Camille’s Blog of the Week – 12/30/15

Camille’s Blog of the Week

The biggest sales of the year on the Lake George waterfront

Full article from the Albany Business Review.
Eighteen homes sold for $1 million or more this year on the waterfront of Lake George, New York, a slight increase over the previous year.
There were 16 sales above the $1 million threshold in 2014.
Dan Davies, a broker who has been selling property in the Adirondacks resort community for 26 years, said most buyers are from Connecticut, northern New Jersey, Westchester County and the Albany region.

“What I see is they want something a little more finished, rather than go through the [renovation] process,” said Davies of Davies-Davies & Associates Real Estate LLC. “A lot of people don’t want to deal with the regulations. They want to come up and turn the key.”

Demand was stronger than usual in the fall and early winter, which will result in a robust start to 2016. Some of that might have been prompted by the anticipated increase in short-term interest rates, a step the Federal Reserve took in December (thus far, the Fed’s action has had little impact on mortgage rates).

“We have a lot of deals pending,” Davies said, “and I know some of the other agencies do as well. Literally, you could see nine or 10 closing in the first couple months.”

Another longtime Lake George real estate broker, Lonnie Lawrence at Sherwood Group, said 2015 was “a pretty good year” for overall sales.

“There’s still a lot of people that want to get on Lake George,” Lawrence said.

Below are the 10 biggest sales of the year through the Warren County Multiple Listing Service, based on sales prices.