After so much traveling, through the twists and turns and the flat tires and the false starts, and after that one day in February when we spent the afternoon staring at that wall just wondering what we did to deserve such a long and petulant winter–after all of that–here we are. We’ve made it. We’ve paid our dues and this is our reward. It’s important to remember that Memorial Day Weekend isn’t really and truly a summer weekend. We can’t expect it to be. It’s a spring weekend, one where we remember those who were better than we are, and one where we light a grill and wear a light coat to chase away the last remaining wisps of spring air. This weekend isn’t about summer, it’s about practicing for summer. This is our test run, and it begins right now.
But first, there is a sale to discuss. A sale to question, to consider, and then once we’ve considered and interrogated then we might just have to sit down and let it be, and turn our attention to that grill that desperately wants to be lit. I like Glenwood Springs. I like it quite a bit, really. I like the atmosphere, the action, the gates and the piers. I like pretty much the whole thing, and in that I’m reminding you that just because I don’t like a sale price doesn’t mean I don’t like the association. The sale this week was of an off-water home with a lakeview and quite beautiful finishes. The location was one home off the lake, but the lake in this setting is far below the home, down the street a ways and then down a steep-ish slope before we meet the steps from slope to water and pier. This is easy access for a bowling ball, but not so much for us.
The home in question just sold for $1.1MM, and I represented neither party to the transaction. I like the house, I like the association, I like Fontana, but at $1.1MM for a home with a somewhat marginal view and no boatslip, am I fan? Not particularly. The sale makes sense from a market perspective in the sense that a market is created by a single seller and a single buyer. The price paid was acceptable to both parties, so who are we to care whether or not it made all that much market sense? To abstain from market opinions is the job of other people, but our job is to reconcile sales with the existing market to judge the market-based merits of the move. So, let’s do that.
First, let’s find an off-water sale in the last 36 months that sold at $1.1MM or more. Per the MLS, there has been just one such sale, that of another home in Glenwood Springs that closed at $1.25MM back in the winter of 2010. That’s the only other sale over three years in that strata for such an off-water property. There are plenty of market sales in that price range, but those others are either private lakefront sales or they are properties that, while not technically lakefront, play like it (Congress Club). The last sale in Glenwood Springs in this price range was of the recently sold subject of this post, back in 2009 when it sold to the buyer turned current seller for $1.21MM. There’s this sale, there’s the one for $1.25MM on Linden, and if we stretch further back we’ll find another sale on Harvard behind the Fontana Club condominium that sold for $1.2MM and change back when the market was humming and any investment in any real estate was momentarily infallible.
Outside of Glenwood Springs, there has been no precedent set for a $1.2MM range off-water home. In fact, it just doesn’t happen with anything resembling frequency. But inside of Glenwood Springs, perhaps a few sales scattered over a few years is enough to justify a market for such an offering. The home that just sold for $1.1MM sold somewhat quickly, and that’s probably the only market context we need. Whether or not I’m a buyer at $1.1MM for an off-water home that lacks a boat slip doesn’t matter. Someone was, and that someone now gets to spend the first of many weekends lakeside, in relative luxury.
That brings us to this. It’s an important weekend, and I’m wondering where you’re spending it. If you find yourself gearing up for your first Lake Geneva based Memorial Day, then this is a wonderful and inspiring thing. If you find yourself preparing for your 10th, or 20th, or 50th Memorial Day at the lake, then this just found a way to be even more wonderful and more inspiring. But if you find yourself, on this Holiday weekend, schlepping to a Chicago brunch on Sunday because they have the BEST Eggs Benedict, then I’m wondering if you really understand just how boring that is. Change your scenery, change your schedule, and find yourself wishing Friday would just get here and get over with so you can get yourself to the lake.
I’ll be at 521 Wilmette in Williams Bay this Saturday for an open house from 12 pm until 2 pm. Stop in and see me. The newest incarnation of Summer Homes For City People is available around town this weekend as well, so please do pick up a copy and let me know if you find it moderately tolerable.
Photo by Matt Mason Photography