First, I want to clarify what types of properties I used. All of the homes were on Lake Lanier and had a dock suitable for a boat, no platform docks or community docks were included. I only used single-family properties with their own docks. Secondly, I only looked at Lake Homes in Dawson, Forsyth and Hall Counties. This is due to the very low number of sales in Gwinnett and Lumpkin Counties.

And finally, a couple of definitions for the chart, just to be clear:

Avg. Sales Price / Orig. List Price - A home might be originally listed at $525k, then reduced several times but goes under contract while at $475k, then ultimately sells at $450k. $525k is the original list price. That is the number I used in my Sales Price to List Price ratio.

Avg. Total Days on Market - If a home is listed, expires, then goes back on the market and finally sells I use the total days on market, not the number of days it was listed the second time.

These two factors paint a very true picture of price reductions and market time.

Findings

One thing is consistent; there were more transactions in 2010 in all three counties. While Dawson had the biggest increase in transactions, Hall County had the most sales.

What was really interesting is some differences in Dawson County Lake Home Sales vs. the others. Dawson saw a slight increase in Average Sales Price, where there was a significant decrease in the others. Dawson also saw a reduction in Average Sales Price ratio and a large increase in Total Days on Market.

Forsyth County was the only county with an increase in the Average Sales Price ratio and had the largest drop in Total Days on Market. Hall County, with the most transactions, had the largest decrease in Average Sales Price.

Keep in mind that these figures were calculated across all price ranges and included equity owner sales as well as foreclosure and short sales. If you are thinking about selling and want to know the specifics for your community - just let us know and we can help you with that.