t seem to have the draw the other communities have.  It is best suited as a second home or for those empty-nesters who want to get away from it all.

Days on Market (DOM): Despite being a slightly older community, The Harbour has consistently out-performed most Lake Norman communities even before the recession.  Today their numbers support the fact that this is simply a great community in which to live.  On the other extreme, Falls Cove, which has barely begun to be developed, has suffered the most during this recession.  The higher numbers in the most upscale communities of The Point and The Peninsula are partially a function of the number of very high-end waterfront estates which tend to take substantially longer to sell.

% Listing Price to Selling Price: What is most interesting about all of these numbers is that the lowest is still very high at 93%.  In our Lake Norman housing market, we see less of the low-ball sales than I have observed in other parts of the country.  Here, overpriced listings will sit until they are reduced to near market value before selling. Only well-priced listings are selling because buyers are so nervous about over paying in this market.  It is rare to see a sale that isn’t a “bargain” or at least perceived as a good value.

$ Per Square Foot:  I actually just included these numbers as an FYI.  Because The Point and The Peninsula have recently had some $3 million+ sales,  and more $1million + sales their numbers are skewed when compared to the rest.

This is simply a general overview.  When considering buying or selling, I highly recommend that your Realtor do a more fine-tuned market analysis focusing on the specifics of your Lake Norman home!

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Is ‘The Point’ Lake Normans Ulitmate Luxury Home Community?

The Peninsula, Cornelius’s Luxury Lake Norman Community

 The Farms, A Crescent Community in Lake Norman with a more Casual Feel

The Harbour at The Pointe; A Popular Lake Norman Subdivision

Relocating to Mooresville NC

Lake Norman Relocation Resources

After such an unusually hot summer here in the Lake Norman area when my free time has been spent nuturing my Wildlife Habitat Garden just to keep it alive, I am looking forward to being inspired once again by the Southern Ideal Home show being held at The Park (the old Charlotte Merchandise Mart) this weekend, August 27-29.  

Better known for their magnificent Southern Spring Garden Show, this fall show will also offer”hundreds of experts and thousands of ideas for building, remodeling, landscaping or decorating projects for inside and outside the home all in one place.” according to an article on LakeNorman.com.

They will have a Cooking Stage for demonstrations from top chefs, wine sampling from North Carolina wineries and so much more!

For more information: 704.376.6594. Or email Mardee Woodward: mwoodward@southernshows.com

Hours: 

Friday: Noon – 8pm

 Saturday: 10.am – 7pm

Sunday: 10am – 5pm

Admission Prices

At the door:  Adults $9, Children under 15 free with adult

Seniors Day is Friday: $7  ($55+)

Check out their Facebook Page for more updates! : 

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  60 Things You Should Know About Life in Lake Norman, Part 1

Pine Needles Versus Hard Wood Mulch: Lake Norman’s Great Debate!

Lake Norman Real Estate’s Two-Week Hot Sheet

8/6/2010 –8/20//2010

 The above chart is a summary of today’s “Hot Sheet” from the Charlotte Multiple Listing Service for single family homes in all of Lake Norman (area 13).  These numbers represent a real time snapshot of the past two week’s activity.  (August 6 – August 20th).  As always, I have included the past 5 months so that you can put these numbers in perspective. 

Below is the 2009 chart for the same period for your reference.

August 14, 2009 Hot Sheet

Highlights:

• New listings:  The number of new listings coming on the market in Lake Norman is dropping.  This is a good thing for our local housing market but a continued source of frustration  for Lake Norman home buyers.   

•  The number of properties that came back-on-the-market, most likely due to cancelled contracts, were quite low but since this data has been missing in our new MLS system until recently, my guess is that this number may not be accurate yet.  We will know next month.

• The number of price changes  dropped when compared to both last month and last year.   This actually surprises me because I am seeing price reductions daily.

• Pending home sales appear to have dropped to their lowest levels since I have been doing these reports.  For the past two years August has been a particularly slow month with sales of 67 in 2009 and 76 in 2008.  It will be interesting to see if we be able to reach those numbers by the end of this month. 

• The number of closed sales in the past two weeks were just slightly below last month, but they are 29% lower than August 2009.   So far this month 38 sales have been reported to our MLS compared to 36 sales last month and 63 sales at the same time in June.  

• Contingent and Conditional sales  are the one bright spot in our market Hot Sheet.     These represent the most recently accepted offers.  33% higher than last month and 19% higher than last August at this time, these might be an indication that September will show some stronger closing numbers.

My buyers, mostly out-of-state, are paying close attention to our current market trying to time their purchase.  Many are still on the fence but they are ready to jump as soon as they have confidence or see an opportunity.  Interest rates are incredibly low.  The million dollar question is will we hit bottom this winter? 

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Lake Norman Relocation Resources 

Due to the eclectic nature of our Lake Norman waterfront homes, it is very difficult to make broad brush assumptions and statistical analysis that are truly meaningful.  How do we compare a home at the end of a cove to one with main channel shoreline let alone a 1980′s cottage on a rustic road to a grand estate in The Point?  Even our waterfront lots vary in price from the $100,000′s to well over $1million.

That said, Lake Norman waterfront home buyers want to know as much as possible about our current waterfront home sales in order to determine when to buy and how much to offer.

My current and very general rule-of-thumb is that at our peak waterfront homes sold on average at about $300 per square foot depending on the age, condition, quality of water, location etc.  Today my rule-of-thumb average price is about $200 per square foot. 

To offer my specifics, I pulled data from our Charlotte MLS for waterfront properties since May 1, 2010 ranging in price from $300,000 to $1,500,000 thus eliminating the extreme highs and lows.  Here are the results:

The most important take aways from these numbers are:

• The average/median price per square foot for closed waterfront homes since May 1st does come in at about $200

• The average sales price to listing price was 94% .  Yes, there are low-ball offers and sales far below the listing price but overall in our Lake Norman market sellers are more likely to keep reducing their price until it is in the market price range before buyers will make serious offers.  All statistics can be tossed out when it comes to shortsales.  I sold one that was listed at $799,000 for $640,000 but that is not common.

• Our current trend is about 18.6 waterfront home sales per month.  With an inventory of 432 active listings we have about 23 months of inventory of waterfront homes priced from $300,000 – $1,500,000.  Keeping in mind that 6-8 months is a balanced market for supply and demand, we have over 3 times the number of waterfront homes on the market than we should.

 When considering a waterfront home, you really need to evaluate each property separately adding or subtracting value for:

• The quality of the water and length of shoreline  (Main Channel versus end of cove).  Water trumps all else!
• Location
• Topography of the lot (steep versus flat, beach or drop off, walk-out basement)
• Quality, condition and size of the dock including the depth of the water
• Views:  Are they obstructed by trees or other homes?  Keep in mind the 50′ natural area now enforced.  Older properties are grandfathered in and may be close to the shoreline or have lawn all the way to the shore. Newer homes must adhere to the 50′ rule.
• Condition and age of the home including deferred maintenance
• Floor-plan (popular right now are master bedroom on main level, walk-out basements and open floorplans).
• Design of home; does it take full advantage of the water views?
• Seller’s financial situation.  Is it a distressed sale?

Keep in mind that of all of our land in our large Lake Norman area, the only truly limited supply we have is good waterfront lots/homes.  Once our market improves I am confident that waterfront homes will once again be a hot commodity.

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Lake Norman Waterfront Home Sales 2009

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Lake Norman Real Estate:  Our Schizophrenic Communities

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