This market has a way about it. Sometimes the market feels slow to me. It feels sluggish, lifeless. It feels as though the last seller has sold and the last buyer has bought, and the rest of the days we’ll just while away, wishing for the way it was. It feels as though we’ve done everything that we were going to do. We’ve sold the last big house. Sold the last lot. Sold the last cheap house. It feels as thought we’ve run out of tricks. And then a new week begins and the market proves why it is the single most robust vacation home market in the entire Midwest.
This week was one of those weeks. New contracts flying. New listings selling. A fresh contract on my lakefront home in the South Shore Club ($4.595MM). A fresh contract on a baseball player’s house ($4.995) in Fontana. A new contract on an entry level house ($1.195MM). I wrote on that house earlier this week on behalf of a buyer, only to be told the house had just the day before gone under contract. A listing on 68′ in Lake Geneva for $1.799MM, under contract within 24 hours of hitting the open market. A contract on a spec home in Cedar Point ($3.85MM). Two more contracts are still pending, those on my listing on Jerseyhurst ($2.895MM), and a lakefront in Knollwood ($3.325MM). The market, just when it seemed as though the summer lull was taking hold, has surged.
Of the 28 lakefront homes available today, 7 are pending sale, leaving just 21 available homes. Lest you think all of the good homes are sold, consider that there’s still a lakefront home available on Geneva Lake priced under $1MM. We’re going to run out of those homes someday, so if you have vision, it’s time to snap up this remaining bit of aged, cheap inventory. My listing in the Elgin Club ($1.975MM) has no reason to be available today. It should be sold. Perhaps I’m not very good at this game, because I’m failing on that house. It’s a large house on 50′ of level frontage with private pier and fantastic features, and it’s available today. You should come see it this weekend. My listing in Fontana for $3.2MM is turn key perfection. My Loramoor lakefront for $5.995MM couldn’t be replicated for the price it’ll sell for. The market might be active, but there is value still to be discovered.
Aged inventory has a way of weighing heavily here, and today there is still plenty of it. There are properties entering their second autumn on market, and those homes, in spite of the market conditions, appear ripe to sell right. Let’s go look at those together. Let’s revisit the things the market has passed up time and time again. And let’s be first in line for the new offerings that are bound to make their way to market this fall. Remember, September is only fall in our minds, it’s still summer on our skin. For now, let’s rejoice in the summer that we’ve had. Let’s be proud of this market, and of the recent spate of sales that will let 2017 be our sixth fantastic year in a row. And let’s realize that in spite of all this activity, there are still deals to be had. Here’s to this place. Here’s to us. Here’s to the last Labor Day weekend you’re ever going to have to spend in the city.