Most fly-in communities or residential airparks are owned and managed by a homeowners association, usually by a board of directors. Some fly-in communities continue to be managed by the developer or someone the developer appoints.
    Are any residential airparks managed by a professional management company? Do some fly-in communities hire a firm to handle the day-to-day chores much like a condominium association might do? Have you heard of any organizations that offer such management services for fly-in communities or residential airparks?
    A LWYP subscriber in Texas asks about such companies and if there are some how much do they cost and how is the fee computed?
    If you are involved in any such operation or are aware of any, please share the information by posting a comment on our website.

Our recent survey on real estate activity resulted in 50 responses and the answers were kind of interesting. We had completed surveys from 22 states and one foreign country (New Zealand). Florida elicited seven responses and Texans responded four times. There were three each from Georgia, Illinois and Washington.

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One of the primary objections to residential airparks – indeed all airports, large and small, public and private – centers around noise. This usually is generated by the number of airplane takeoffs and landings in a given period.

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Making roads and taxiways accessible for both planes and road vehicles is a question that frequently comes up. Is it safe? is obviously the most common question. Will it work on airparks of all sizes? What kind of planes operate out of airparks with joint use of roads and taxiways?

Recently we asked these questions and others of residential airpark residents. A total of 54 persons responded to the survey and they represented airparks in 22 states.

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Have you had any experience with hangar doors, especially from Schweiss Bi-Fold and Hi-Fold, that you are willing to share?

Bruce Goldberg of Hackensack, NJ, writes that he is soon going to be building a hangar home in South Caroline and is interested in feedback on hangar doors.

Any experience you’ve had with these doors or other products that you want to share will be helpful not only to Goldberg but probably to numerous other Living With Your Plane subscribers.

You can add your comments easily by clicking on the comment button at the bottom.

Whether you currently live on a residential airpark or are interested in the possibility of moving to one in the future, you probably are interested in the demographic makeup of such developments. Current residents may wonder if the residential airpark at which they live is unique or its breakdown of residents is average.

Those looking to acquire a property on a residential airpark want to know if they will fit in considering their age, financial situation, family situation, etc.

In an attempt to determine the current picture of residents of airparks, we recently asked subscribers to Living With Your Plane to complete a short, 10-question survey. In less than two weeks we received 156 completed surveys and more than 250 people took the time to look the questions over.

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Following are airparks located on publicly-owned or public-use airports:

• Pine Mt Lake, Groveland, CA
• Hyampom Airport, Hyampom, CA
• Rosamond Skypark, Rosamond, CA
• Fuller Town, Sacramento, CA
• Cameron Park, Shingle Springs, CA
• Trinity Center, Trinity Center, CA
• Yucca Valley Airport, Yucca Valley, CA
• Erie Air Park, Erie, CO
• Glenwood Springs Airpark, Glenwood Springs, CO
• Salida Airport Estates, Salida, CO
• Buchan Field, Englewood, FL
• Buckingham Airpark, Ft Myers, FL
• Eagles Landing, Winter Haven, FL
• Marathon Key Airpark, Marathon, FL
• Tarpine Airpark, Panacea, FL
• Lake Village Airport, Lake Village, IN
• LeDoux’s Landing, Eunice, LA
• Lost Creek Airport, Luzerne, MI
• Attala County Airport, Kosciusko, MS
• Ferndale Airport, Big Fork, MT
• Millard Field, Omaha, NE
• Newport Ridge Airpark @ Hamry Field, Kindred, ND
• Keystone Airpark, Westport, OK
• Tenkiller Airpark, Cookson, OK
• Independence Airpark, Independence, OR
• Lake Billy Chinook Airport, Culver, OR
• Sunny Hill Airpark, North Bend, OR
• Twin Lakes Executive, Graniteville, SC
• Huggins Memorial, Timmonsville, SC
• Swanson Airport, Eatonville, WA
• Municipal Airport, Lynden, WA
• 4 Seasons Aero Estates, Adams, WI
• Sullivan’s Harbor Springs, Harbor Springs, MI

If you spot an airpark on our list that you believe isn’t either public-owned or public-use, please let us know so we can investigate further and get our records as accurate as possible.

The appraisal of residential airpark property remains somewhat of a mystery in the world of real estate. Of course, since there aren’t thousands and thousands of residential airparks around the country where hundreds and thousands of homes change hands each year, it is difficult for appraisers to come up with good comps for residential airparks.

Of course, the only time we really want comps are for buying, selling or financing and possibly to compare the property against others for tax comparisons.
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The subject of homeowner fees for residents of residential airparks comes up often among residents and would be residents. It seems to be a perennial topic for the meetings of airpark homeowner associations.
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Our survey on home sales at residential airparks drew 115 responses representing people in 40 states. That’s an excellent response and provides a lot of good information.

Following are the questions and the responses. We’ll add many of the comments that were included later in this report.

1. How many homes on your airpark?

• 36.8% indicated 2-10 homes
• 12.2% had 11-15 homes
• 17% were on airparks with 26-50 homes
• 34% had over 50 homes on their airpark.

2. How many airpark homes were sold in the last year?

• None – 30.2%
• 1-5 – 52.3%
• 6-10 – 7.3%
• Over 10 – 10.1%

3. What is the average price paid for homes on your airpark?

• Less than $150,000 – 10.9%
• $150,000-$350,000 – 40.6%
• $350,000-$600,000 – 32.7%
• More than $600,000 – 15.8%

4. How did current airpark home sale prices compare with previous years?

• Higher – 70.3%
• Lower – 1.1%
• About the same – 28.6%

5. How far is your airpark from a city with scheduled air service?

• Less than 10 miles – 11.8%
• 11-25 miles – 35.4%
• More than 25 miles – 52.7%

Here are comments made by some of the 115 who left messages. Unfortunately, we failed to ask for, and respondents didn’t provide, their state:

Our airpark has 36 lots ranging in size from 4 to 40 acres. All the lots were sold in just over a year’s time. Several homes are under construction with prices ranging from $75,000 to $575,000.

Our airpark is just 2-years old and we didn’t sell any lots in 2005. We haven’t had much interest shown and are getting concerned.

This is our second year and things are going great.

One house is for sale for at $275,000. The airpark has 64 lots but only eight houses have been built.
Several respondents indicated they were on a new airpark, only a year or two old so there was little track record to report.

People are building new homes on the Virginia airpark. With homes in the $500,000 to $1.5 million, what vacant lots that were available a couple years ago have all been sold and those that have been on the market again have been quadrupled in price.

A real estate agent said he sold properties in Arizona in the winter and Alaska in the summer. He currently says he has two homes listed at $625,000 each.

We’ll continue trying to get more information about residential airpark finances for future reporting. Our next survey will probably center on airpark costs, such as homeowner fees, maintenance costs, etc.