Lake Vermilion Real Estate

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.”

The sprint to the finish is on.

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

The sales activity on Lake Vermilion this past November was sluggish. Closed sales were lower than any of the previous six years. That puts 2011 in a tie with 2010 and 2007 with only one month to go.

2011 will need a strong December to keep the trend of improving annual sales intact.

I remain optimistic.

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