By Associated Press
Montgomery, AL – A longtime real estate agent says the value of land on Lake Martin has fallen with the lake's water level.
Betty Litsey says the drought has stopped on a two-year surge in real estate values.
Prices began skyrocketing in 2005 and continued through 2006, with prices nearly doubling in some areas around the lake. Now, the supply of housing has exceeded demand.
Litsey, an agent with RE/MAX, estimates there's a 24 to 31-month supply of real estate on the market and fewer buyers are on the hunt compared to two years ago.
While prices drop, the water is receding from the docks and piers around Blue Creek and the eastern shores of Lake Martin. Summer usually finds the lake at full pool, or 490 feet. The reservoir, as of today, is down to less than 482 feet.
A lake-side homeowner anticipates even lower lake levels during the normally dry months of July, August and September, but hopes the dry spell does not extend into the summer of 2008.
(Copyright 2007 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)