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Lake Of The Ozarks Has Become A Year-Round Place To Live, And The Electric Usage Proves It

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  • 2 min to read
Lake Of The Ozarks Aerial

A very specific number revealed to LakeExpo by Ameren confirms what residents have been suspecting for four years: since 2020, the Lake of the Ozarks has become an increasingly popular place to live, year-round.

Once upon a time, Lake of the Ozarks was a little vacation community: visitors came in droves after school let out, but things got quiet quickly after Labor Day. And the winter population was only a tiny fraction of the summer swell.

For decades, that remained the trend. And while the Lake is destined to be a popular summertime destination, the wintertime lull changed forever in 2020. The onset of Covid-19 lockdowns and oppressive protocols drove many people to freer places, and Lake of the Ozarks was wide-open.

From 2020:

The Lake's population began to swell. Everyone knew it, and businesses felt it.

While artificially low interest rates caused a real estate boom across the country, Lake of the Ozarks real estate was selling at a fever pitch. Some folks cashed-out of their Lake homes for a pretty profit, while others waited in line to make an offer — often well-above asking price.

Ready to buy or sell a home at Lake of the Ozarks? Contact Lakefront Living Realty! Unmatched marketing for sellers. Top-tier experience for buyers.

Call Lakefront Living: 573-693-1613

View homes for sale at Lake of the Ozarks: LakefrontExpo.com

Lake of the Ozarks has 1,150 miles of shoreline, much of which has been developed as private residences. And while many of those residences remain part-time homes, an increasing number of them became full-time.

Perhaps the best available indicator of the increase in the Lake's full-time population comes from Ameren: the corporation that owns and operates Bagnell Dam (which impounds Lake of the Ozarks) and provides electricity to a large portion of the Lake area.

Ameren provided data to LakeExpo that reveals an indisputable trend: people have been moving into the Lake house, full-time.

Ameren reported the following year-over-year increase in wintertime electricity usage in the Lake area, over the past several years:

2020 -- 14% increase

2021 -- 23% increase

2022 -- 33% increase

2023 -- 10% increase

Those increases in electricity usage aren't likely due to unique weather: National Weather Service data shows the winter of 2020 (Dec 2020 – Feb 2021) had the lowest average temperature (35 degrees) of the four, due in part to the catastrophic winter storm in February 2021. And the next three winters' average temperatures were pretty similar (39, 40, and 41 degrees respectively).

Rather, those increased electricity demands can only indicate a larger wintertime population.

The Lake's population is booming. And Ameren has been scrambling to keep up.

In December 2022, a sudden plunge into negative temperatures a few days before Christmas placed a huge demand on the grid, and the existing infrastructure couldn't handle it. Thousands of homes and condos lost power in Osage Beach, and at the time an Ameren spokesperson explained to LakeExpo that the immense demand on the grid is what triggered it. He noted some planned equipment upgrades that would have created more system stability had been delayed due to the infamous supply-chain shortages of 2020 – 2022.

Despite those challenges, Ameren has continued expanding the regional grid's capacity.

Mitch Ditter, Ameren Senior Manager - Central Missouri recently highlighted the upgrades to four substations in the Lake area as well as the new substation on Route HH (Horseshoe Bend). "A huge majority of that is due to the year-round residents at Lake of the Ozarks," he said.

The utility company recently made massive upgrades to another substation in Osage Beach, to support the $400 million Oasis at Lakeport entertainment complex. Once fully operational, the Oasis is expected to include outdoor entertainment, amusement park rides, an indoor waterpark, and a Marriott hotel. It will need as much electric capacity as the entire city of Osage Beach.

The Lake of the Ozarks will likely always be a special summer destination that welcomes crowds of visitors for a lake vacation. But plenty of new full-time residents have made it clear they're here to stay, year-round.


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