Name:   MotorMan - Subject:   Lake house value Date:   4/29/2018 10:58:46 AM

With now being now, I would not hold a vacant lake lot as an investment for any period of years if it was my primary "big investment".  Many vacant lots are now not worth more than their 2005 price.  My neighbor's vacant lots on a little nearby lake cannot be sold at half of the Tallapoosa assessment.  Counties do not make appraisals, they make assessments trying to be fair.

The recent tax law changes may be a game changer.  I would consult an Investment counselor that will look at everything you own.  In the roaring 1970s, housing prices went up as the baby boomers needed housing.  I was living in Florida and saw condos rise to $59,900 as incomes, raw materials and labor all rose.  By then the Thirtysomethings were buying ten condos, depreciating them and "zeroing out" their taxable income.  They typically fed each rental $50/month.  Don't worry! Inflation will bail us out they said.

Then a new thing happened: prices leveled out and starting falling.  Some got out while others saw buying opportunities.  Then the 1986 tax law changed and everything dropped in price until 1999 then rose to 2005 and fell again.  Here is one much poorer man's question of 2013:

I have 2 off-water lots side by side on Longville Ave in Port Charlotte that I paid  $116,000 in 2005. I'd like to know what I should list them for to sell quickly.  His answer was $15,000 for the pair.  Yes! It is true.  People sometimes overpay by a great deal. 

If I was younger, I would sell the land for the quick sale price even if it is $400,000.  I might put the cash into a balanced account of say...1/4 large-cap stocks, 1/4 small-cap stocks, 1/4 bonds and 1/4 Foreign stocks.   BTW; After the Houston floods, lumber has been pushed to never before prices of $550.  In the last 50 years, if it hit $425, lumbermen hit the woods, harvested trees, and pushed the price down. Existing housing stocks will rise in price.

I sold this lot in 1999 for $33,000.  I doubt if the seller gets more.

https://www.shorewest.com/homes/164979_GNMLS-Lot_3_Blue_Heron_Ridge_Rd-Mercer-WI-54547#.WuXdHYiUtPY