Spend any amount of time dreaming and researching your perfect lake home and you’ll quickly discover that Alabama is home to some of the best bargains in the country. Great water views, amazing lake houses, convenient to bigger cities and attractions all tend to add to your dream home’s price tag, but not in Alabama. Why? Read on for a few answers!
One obvious reason for more down-to-earth pricing in Alabama lake homes is due to our abundance of water in general. Alabama is home to the most navigable waterways in the United States – and those major rivers have several lakes to choose from along their meandering routes to the Gulf of Mexico. For example, the Coosa River runs from Georgia to South Alabama before converging with the Alabama River that flows into the Gulf. Along this river you have Weiss Lake, Neely Henry Lake, Lake Logan Martin, Lake Martin, and several others further south. The same goes for the Tennessee River that comes down from the Nashville area into Alabama. Along its banks you can find Lake Guntersville, our largest lake, as well as Lake Wheeler, and Lakes Wilson and Pickwick. This abundance of large lakes makes for a vibrant housing market.
A major impact on the pricing of Alabama lake homes is the cost of ownership – our taxes are some of the lowest in the country. Chalk it up to antiquated tax laws, or just our independent state of mind regarding government taxing, but Alabama is one of the cheapest states to own a home in America. For example, the most expensive home currently on the market on Lake Guntersville is priced at $2.95 million with a tax bill of $10,306. In neighboring Georgia that home’s taxes would average around $32,000 per year! Now to put that into more realistic terms – the average property tax for a $350,000 lake home in Alabama is around $700 to $1,000 per year! That makes for a much more feasible, and affordable second home!
Finally, Alabama is a relatively undiscovered gem in the U.S. regarding tourism. As a lifelong resident, it amazes me that most visitors to our state don’t know that the space race got its start in Huntsville, Alabama, or that Alabama is at the forefront of aviation technology. Or that we have a more diverse ecosystem than nearly any other state in the Union – sharing the title with only California, Hawaii, and Texas! You can literally go from large mountain ranges to the sugar sand shores of the Gulf of Mexico in six hours! We’re home to historic small towns, great college football (Roll Tide!) as well as natural sites you just can’t see anywhere else in the world like Little River Canyon.
If you’ve been dreaming of owning your own lake home for years you owe it to yourself to take a look at Alabama’s many breathtaking lakes! Contact your local Lakefront Living agent today, and let us guide you home!
By: Clark Stewart, the Alabama lake Guru