Scanning the cavernous recesses of my mind to as far back as I can remember, I have only had one truly great dream. I’ve had plenty of nice dreams. I’ve had a plethora of strange dreams, and when I was young, I had even more scary dreams. But to call any of these other dreams great would be a disservice to the one great dream. The subject of the great dream wasn’t anything unique. It wasn’t something super natural, and I didn’t have some ability in the dream that I don’t have in real life. Back when I played a lot of basketball, I used to have dreams where I could jump so high that even I knew that I had to be dreaming. Those dreams were nice, but the one great dream was so much better. It should be noted that I had this dream in the middle of winter, and to me now, I believe I must have had this dream at least 8 years ago.
I had just parked my car next to the beat up old tennis courts in Williams Bay, the ones down by the new Village hall. It was a sunny day. I walked onto the court, and there was no opponent. This wasn’t important to the dream. The court was a green court with classic white lines, not one of those silly purple courts or dirty Har-Tru courts. This was also an unimportant detail. I walked to center court, racquet in hand, as if to meet an on court nemesis that wasn’t even there. This mattered little. I was wearing shorts and a short sleeve shirt, and though I normally would have played, both then and now, with a hat on, I was hat-less on that sunny day. I didn’t know what time it was, but by the stillness of the air, and the air temperature, I can remember that it was probably sometime around 10:30 am, Central Dream Time. As I walked to center court, I could feel the warmth of the sun on my arms, and the warmth was tangible. It wasn’t a dream, this warmth. It was something I could really feel. I wasn’t dreaming at that moment, I was standing on that Williams Bay tennis court, racquet in hand, preparing to meet an unknown opposing force. The warm sun on my forearms was the only thing in that dream that was real, and that simple tangible sensation made the dream my greatest ever.
Dreams are interesting like that, at least to me. The sensationalized dreams are fine, but the most important characteristic of a dream is that it must feel real. Your mind must have thoroughly confused itself to the degree that the dream, at that moment, is the most real thing you’re engaged with. Those sorts of dreams are rare and appreciated, but most of my dreaming comes in the form of day dreams, and nearly all of those day dreams involve the warmth of the Lake Geneva sun, and the depth of Geneva’s blue waters. I can dream about tennis when I’m asleep, but when I’m awake, I’d rather dream about the lake. For me, the dream of owning a lakefront home on Geneva has always been present, but it’s never appeared to be an achievable goal for me. Financially, it just isn’t an option. But for those who can afford such a dream, the option is always available, and the dream is never more than a wire transfer away from being a warm, sun splashed reality.
For two discerning individuals, and their collective group of friends and families, last week marked the culmination of what I can only imagine was a life long dream. Two lakefront properties closed last week, both to buyers who sought value and found what it was that they were looking for. It should be noted that both deals were actually struck during 2010, so even though the closings were in January of 2011, the heavy lifting was done last year. I note this with deep sorrow and a tinge of bitterness- I wasn’t involved in either of the sales…. (blotting eyes with a tissue, sniffling)
The two January sales are important to push our market forward without a considerable lapse in sales activity as we might normally see during the first quarter of the year. These sales both proved that buyers are out there, but they’re shrewd. Consider the pricing of these two properties. One, a sale at 563 North Lakeshore in Fontana was originally listed for $2.49MM, before closing last week at $1.85MM. The buyer of this property was a classic “move-up” buyer, a sort of buyer that is highly active in the Lake Geneva market at all times. This buyer had sold their other Lake Geneva vacation home (Glenwood Springs), and moved up to private frontage. A huge pat on the back for this buyer, as they purchased a home that I think reeks of character, and possesses endless possibilities for sensible improvement. The other sale was at 8 Lake Shore Drive in Lake Geneva’s Geneva Manor, and closed at $1.9MM- down from an original list of $2.6MM. This unique boathouse had been on and off the market for years before finally selling last week. It’s a solid house, even if the shore path takes an unfortunate detour around the back yard and across the driveway. Such is the sacrifice one makes for being directly on top of the water, and that’s a sacrifice that I’d joyfully make any day of the week.
For those of you who may be like me, let’s keep on dreaming. If private frontage isn’t obtainable, day dreaming about walking through a screen door and down our perfectly coiffed lawn to our sturdy white pier will have to suffice. For those who have the means to make such a dream a most pleasant reality, just make that purchase so that the rest of us can live vicariously through you. To the two new Geneva lakefront owners, well done on a dream made real.