Vacant Land

The stock market last week acted pretty crazy and everyone scrambled around until a bunch of stocks got killed, for no reason from my perspective. That’s why I like real estate, especially real estate in an area that I know and have lived in most of my adult life.

Last week I talked about our unique real estate market in the Hayward area; this week we are going to take a look at the “hottest” part of the market in terms of real estate sales.

What is it? Vacant land! Both off-water and on-water lots and larger parcels have maintained strong sales in terms of numbers and dollar volume in the greater Hayward area. In just Sawyer County and the Hayward School District sales have topped $5 million for the trailing twelve months; 100 parcels with average sales of just above $49,000. For the same period last year sales on 94 parcels were slightly above $4 million for an average of about $43,000. Both years exceeded the prior year and the prior year….well you get the drift.

On-water lots for the past twelve months continues strong with sales of more that $7 million for an average of $170,000; the twelve months prior was especially good with more than $9.3 million in sales with an average sale of $155,850. Going forward there will be less and less available lake shore and prices will continue to move upward.

That said, it is easy to understand why off-water property has become a major sector, you get a good bang for your buck, privacy and the opportunity to drag your boat to any one of the crystal clear lakes of our area without paying the higher taxes. For those who do not recreate on the water or fish there are some great neighborhoods, like “The Brook”, being developed for the quiet sports folks and those who come to our area just to relax.

Next week find out about another hot sector in our real estate market.

Forecast here is sunny, warm and dry with plenty of clean air to breath and north woods to explore and lakes to enjoy! Make it a great weekend and have a Happy July 4th.

Life is good!