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It's time to get realistic about Burnett County waterfront properties.  Agents and sellers are living in la la land.  Properties are grotesquely over priced for the market.  Here it is December 20, and there are 162 waterfront properties on the market according to the MLS.   In the good years there were hardly any listed at this point.  Since the beginning of the year there were 96 MLS listings that sold.  In 2007 111 sold, in 2006 119 sold, in 2005 152 sold, in 2004 129 sold, in 2003 120 sold, in 2002 140 sold, in 2001 110 sold.  The average sale price the past year was 263,381.  And the average list price for properties currently listed is 299,958.  What a disconnect!  The average home is over priced by 13%.  That's huge in a soft market.

What does this tell us?  The peak was in 2005 and it has been sliding since.  I do not see any reason to think that next year conditions will be better.  Indeed I have every reason to believe they could be worse.  Therefore prices are going to have to come down significantly to get the market back in balance.  There is nothing sacred about waterfront properties.   They are subject to market forces like anything else.  In the early part of the century properties went up 15 to 25 percent per year.  I see no reason why the reverse should not be true in the next two to three years.  It's happened in other markets, and it will have to occur in this market.  The sooner we realize it the less dramatic the decline will be.