Housing market humming at lake

March 2, 2008

By Marcie Young
Charlotte Observer Staff Writer

LAKE JAMES -- Across the nation, the housing market is feeling the crunch. Foreclosures are up, new building permits are down and home sales are sluggish.

But along Lake James, Burke and McDowell counties' gem in the Blue Ridge Mountains, things aren't looking quite as glum.

"We've had just as much traffic this year, more actually, than this time last year," said Tim Miner, director of sales and marketing for Crescent communities at the lake.

Lake James has been touted in recent years as a retirement destination or mountain getaway for people wanting to build second homes, and that, said Realtor Broker Dianne Reihl, seems to have kept building booming.

"I just got a call from a man in Long Island (N.Y.)," she said. "The phones are ringing." Last week, she said, 43 homes and 188 lots were for sale along the lake in Burke and McDowell.

While permits to build new houses, townhomes and condos in Mecklenburg County last month plunged by 59 percent, compared with January 2007, Burke County has seen a steady rise in those permits since 2005.

Last year, 46 new permits were issued for building between the lake and Jonas Ridge in northern Burke, down from 50 permits in 2006 and up from 34 in 2005, said Taylor Dellinger, data analyst for the Western Piedmont Council of Governments.

"(The lake region) is getting the most single-family homes of any area in the county," Dellinger said.

About 16 percent of all new permits in 2007 were on or around Lake James.

Developers and Burke planners say they haven't seen residue of the economic downturn in lakeside land and home sales. But Burke Planning Director Marc Collins said the poor housing market elsewhere in the country could make it difficult for people to buy before selling their homes.

"There's still the demand to locate here," he said. "But people in other areas are having problems selling their homes and that (could lead) to a slowdown here."

Residential development along Lake James began in the 1980s and has steadily grown over two decades to include about 24 communities on or near the water.

In years past, Miner said, people were building homes at the lake and reselling them for profit, but now developers are seeing more people who are planning on sticking around.

"People are buying so they can live here," he said. "That's been the trend for the last 2 1/2 years."

Lots at Crescent's developments range from $150,000 to more than $2 million, and homeowners building in several of the communities are filing permits for homes ranging from $400,000 to more than $1 million.

Property around the 6,500-acre lake is limited, Collins said, because of efforts to protect the area's natural beauty.

Lake James State Park grew by more than 480 percent in November 2004 when the state bought nearly 3,000 acres from Crescent Resources for $18 million.

The purchase increased the size of the park from 606 acres on the lake's south shore to 3,521 acres, creating the largest waterfront park in the state. The acquisition allowed state officials to conserve more than 24 miles of shoreline.

And that, Reihl said, is part of its appeal.

"It's such a great recreation area, and our winters are so mild," she said. "If you're coming from the Northeast, this looks pretty darn good."


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