By: Mike Kennedy mkennedy@railey.com 301-616-6106 January 27th, 2009 Category: Deep Creek Lake Market Update, Deep Creek Lake Real Estate

Garrett County’s Planning and Land Development staff recently released their annual report that shows a continued declining trend in the amount of new subdivisions and approved building lots. However, the report does not break out the subdivisions and lots in the Deep Creek Lake zoning watershed - but instead lumps all Garrett County land statistics together. However, it’s a safe assumption that a majority of these statistics are in the general Deep Creek Lake area.

Subdivisions and Lots Down

The total number of approved new building lots in 2008 was 85 - this is down from a peak of 382 approved building lots in 2005. The Deep Creek Lake & Garrett County real estate market has experienced a sharp increase in the total number of available lake area building lots for sale over the past few years - mostly owned by developers, speculators, and flippers who purchased and developed a few years ago.  Hopefully this decrease in applications and new subdivisions will take pressure off of rising inventory.  

High Inventory of Lake Area Lots

If you are a prospective lot or land buyer - you currently have a tremendous amount of choice in the general Deep Creek Lake area - these are home sites that are NOT lakefront, have NO lake access, and NO lake views. As of today, our MLS is showing 111 of these types of lots for sale - with a majority of them priced in the $89,000-$139,000 range. For the past two years, the total number of similar lots on the market was in the 150 range - so the inventory has come down some over the past year.  This number does include about 17 home sites atop Wisp Ski Resort - some with slope access.

Low Inventory of Lakefront and Lake Access Lots

However, the number of choices and inventory levels decrease greatly as you get closer to Deep Creek Lake.  Only 12 true lakefront lots are currently on the market - ranging in price from $400,000 to $1,495,000 in Holy Cross. And only 14 lake access lots with deeded boat slips are currently for sale - ranging in price from $165,000 to $525,000. These lower inventory levels on the lake should continue well into the future as 63 of the 65 miles of shoreline around Deep Creek have already been developed.  The only larger parcels yet undeveloped are Thousand Acres, Pergin Farm, and a small area between Holy Cross and the end of Boy Scout Road. Contact us if you are in the market for a lot or thinking about buying some land - the lot and land buying process can be a very tricky in this area - there are many factors that need to be considered and evaluated.