I sat on my parents pier for a while on Sunday, basking in the familiar sounds and scenery of an early summer afternoon. Thomas walked up and down the pier fishing with a giant twisted glob of worm, and some older kids- kids that were too cool to do much besides sit on the benches- talked and flirted on the Loch Vista Club pier. Further out on the pier sat a couple who had purchased a cottage from me at some point towards the tail end of 2008. They sat on the pier, content. I sat on my fathers pier, a pier that belongs solely to him. The couple sat on the association pier, a pier that belongs to them and fifty or so other families. I was relaxing on a pier, as were they. The pier ownership meant little, as the net result of vacationing bliss was the same. They were in their lawn chair sitting by the water and I was in mine.
All lake access associations surrounding Geneva offer private access to a pier and park system, and thankfully, many of these associations homes are quite affordable. The entry level lake access market has always been a stalwart of the overall vacation home market here, and it appears as though buyers have found the inventory a little more to their liking in 2010. Year to date we have had 11 lake access sales priced under $350k. The $350k mark is where I define the upper limit of the lake access vacation home market, even though it might very well extend all the way to $500k. The 11 sales this year represent the strongest YTD figures since 11 houses sold during the same period in 2006. 2006, by the way, marked what I believe now to be the market highs for our Lake Geneva vacation home market- particularly for the entry level market.
The YTD statistics are quite valuable in assessing the strength of an individual market here, so let’s take a peak at the previous years’ volume. 2009 saw 6 YTD sales, and the miserable excuse for a year that was 2008 had 8 sales during the same period. There were only 5 sales in 2007, a meager number that came just one year after we topped out at 11 sales in 2006. When you consider we’ve had 11 such sales during 2010, it’s obvious that the entry level lake access market is having itself quite a year.
The good news for buyers is that the market is behaving much like the rest of the market here. In spite of an increase in volume, prices are still quite soft, and appear to be going no where fast. This lag is creating a nice environment for buyers, and I expect as prices stay 15% or so off of their highs buyers will continue to seek out attractive deals in this very interesting lake access market. With property starting in the high $180k’s, it’s a great time to be a bargain hunter.