Lake Geneva October Market Update

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Why would someone write an October sales update on October 25th when six days still remain in this month? Because it’s Friday and I have to write about something. October has been a difficult month for me. I admit this to you. There have been plenty of sales, though I haven’t had enough of them. This is for my shame, and I bring it to you today as an admission of my own seasonal ineptitude. I am not happy about the sales this month, though this unhappiness is based on some new found idea that I feel I need to sell lots of houses at all times. This is why I wouldn’t be a good basketball coach. Within a game there are ebbs and flows, highs and lows, leads and deficits. If my team were to get down 8 points in the first quarter I’d probably just sit on the sidelines and check my phone for the remainder of the game. I do not do well with momentary setbacks.

October has been difficult for other reasons as well, as it is, without doubt one of my top four favorite months. In fact, it is the last month of what is now my nearly ended chronological top four months. I’ve written this before, but it remains true on this 26 degree morning. If the first of August is cloudy and cool, it’s no big deal. The rest of the month offers a chance at redemption. The same goes for September. The same goes for early October. If it’s cool and cloudy on October 2nd, we have plenty of October left to fulfill our desire for 67 and clear. Instead, it is now October 25th, and it is indeed clear, but it is less crisp and more frozen, as 26 and sunny is a pleasant enough January morning, but in October? We’ve run out of expected nice days, and now we’re left grasping for the rare warm up that can occur in late October and into late November. Once I swam on Thanksgiving Day, and another time I golfed on the day after. I still have hope, but I’m as a long abused spouse, left to hope for a change that I’m mostly certain isn’t possible.

Beside that overwhelming self pity, the real estate market has had a fine month. The lakefront market remains quite torrid. If you find an agent that purports to understand the volume this month, and one that tells you exactly why these buyers are buying properties that are quite questionable, you must run away from them. There are at least four lakefront sales pending now. One in the Birches at $2.15MM that I won’t say much about except to tell you that if I were a $2MM buyer you wouldn’t find me there. There’s a lakefront in Glenwood Springs at $2.2ish that is pending. It’s a nicely remodeled home, but it’s on a cliff, so you may want to trade in your dogs for a pair of mountain goats, because they are more assured of foot.

There’s a lakefront on South Lakeshore pending sale near $3MM. This home is okay, but with 80ish feet of frontage and an older home, that price tag works but it’s obviously aggressively priced. I had a contract on that home last winter when it was offered at a slightly lesser price, and my buyer decided that 80 or so feet was simply not enough as that goal was to build new on the site. Alas, some buyer didn’t mind and so it is pending sale. Lastly, there’s a renovated boathouse in Geneva Manor pending sale at $3.495MM. I mentioned this in a thinly veiled tax jab a week or so ago. It is a nice house, and the buyer obviously wanted it rather badly. Good for them, and good for the other three buyers under contract to secure a much more enjoyable weekend.

There have been five sales of lakefront or lake access properties so far this month. The most expensive of which was off Snake Road, offering 121′ of frontage and somewhere around 9 acres of land. That’s a rare parcel, and though the frontage wasn’t exactly estate sized, it was a solid value. It’s too bad that there wasn’t a billionaire next door to buy it… As a side note, the billionaire next door is just like the millionaire next store except that he’s a billionaire. A nice sale for the market, and now we’ll all hold our breath and hope that the buyer builds something modest and befitting the lot.

The other sales were lake access, simple deals. One home sold in Wooddale for $365k. That’s essentially a lot sale, as the home was approximately as large as a Ford Expedition. Another sale in that strata, at $370k in Indian Hills is one worth mentioning, but only once. Just a cute house on the lake side of South Lakeshore Drive, good enough but not particularly memorable. A funky modern styled home sold on Chapin Road last week for $570k. The home sold with a boatslip, so that’s nice. It was a unique home and the buyer obviously appreciated the design enough to part with 570,000 dollar bills. The last sale was a privately brokered home with slip near Alta Vista. It was an FSBO originally that a broker brought a buyer to and ultimately sold.

Moving forward into November, I see opportunity for buyers, but I also see plenty of trouble spots. If buyers buy into the narrative that the market is on fire and they should BUY BUY BUY!!! before prices get too high, then they are apt to make poor decisions.

About the Author

I'm David Curry. I write this blog to educate and entertain those who subscribe to the theory that Lake Geneva, Wisconsin is indeed the center of the real estate universe. When I started selling real estate 27 years ago I did so of a desire to one day dominate the activity in the Lake Geneva vacation home market. With over $800,000,000 in sales since January of 2010, that goal is within reach. If I can help you with your Lake Geneva real estate needs, please consider me at your service. Thanks for reading.

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