Raising the Bar

Recent Ridge sales set new price standards for Lake Martin

Two recent property sales in June have set a new higher-price standard for The Ridge on Lake Martin. While custom home construction in The Ridge has witnessed higher overall investments in several notable cases, new standards have been set for “open market” transactions for resale properties.

New standard for land

The first notable transaction was for a waterfront piece of land in the Phase 5 section of The Ridge. The initial sale of this property was to a private owner who had the option to build a single private home or subdivide subject to developer approval. This owner’s plans changed, and they listed the property for $3,000,000. Nine days after listing the property, a full-price offer was accepted.

The property is beautiful, as one might imagine, with 6.04 acres of land on 715 feet of west-facing shoreline. This phase of The Ridge completely sold out in record time because of its very impressive western views and deep year-round water. That location certainly justified the value.

New standard of single-family home

The Ridge has several very impressive and valuable custom homes that have been built over the years. Those properties have been conservatively valued, using a cost approach, at over $10,000,000. Until recently, only one “open market” resale has closed for more than $5,000,000, since custom homes almost never come back on the market. In April, that valuation was tested with the listing of a recently built home for $8,250,000.

The recently listed home was placed on the open market via the local MLS, like the land above, and it received a great deal of interest from potential buyers from all over the Southeast. Ultimately, a buyer negotiated a purchase of the property for just over $7,000,000.

The land and improvements for this recent sale are somewhat smaller than some of the custom homes in the “eight-figure” category. But when you consider the size of the home and value of the land, the per-square-foot sales price justifies the higher values for the larger estates.

While smaller, the value was enhanced due to the beautifully placed, designed and constructed package. Like the land transaction above, this property was west-facing with tremendous views of Kowaliga Bay. The home was beautifully designed by architect, Jeff Dungan, to take advantage of a very unique point lot. Top-of-the-line finishes were found throughout the main house and adjacent guest cottage, which were both beautifully built by TCC Construction.

More opportunities available

Given the number of recent sales of estate homes and estate lots over the last several months, Russell Lands has decided to expand the size of several waterfront homesites in the recently released Phase 6 of The Ridge. View map >

Two of those newly released properties have extensive waterfront footage, one with 730 feet and one with 956 feet. Both are priced considerably less than the land price noted above, which allows room for sweat equity in a custom estate project.

For those interested in acquiring and creating a one-of-a-kind legacy lake home in the newly released homesites in The Ridge, please contact one of our sales executives who specialize in guiding people through the process of turning land into lake homes. They can be reached at 256.215.7011.

View The Ridge Phase 6 opening price list >