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<\/a><\/p>\nFrom \u2018Camp\u2019 To\u00a0\u2018Luxury Home\u2019<\/strong><\/p>\n While this concept of a broad stretch of waterfront land that was once to be had for budget prices may not quite be on the mark, there is some evidence that much waterfront property was not as highly valued in previous decades as it is today.<\/p>\n In the 1980s and 1990s, says Derenda Grubb, a real estate agent of Century 21 Mike D. Bono & Co.\u2019s, waterfront properties didn\u2019t have the appeal or value they now have because \u201cwe did not have the construction abilities to build in those areas; [to build] in a way that we could stay secure. We couldn\u2019t even be as comfortable [as we are in the present-day waterfront homes].\u201d<\/p>\n Today, she says, a house on, say, a Cameron Parish waterfront is \u201cno longer a camp; it\u2019s a luxury home.\u201d And it\u2019s also built super-strong so that it won\u2019t have to be rebuilt if a hurricane should strike it.<\/p>\n \u201cTake the windows,\u201d she says. \u201cWe now have hurricane-proof windows.\u201d Grubb admits the windows \u201cwill cost you considerably more than regular windows.\u201d You\u2019ll also pay extra for such strong points as increased elevation and reinforced concrete.<\/p>\n That\u2019s the trade-off with the recent upscale waterfront homes in this area. \u201cYou can put more money in your construction and reduce your insurance budget,\u201d as well as your energy costs down the line, says Grubb. You invest money in construction at the beginning and get a home that\u2019s strong and whose value increases in the long-term.<\/p>\n And, of course, there\u2019s that highly attractive comfort factor. In the new waterfront homes of the teens, she says, \u201cYou don\u2019t have to worry about humidity or mold. It can be total comfort.\u201d<\/p>\n Indeed the comforts you can get in the new waterfront homes are so up-to-date that they involve real estate terms I\u2019ve never seen before. Promotional material for one new house promises such things as \u201cmedia\/guest qrts\u201d and a \u201ctiki bar\/possible outdoor kitchen.\u201d Imagine going outdoors to a tiki bar in Cameron or Big Lake or on the River Road. It does sound a bit like a brave new world of real estate.<\/p>\n The Stress Factor<\/strong><\/p>\n Grubb has another explanation for noteworthy increases in the value of waterfront land and housing. She feels that our lives have become more stressful in recent years and we need new ways to escape this new, more intense, stress.<\/p>\n \u201cWe need to escape,\u201d she says. \u201cLook at our lifestyle. How can we get away? That waterfront property is so totally different from those hectic paces.<\/p>\n \u201cMost people can tell you they can shut everything down [on the waterfront]. They can start calming down. They get a whole new feeling for life.<\/p>\n \u201cThere\u2019s something about that connection to the water we don\u2019t fully understand. It\u2019s a very deep feeling.<\/p>\n \u201cPeople who love waterfront property will never leave it.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Scarcity<\/strong><\/p>\n Not everyone subscribes to the notion that waterfront property has made vast gains in value and desirability in recent years. \u201cIt\u2019s always been valuable,\u201d says longtime real estate agent Mary Kay Hopkins. \u201cWaterfront property has gone up like anything else.\u201d<\/p>\n What everyone seems to agree on is that one of the reasons for the value and attraction of waterfront property in general is that, as Grubb puts it \u2014 \u201cthere\u2019s only so much of it. Once it\u2019s gone, it\u2019s gone.\u201d<\/p>\n Hopkins agrees. \u201cThere aren\u2019t that many offerings \u2026 It\u2019s more expensive to develop [riverfront properties]. You just don\u2019t get to develop that much.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cScarcity is a very important concept,\u201d says Hopkins. \u201cWhen things are scarce, those things get more valuable.\u201d<\/p>\n Hopkins provided some strong evidence for her claims about scarcity when she searched the MLS for listings for riverfront property in the greater Southwest Louisiana area.<\/p>\n The total number of waterfront listings in the area was 105. The most costly was $6 million; the cheapest $18 K. The median price was $99.5 K.<\/p>\n Now, limit the search for all waterfront properties to just those that are navigable \u2014 those that will enable you to put your boat in the water and navigate away from your property. The number of available waterfront properties in SWLA drops sharply from 105 to 65.<\/p>\n Suppose we want to take that number and limit it to the number of properties that are appropriate for houses. We get another drop \u2014 to 60 properties.<\/p>\n How about limiting the criteria to waterfront properties that are navigable, appropriate for houses, but located just in Lake Charles? We get another big drop \u2014 to 23 listings.<\/p>\n Now, let\u2019s apply one more limitation. We\u2019re going to look for waterfront properties in Lake Charles that are navigable and are 2.5 acres or smaller.<\/p>\n We\u2019re now down to 18 waterfront properties.<\/p>\n At this point, you should see clearly what Hopkins means when she talks about a scarcity of waterfront properties \u2014 especially for people who want to build a house, travel on the waterways and be close to town. For those 18 waterfront properties that we worked our way down to, the average cost was $203,000, and the median cost \u2014 the cost of the property right in the middle of the list \u2014 was $109,000.<\/p>\n Tony Cornner, another agent affiliated with Century 21 Mike D. Bono, also subscribes to the idea that the waterfront property of Southwest Louisiana has always been highly valued. \u201cNothing\u2019s changed,\u201d he says. \u201cPeople have always valued it.\u201d<\/p>\n And he\u2019s big on the scarcity factor as the explanation for the high prices of much waterfront property. \u201cThe [low] inventory is affecting prices.\u201d Riverfront properties are \u201cvery few\u201d in number, he says.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n The Other Sportsman\u2019s\u00a0Paradise<\/strong><\/p>\n The scarcity argument isn\u2019t just heard in our neighborhood. While we think of our area as the \u201coutdoor sportsman\u2019s paradise,\u201d folks in a certain part of the greater Baton Rouge area describe their vicinity with exactly the same phrase. It\u2019s the combination of many waterways, much waterand abundant game that inspires this description.<\/p>\n In this other water paradise, discussion of scarcity is common. A Re\/Max in the area is working on an exclusive, gated, luxury waterfront community called the Waterfront Sanctuary that will run along the waters of the Amite River Diversion Waterway.<\/p>\n One of the agents involved in the projects testifies to a personal experience of finding ever decreasing amounts of available property along the paradisal waterways.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019ve lived on the Diversion Canal since 1999,\u201d he writes on his blog. \u201cAs each year passes, the lot selections dwindle and eventually there will be nothing but home resales \u2026 If a developer can find a decent piece of land on the river, they still can\u2019t afford the sky-rocketing costs to develop waterfront property without passing that on to the consumer \u2026 The selections are limited.<\/p>\n \u201cHowever,\u201d he continues, \u201cthere are still some affordable options \u2026 If you\u2019re looking for somewhere special and [are] willing to pay, the Waterfront Sanctuary still has lots left, but not for long.\u201d At the time of his writing, the number of lots available in the development had dropped from the original 55 to 19.<\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n