The 3rd hole at the National Course at Reynolds Lake Oconee.
Reynolds Lake Oconee/Brian G. Oar
Home prices have surged in the past 18 months and the housing market is still highly competitive in the U.S., and that’s no different in golf communities.
According to HomeLight, a real estate brokerage based in San Francisco, the value of property inside a golf community has increased 48 percent across the U.S. since March 2020. This information comes via HomeLight’s Top Agent Insights 2021 Year-End Report, in which more than 1,000 real estate agents were surveyed.
According to the report, property value within golf communities has increased nearly $8,000 since March 2020 — rising from $16,174 to $24,002 — with the Northeast and Midwest seeing the biggest surges.
Agents say younger professionals, like those in their 30s and 40s, have been more interested in golf communities too.
“Golf course communities have become popular again,” Pam Gebhardt, a real estate agent in the HomeLight network in Atlanta, said in a release. “The pandemic provided the perfect springboard to boost the sport. Golf courses thrived during the pandemic as people worked from home and were able to use the outdoor access of golf as a relief.”
HomeLight says a golf community is worth the most in the Mountain region, specially in the Phoenix area.
“Golf communities were going downhill, but that has changed dramatically,” Deborah Friedland, managing director in the real estate group at the accounting firm EisnerAmper, told Sullivan. “The communities that offer golf as an amenity are now going gangbusters.”
As GOLF.com’s managing editor, Berhow handles the day-to-day and long-term planning of one of the sport’s most-read news and service websites. He spends most of his days writing, editing, planning and wondering if he’ll ever break 80. Before joining GOLF.com in 2015, he worked at newspapers in Minnesota and Iowa. A graduate of Minnesota State University in Mankato, Minn., he resides in the Twin Cities with his wife and two kids. You can reach him at joshua_berhow@golf.com.