Hi everyone –

Looks like we’re in for another messy weekend, so I hope you have plenty of milk and bread. With the recent weather, property showings have been off a bit, but I expect that to pick up as soon as the sun comes out. The Mid-Atlantic Boat Show runs next week, and that traditionally starts people thinking about spending the summertime on the lake.

I’m encouraged over a couple of things so far in 2010. One, my website activity is at an ALL TIME HIGH. Incredibly, January activity dwarfed the previous all time high (July 2009), and more than doubled January 2009. This activity should be an indication of an increase in buyer activity, which is what we want!

In January, four waterfront properties sold (see Recent Lake Wylie Waterfront Sales for details). Two were classified as short sales or foreclosures (High Point and Johnson Road), and the other two, while not advertised as distressed sales, sold for less than 60% of their original asking price. While that isn’t particularly good news for sellers, what IS good news is the price point - - one property at $750,000, and one at $1.6 million. If you recall, it was late summer last year before we saw our first million dollar sale on the lake. So that’s another encouraging sign.

One Lake Wylie waterfront lot sale was added to the list - - a main channel lot in Reflection Point which sold for $188,000 in December. The sale wasn’t recorded in MLS until late January, which is why we didn’t have that one on our year end report. It is almost unbelievable that HALF of the waterfront lots that sold in 2009 were under $200,000. Several of those were actually very nice lots. We haven’t seen prices that low in years, but again the distressed sales are playing a big part. It’s not easy to manage buyer expectations in this market.

So, once again, the message to sellers is “Patience”. It’s a tough market, but there are some positive signs on the horizon. Thanks for your consideration, and have a good weekend.

For more information on Lake Wylie foreclosures and Lake Wylie real estate, please visit my website, TheLakeWylieMan.com.