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Articles written by Lake Lanier Fine Homes Resort Specialist Arlene Ingram

See also, Lake Value Facts articles

10/15/09...TODAY LAKE SIDNEY LANIER HAS RISEN TO OVER FULL POOL!!!
THIS IS HISTORIC FOR FALL & WINTER WATER LEVELS SO COME ON UP AND ENJOY THE FALL LEAVES. WITH THIS HIGH WATER, YOU SHOULD BE ABLE TO BOAT ALL THE WAY UP INTO THE CHESTATEE & CHATACHOOEE RIVERS.
WOW...LANIER IS BACK WITH A BANG!!!

Memorial Day 2009

Well finally, we appear to be coming out of the worst drought in the history of Lake Sidney Lanier.
Originally conceived in 1946 to abate a frequently experienced flooding problem in the Metro Atlanta area, Lake Lanier began to fill in 1957 after the immense construction of Buford Dam was complete.

Lanier quickly grew, not only to its massive size but in popularity as the most visited US Corps of Engineers project in America and Lanier is the largest man made reservoir near a major metropolitan area so it's been sometimes proclaimed as "Atlanta's playground". 

However, for the last few years, the typical weather patterns in the southern United States, including Georgia, became altered and the rains just passed under or above us leaving Lanier not high…but dry. Then a worldwide economy crisis slapped us with a double whammy.

Thankfully, our weather pattern, predicted by the Corps late in 2008, indeed seem to have returned back to more of a normal rain fall for our area and especially just north of Lanier where the rainfall runoff fills the creeks, streams and rivers that flow into Lake Lanier. Unless outflows from Buford Dam exceed the inflows from these tributaries, rain runoffs usually cause the lake level to continue to rise for several days after the rains have dissipated.

So we now are nearing a full pool, rising almost 13 feet from the first of 2009.

This near average lake level is now a great stabilizing factor. Still, the philological damage done by the low levels lasting for an historic time, have taken their toll. Principally, however, our adverse economy has hurt overall lake property values, just as it has any other real estate in the country.

So now the question is: Will waterfront values rebound?

Because I am not the all seeing eye, all I can do is weigh the facts that are available and intertwine those hard facts with my 34 years of Lake Lanier specific value experience. I've been through several of these downturns while working with Lake Lanier real estate and historically, there have always been grand value up-turns of Lanier's lakefront properties coming out of past depressed markets. Hind sight is 20-20 as they say... now lets look forward.
 
 So here's the news...particular to Lake Sidney Lanier: The US Corps of Engineers has made it clear that there are only 160 dock permits left and they have extended the moratorium on issuing those. When you look at the number of total dock permits, including both issued and available, 10,615, then a remaining 160 permits becomes the proverbial drop in the bucket. (See the shoreline management plan)

So what do you think this single "key" hard fact will do to the future values of Lake Lanier properties that are fortunate enough to have obtained a boat dock permit? Remember virtually no more dock permit issues going forward… virtually no more new lots or subdivisions will be permitted for docks or community slips. Couple that with another universal fact…as we come out of this current economic downturn, history has shown that pent up buyers will be looking to purchase waterfront property all over the US. Typically, waterfront property is Number One in value increases with golf course frontage as Number Two.

Now, please remember, Lanier is the largest man-made reservoir near a major metropolitan area.
 
Another fact is that not only will new development projects be unable to obtain dock permits, there are not many available Lake Lanier lakefront plots left to develop anyway. Consequently, many of our older lakefront homes are on the best lots holding those highly valued, transferable dock permits. These properties are being bought-up, the old homes torn down and in their place, beautiful new structures are showing up on Lanier's shoreline along with gleaming new state-of-the-art docks. See Lanier value facts.

Be you own judge and certainly depend on your own decisions but I believe any informed buyer would agree that now, the only factor that is left to turn back into position, is that simple fact of universal supply and demand to once again take its rightful place in the real estate markets of America and in specific, our stunning Lake Lanier.

So...Is this trusted economic process impending?

Review the facts and then it's your call. However please be aware that with all pertinent information in hand, many national real estate market experts (and myself locally) agree that to best be positioned for another historic economic upturn...BUY LAKE LANIER REAL ESTATE NOW!

2007 Q: How much are lots on Lake Lanier?

A: That's like asking how much is a car. Car prices are all valued by make and model. Simply said, it depends on the quality. 

Waterfront lots at Lanier are valued by not only the quality, but the ageless real estate term location, location, location. (That is if you can find a lake lot at all.) The reason raw waterfront lots are hard to come by is that Lanier is over 50 years old and has been almost totally developed. 

 If you ride around on the vast 38,000 acres by boat you may see lots of prime uninhabited land but that almost always is US Corps of Engineers controlled property. You and I can't buy that. That's because at Lake Lanier, our property lines stop off at the topography elevation line 1,085 (commonly called the take line). This flood pool boundary was arrived at by aerial survey before the lake was filled. This means that only rarely do property lines extend to the waters edge. Therefore most property, unless it's grand fathered pasture, is partially or completely treed.

Certainly the size of lake lots vary but typically they are around a half acre. It's the quality and quantity of the waterfront footage that really counts so more land is not necessarily better.

Lake lot value is based on far too many factors to express here, however, view, topography, water depth and location are revenant, universal characteristics most people readily identify with. 

However, the issue of dock permitability and all that it entails is the single most important value factor on this lake. And by the way, a boat dock is personal property. The lake resident pays a fee to the US Corps of Engineers for a permit to float it and any additional personal usage permits on government land.

Lot prices at Lake Lanier may vary from time to time depending on what becomes available to the market but this year the typical price range is up again from $300+/- to $1Mil+/-. Remember the value factors above, this is where they all come into play.

Yes, is seems that Lake Lanier waterfront lot values are something akin to the vast difference between a Hyundai and a Ferrari. But looks are sometimes deceiving, so don't forget to look under the hood. It would be wise to ask a Lake Lanier Real Estate Specialist.....

arlene @lakelanier.net & www.lakelanier.net