With the lake currently 15’ low, the first question most lake buyers ask about a property is, “Does it have good water?”. I have to admit that the term “good water” is routinely abused in most lake advertising. I try to ask the buyer additional questions to determine what they mean by “good water” and most of the time, what they mean is they want a dock that is floating most of the time. That can be difficult to determine, but I have learned that when it comes to lake level, almost everyone is a self-proclaimed expert, but frequently has little data to back it up. Luckily for us, the Corps of Engineers keeps detailed records of the lake level for every day since Hartwell Dam was completed. I just went through the data for over 18,000 days to come up with a chart showing the number of days that the lake has been at certain levels There are a lot of valuable conclusions to be drawn here, but two of the best are that the lake has been less than 4’ low 68% of the time, and has been more than 12’ low less than 5% of the time. And remember, lake levels are typically lower in the fall and winter than they are in the spring and summer. So don’t despair – the data says that most lake properties should have “good water” just around the corner.
