When I think of Geneva National, the next thought is usually about Abbey Springs. If you need help differentiating between the two developments, just think of Abbey Springs as a much smaller, much browner, Geneva National. Abbey Springs has just one golf course, but Abbey Springs has one thing that Geneva National will never, ever have. Geneva Lake. If a resort setting is to your liking, and you require the ability to captain a golf cart not just to a golf course but also to a sandy beach on Geneva Lake, then Abbey Springs is your prize.
There is one other major difference between these two residential behemoths- one is actually popular right now. While GN has twisted and contorted and suffered through the past four years, Abbey Springs continues to skip along, either oblivious to the misery elsewhere or at the least indifferent to other developments struggles. This morning, there are 31 units on the MLS in Abbey Springs, and no fewer than six of those units are pending. If we were to extrapolate those numbers and apply to GN, that would be the equivalent of GN having 17 units pending sale right now. Instead, GN has just two pending (per MLS). Advantage Abbey Springs.
So if the advantage is clearly Abbey Springs, can we fully understand why that is? What is it about this association that captures the attention of buyers with such inspiring consistency? It must simply be that Abbey Springs has no equal in the Lake Geneva vacation home market. There is, quite simply, nothing like it. Geneva National has golf courses and swimming pools, and those courses and pools are far better than the same at Abbey Springs. Abbey Springs has a clubhouse, and it is quite nice and recently built and improved and I, for one, enjoy nothing more than a bowl of soup in the Grill Room on wintry afternoons. But have you seen the GN clubhouse? It’s pretty spectacular. The members lounge is one that I have considered joining for the sole purpose of napping on the comfy couches that ring a warming fireplace. Those amenities, even if similar, are better in Geneva National.
If those items are the same, and if Abbey Springs gets an edge for having better tennis courts, then the primary and most important difference is the presence of the lake. Vacation home buyers that seek lake access cannot find that at Geneva National. They can look at a lake, but they cannot enjoy one. And so at Abbey Springs, with country club amenities intact and impressive, there is also that big blue lake, and that lake is the difference between flawless market performance over a most arduous couple of years. If it weren’t for the lake, Abbey Springs would be struggling like everything else, but because of the lake, it has risen to the top of our reasonably priced vacation home market.
While I enjoy seeing volume at Abbey Springs, I do think much of the volume can, at times, consist of properties that represent perhaps only modest value. I do not see many steals in Abbey Springs, though there have been plenty over recent years. One pending sale is bank owned, so there is value there. The others? I enjoy the volume but I do not celebrate the individual purchases all that much. I think value exists here, but I also think that many buyers could do better. That’s just my opinion of course, and while Abbey Springs excites I would likely rather purchase a vacation home with ridiculous proximity to the water over one with ridiculous amenities. But that’s because I’m interested in the lake first, and everything else dead last. Get me close to the lake and I’ll be happy. Perhaps someone could write that on my headstone. But get me close to a tennis court and let me eat a club sandwich on a patio overlooking that court, and I’ll be happy then too. Perhaps write that on the other side of my headstone. Or just under and to the left of the quote about the lake.
Photograph by Matt Mason Photography www.mattmasonphotography.com. As is the one of Geneva National below.