If you own a waterfront home on Lake Martin and you saw a summary of June's numbers, you probably saw that the average sale price fell about 14 percent from a year ago. That looks like bad news for anyone thinking about listing. It isn't, and the reason why is the most useful thing in this report.
Demand on Lake Martin did not cool between June 2025 and June 2026. It moved. More waterfront homes sold, not fewer. Off-water homes pulled a lot more of the dollars than they did a year ago. And waterfront land, which did not trade at all last June, started selling again. The average waterfront price fell because the mix of what sold changed, not because waterfront homes lost value.
What the Lake Martin market did in June 2026
I'm Amy B. Cotney, a Realtor® with ROOTS Real Estate Investment Development in Auburn, Alabama, and I work Lake Martin, in east Alabama, alongside Auburn and Opelika. The figures here come from Lake Martin Area Association of REALTORS® sold statistics for June 2025 and June 2026.
Across the whole lake, 63 homes sold in June 2026, up from 58 a year earlier, and total sale volume rose from $45,159,810 to $48,191,089. Days on market barely moved, 121 to 124. Lake-wide, the average sale price was close to flat, $778,617 down to $764,937.
Underneath that quiet surface, the two halves of the lake went opposite directions. Waterfront: 30 homes sold against 26 a year earlier, but the average sale price fell from $1,440,604 to $1,240,362 and total waterfront volume was almost unchanged, $37,455,710 to $37,210,870. Off-water: 33 sold against 32, essentially the same number of houses, but the average climbed from $240,753 to $332,734 and total volume rose from $7,704,100 to $10,980,219. Nearly the same unit count, about 42 percent more money.
Waterfront still carried the money. It was 30 of 63 homes sold, and $37.2 million of $48.2 million in volume. Just under half the sales, just over three quarters of the dollars.
Segment | Homes or lots sold | Average sale price | Total sale volume |
|---|---|---|---|
Waterfront homes | 26 to 30 | $1,440,604 to $1,240,362 | $37,455,710 to $37,210,870 |
Off-water homes | 32 to 33 | $240,753 to $332,734 | $7,704,100 to $10,980,219 |
All homes | 58 to 63 | $778,617 to $764,937 | $45,159,810 to $48,191,089 |
Waterfront lots | 0 to 7 | none to $765,714 | none to $5,360,000 |
All lots | 5 to 13 | $18,300 to $419,653 | $91,500 to $5,455,500 |
Source: Lake Martin Area Association of REALTORS® sold statistics, June 2025 compared with June 2026. Figures are averages, not medians, and are provisional. Percentage changes are calculated from the association's figures.
Why did the average waterfront price fall when more waterfront homes sold?
Lake Martin waterfront homes averaged $1,240,362 in June 2026, down from $1,440,604 in June 2025, while sales rose from 26 to 30, according to Lake Martin Area Association of REALTORS® data. In a market that closes around 30 waterfront sales in a month, a handful of high-end closings moves the average by hundreds of thousands of dollars. On Lake Martin, the average tracks which homes sold, not what homes are worth.
Here's the proof, and it's why I won't let anyone price a house off a monthly average. Waterfront averaged $1,407,713 in March 2026 against $1,119,216 in March 2025. In May 2026 it averaged $1,978,415 against $1,340,186 in May 2025. Then June 2026 came in at $1,240,362 against $1,440,604 in June 2025. Up, up, then down, inside a single spring. Nothing about the lake changed that fast. The composition of the closings did.
Total waterfront volume makes the same point from the other direction. It was $37.5 million in June 2025 and $37.2 million in June 2026. Practically identical dollars, spread across four more houses. That is a mix shift, not a decline.
Are people buying land on Lake Martin again?
Seven waterfront lots sold on Lake Martin in June 2026, up from zero in June 2025, for $5,360,000 in volume and an average of $765,714. Across every lot category, average days on market fell from 382 to 98. Land that took more than a year to move is now trading in about three months.
Thirteen lots of all kinds sold in June 2026 against five the year before, and total lot volume went from $91,500 to $5,455,500. The waterfront ones carried nearly all of that, $5,360,000 of the $5,455,500. The all-lot average jumped from $18,300 to $419,653, which tells you almost nothing on its own except that last June's five sales were small interior parcels and this June's included water. It points toward buyers deciding to build rather than wait, though seven sales in a month is a thin number to lean on and I'd want another quarter before calling it a trend.
What this means if you own waterfront on Lake Martin
Three things are true at the same time, and they pull in different directions.
More buyers closed on waterfront in June 2026 than in June 2025. That is the encouraging part.
Homes across the lake averaged 124 days on market in June, up from 121 a year earlier. A waterfront listing here is a season, not a weekend. Plan for that instead of being surprised by it.
And the lake-wide average is not a valuation. If you're weighing whether to list, the number that matters is what comparable homes on comparable water have actually closed for. I go through how an individual address gets valued in what your own home is worth in this market. On the lake, the variables that move a price hardest are the ones I cover in what waterfront actually means on Lake Martin: water depth at the seawall, whether the shoreline permit transfers cleanly, drawdown exposure, and how the lot sits relative to the channel. Two houses on the same cove can be a long way apart on all four.
The thing that catches waterfront sellers off guard
These are averages, not medians. The Lake Martin Area Association of REALTORS® publishes average sale price for these categories, and an average gets dragged by whatever sold at the very top and the very bottom. A median would move far less. So when you see a big year-over-year swing in a market closing 30 waterfront homes a month, the swing is usually telling you about the makeup of those 30 sales rather than about your house.
The second thing: these figures are provisional. Sales get added to association records after the fact, so June 2026 will read a little differently three months from now than it does today. That is normal, and it's another reason to treat any single month as one data point instead of a verdict.
What is a waterfront home on Lake Martin worth in 2026?
Waterfront homes on Lake Martin, in east Alabama, sold for an average of $1,240,362 in June 2026, according to Lake Martin Area Association of REALTORS® data. Off-water homes in the same market averaged $332,734. Individual values depend on water depth, shoreline permitting, and where a lot sits on the lake, so an average is a starting point and not a valuation.
Is Lake Martin the same market as Auburn and Opelika?
No. Lake Martin waterfront homes averaged $1,240,362 in June 2026 and off-water homes averaged $332,734, according to Lake Martin Area Association of REALTORS® data. Auburn and Opelika sit in Lee County and report through a different association entirely, on different price bands and a different seasonal rhythm. The two markets do not move together, which is why I report them separately.
If you're tracking the Auburn and Opelika side month to month, I keep that current in my Auburn and Opelika housing market update. This report stays on the lake.
Where to go from here
If you own on the lake and you're trying to work out what your specific stretch of water is worth right now, that's a conversation about your house and your shoreline, not about a lake-wide average. You can look through what has recently sold to see real closings rather than summary figures. Reach out if you want to walk through where your home actually fits.
Figures come from Lake Martin Area Association of REALTORS® residential and lot sold statistics for March, May and June of 2025 and 2026. They are averages, not medians, and are provisional, since sales are added to association records after the fact. This report covers sales, volume, pricing and days on market; active listing counts are not included. Percentage changes are calculated from the association's published figures. Categories with very few transactions, including commercial and acreage, are excluded. Information is deemed reliable but not guaranteed, and you should independently verify anything you rely on. Nothing in this article is investment, tax, legal, or lending advice, and nothing here is a projection of future values. Amy B. Cotney is a licensed REALTOR® (AL Lic# 108235) and Marketing Director with ROOTS Real Estate Investment Development in Auburn, Alabama, serving Auburn, Opelika, Lake Martin, and Lee County. Equal Housing Opportunity.
