Lake Vermilion Real Estate

Lake Vermilion is located within St. Louis County in Northeast Minnesota.

About one year ago St. Louis County updated their website.  This newly improved edition is very much appreciated, as a user and a taxpayer, because the mongfrucious amount of public information contained within the website is much easier to access and understand.

Click here… St. Louis County, Minnesota, to visit the home page.  A few selected links within the site include such interesting topics as:

1)  Parcel tax lookup  2)  Instructional YouTube videos  3)  2012 Permit Fees  4)  Twitter feed for job openings  5) Maps  6)  Auctions and sales

Thanks, St. Louis County, Minnesota!

Absolute zero is -459.67 degrees Fahrenheit.  I looked it up.  (The complete explanation of absolute zero is technical and complicated but most would understand it as the temperature when “everything stops”.)

It appears that absolute zero for the local real estate market is much warmer than -459.67 degrees Fahrenheit.  As witnessed on this day when the local outdoor temperature dropped to a paltry -24 degrees Fahrenheit and, by all standard measurements, real estate activity stopped.

That’s OK.  We can file such days under the category of “winter entitlement”.

Actually, for clarification, all real estate activity stopped except for those efforts conducted from warm spaces via electronic means.

The real estate market can still twitch with activity despite these weather conditions.  Productivity is possible at low temperatures from interior confines while watching the sun rise over and lake and through the pines, with a woodstove churning in the background, a warm cup of coffee at hand , and a persistent cat planted on the lap.

Our world offers instant notice of statements, advisories, watches, or warnings related to cold weather.  The weatherman is right to offer cautious advise for conditions where “flesh can freeze within minutes”.  Maybe such days should be viewed as an opportunity to adapt and enjoy the limiting circumstances.  It’s really all we can do.

And… there’s nothing like it in August.

Here is some additional graphic data in the 2011 Lake Vermilion real estate market.  Please let me know if you have any questions with this information.

Also, I am happy to send you the list of the 51 individual properties that closed as completed sales in 2011.  The details may be helpful to current or future Buyers and Sellers.  If that’s of interest please send me an email with that specific request.

Click here to do just that.

2011 is in the books.

Here’s the December and final graph that compares 2011 year to date completed sales activity for all transactions on Lake Vermilion (including homes, cabins, and lots) since 2005.

As shown, 2011 finished one transaction short of 2010.  (Wait!  See updates below.)  A 2011 sales total greater than 2010 do not materialize due to the fact that 5 Lake Vermilion pending sales failed to close by December 31st.  Those sales will, most likely, be logged early in 2012.

I had hoped for an improvement so we could see a clean trend in the recovery of our local market.  But… as with the broader economic picture, the recovery process is tracking at a slow and deliberate pace.

In a day or two, I will post a few additional graphs to close out the 2011 sales year.  Plus, a new file will begin for 2012!

Please let me know if you have any questions about this information. Your comments are welcome, too.  Thanks for visiting.

Update!  Apparently we have had an after-the-deadline addition to the number of Lake Vermilion closed sales logged into the  2011 calendar year.  This brings the 2011 total to 50 closed sales which is exactly the same as 2010.  We can now officially say the trend has not been reversed.  Whew.

Up-update!  Apparently we have had another after-the-deadline addition to the number of Lake Vermilion closed sales logged into the  2011 calendar year.  This brings the 2011 total to 51 closed sales which is one more than 2010.  We can now officially say the upward trend is intact.  Double whew.

The listing contracts of many current Sellers expire on the end of the calendar year.  So… as expected, the available inventory of real estate listings made a downward adjustment as the clock ticked to start a new year.  Some property categories saw inventory levels drop as much as 30%.

Those Sellers who have chosen to market their properties during this time have certainly done so with the intent to attract an “off season” buyer.  Many attractive opportunities remain for the attentive Buyer.

The coming weeks and months will see an increase in available properties as expired listings return under new contracts and as “new to the market” listings are added to the mix.

It’s good advice to all Buyers to stay alert as the available inventory grows to become an offering in the 2012 real estate market.

I am happy to assist with any effort to buy or sell.

Thanks to all who made 2011 a great year!  Please check back for the final activity graphs from 2011.

We should feel fortunate.

The Lake Vermilion area does have some snow.  The ground cover is white.  The amount of snow, unfortunately, is not adequate for most outdoor Winter activities.

To confirm the situation, the National Ice Center website offers a gibongous amount of information on the world’s ice and snow conditions including a 31 day looped animation of North America.  Those images reveal how little snow cover has accumulated beyond Northeastern Minnesota.  The Lake Vermilion Resorts website offers a semi-optimistic view of the current and future trail conditions with these tweeted words:

“The good news – it snowed some yesterday, and we are expecting another inch or more today.  The bad news – all trails continue to be ungroomed or closed. There is about 5 inches of snow in the best locations.  The 10 day forecast calls for at least a chance of snow everyday. As soon as we have enough snow on the trails, the groomers will be out.  We will let you know as soon as that happens!”

Giant’s Ridge Recreational Area touts the fact that “they have more snow than any place in Minnesota” with great ski and snowboard conditions.

It’s good to remember that the Winter season is only 8 days old.  We have plenty of time to make up for a slow start.  I think most area residents and visitors would enjoy more snow as soon as it’s available.

Let it snow.

The Minnesota Association of Realtors does a very good job of keeping it’s members up to date on issues within the real estate industry.

Minnesota lawmakers recently replaced the Homestead Market Value Credit with another method to calculate homestead property taxes.  Here is an explanation of that change from the Minnesota Association of Realtors:

“The new Homestead Market Value Exclusion (HMVE) is a recent change to how homestead property taxes are calculated. It replaces the Homestead Market Value Credit (HMVC). Under the old credit system, the credit lowered a homeowner’s property tax burden based on the value of their home. The state then reimbursed local governments for the lost amount of their levy (revenues) due to the credit. However, due to the state’s budget problems, it was rare that local governments were fully reimbursed by the state. Eliminating the credit and creating an exclusion removes the possibility of the state withholding funds and creates more stability for local governments.

The new program excludes a portion of the homeowner’s market value from the property tax calculation. The amount of value excluded is directly proportional to the credit the home received under the old law. The actual tax burden on homesteads could be lesser or greater depending upon the mix of properties in the taxing jurisdiction and the levy decisions made by local governments (for more information on the technical calculations, please see below).

Technical Calculations: Under the old credit system, the credit amount would rapidly increase as a home value approached $76,000 with the maximum credit amount of $304. After $76,000 the credit would decrease until it was completely phased out with a home value of over $414,000. The new exclusion mimics this same scale as homes approaching $76,000 would have a rapidly increasing exclusion of value, with a home valued at $76,000 receiving a maximum exclusion of 40% of their home value from property tax calculations. The percentage then decreases and is phased out at homes valued over $414,000.”