While no one, anywhere, has ever uttered the phrase “it’s a million dollar proximity”, they have often determined something has a million dollar view. It’s common, in fact. If you were to sit down today and do nothing but read the sensationalized descriptions of real estate that appear in newspapers and online, you’d read “million dollar view” more often than you could count. Shamefully, this phrase will be used in the write up of some property facing the woods. Woods are pretty and all, but million dollar views, or at the very least, the use of the phrase should be reserved for views featuring water in some flowing or resting form. Water, it seems, is what makes a view worth a million bucks.
But does it? Is a view really so important? I wrote a while back about proximity being the most important attribute of a vacation home at Lake Geneva, but that’s just my opinion. Then again, this is my blog, so all of this is just my opinion, but for the sake of considering the opinions of others, let’s look into that concept of a million dollar view. For some, the proximity means nothing if they can’t see the lake. I get this, I do. So let’s set about looking for that elusive view, assuming we will not be purchasing private frontage, in which case the view is a given and the other attributes make or break the sale.
Since we’re not looking for lakefront today, let’s cap this search at $1MM. I cap it at a million not because there aren’t other off-water properties with views priced over a million, because there are. No, I stop this search at a million because a little over a million will buy me private frontage and if I can buy private frontage for the same price as a property with just a view, why on earth would I do that? Private frontage needs to be our goal, and if a buyer can spend $1.1M on some home with a view and no frontage, then I’m going to wager that buyer would instead choose private frontage for $1.2MM where a view comes with proximity and a pier. Why fight trying to find the magic trifecta of a view, slip, and proximity off water when it exists on water in every lakefront home available? These are rhetorical questions.
With a scan of the MLS, we’ll consider homes with views, but not those with winter views. My listing on Upper Loch Vista priced at $439k has a lakeview, but only today. And probably for the next 8 weeks. But then, when spring blossoms and leaves twist and grow and fill our currently shimmering voids, we will be left with a pleasant view, but not a lake view. Such views do not count today, though they do lift the winter spirits of the owners of such winter-view homes. But this isn’t a blog engineered to lift owner’s spirits, it’s a blog where today, right now, we’re looking for a view. And we’re sure as heck not going to spend over a million dollars to find it.
Scanning from low to high, we’ll find out first view priced at $419k on the corner of Walworth and Leichty in Williams Bay’s Summer Haven. As this home is on the corner of what is about to become a very busy intersection (entering to Gage Marine), we’re going to skip this one. It has a view, but the view is looking over buildings and as this is not California where such views are acceptable, we’re going to move on. I should add now that these homes are all going to possess private lake access to Geneva. What good does it do us to find a home with a lake view if we can’t get down to the lake. It’s like having a beautiful steak, cooked to perfection, sitting in a glass box in our kitchen. If I can’t eat it I don’t want to look at it, and if I can’t walk to the lake and swim in it, the view will only serve as a maddening reminder of my incapable situation.
Next we’ll end up at Belvidere Park. My cottage here for $559k has a view, though mostly just from the front porch, it is still a view. This home also combines a view with remarkable proximity, which leaves it the best home on the market for a buyer seeking both. It’s a cash only purchase here, so I need not just a view and proximity lover, I also need that lover to be liquid. There is a listing on Park Ridge (Cedar Point Park) in the upper $500ks that has a view, but it’s more of a winter view even though the proximity is enticing. There will still be glimpses of watery blue through the trees come July, so it garners a mention here. Another Cedar Point listing, this one on Wilmette for $640k, has a view, but it has not earned any superfluous description.
My Indian Hills listing for $659k has a view from several rooms inside the house, and combines generous square footage with easy proximity. That brings us to the first home with a serious view, one worth contemplating. One worth studying from a restful perch on a wooden chair with a Hemingway book about fishing resting on the side table nearest your right hand. This property in the Loch Vista Club ($749k) is a terrific property with this aforementioned view and astounding proximity. Perhaps best of all my parent’s home is right across the street, so you can see me pretty much all summer. Yes, you’ll end up wondering how on earth I work when my swim shorts never really have time to dry from June through September, but this will be a delightful question to ponder as you sit on that wooden chair with that big blue lake stretched out before you.
A Glenwood Springs listing in the upper $700ks has a view, as does another listing on Lincoln in Cedar Point Park in the same price range. Neither can compete with the Loch Vista view, so now that we’re comparing these views to our established benchmark, we needn’t focus on these two. There is a listing in Geneva Manor for $960k with a view, but at $960k I really think I need something special besides a view in order to justify the price. I need some fantastic finishes, or some classic cottage, or a pool or a slip, or something. Please just give me something. Instead, there is little else here, which leaves me nonplussed.
There is one more listing, this one on Sylvan just East of Knollwood, and at $990k I feel the same way here as I did in Geneva Manor. I need something more to justify that pricing, and I can’t find it on Sylvan either. There is a pretty new home in Country Club Estates priced a hair under a million, and that home has a nice lake view. So at least there’s one example of a beautiful home with a view, even if the home lacks proximity and a slip.
And that, in a nutshell, is our lake view market. Depressing, right? Perhaps then we should be considering a view as a bonus that compliments proximity or a slip, instead of focusing on the view and the view alone. If a view is paramount, then we have our work cut out for us. I suppose it all depends on the individual buyer and the lifestyle choice that they make. I want to be back and forth from the water to my house several times a day, which is why proximity matters so much to me. But perhaps there are buyers who would rather sit and survey, content to watch others splash their way through summer from the comfort of a patio or a deck. If this is the case, you now know your options, and now you know my email. dave@genevalakefrontrealty.com
(View above is from my off-market listing in Glenwood Springs for $479k- off now, soon to be back on.)