I’ve been known to rave about the lakefront park and pier system at the Harvard Club. I believe this association lakefront to be the most idyllic such park on the entire lakefront. The positioning of the piers, with ample space between swimming and boating piers, the small lakeside screened house that hosts a ping pong table, the arrangement of white Adirondack chairs on the ridge of the lakeside lawn, well, it all fits my eye like few other parks ever have. The Congress Club lakefront is beautiful, but with the entry point currently positioned at $1.3MM, it’s not as accessible to the masses as the Harvard Club (prices in the Harvard Club would range from $475k to $MM for most of the homes in the association, with a few beautiful exceptions, but that matters little since nothing is currently available there). Once you look past the venerable Harvard and Congress Clubs (ignoring the Chicago Club since nothing is ever for sale there), the next best association lakefront has to be at Knollwood.
That’s not to say that myriad other lakefront parks aren’t stellar, because they are. The Loch Vista Club, Oakwood Estates, Club Unique, Geneva Manor, and others all have fabulous lakefront set ups, but this isn’t a public school, and we’re not all winners. The Knollwood lakefront is different, in part, because of its sheer size. The lakefront there must span four hundred feet or more, and that frontage is made even more impressive by the depth of the park that runs from the lake all the way back to Oriole Lane. There is ample parking in a dedicated, private parking lot, even though nearly half of the homes in the association are within easy walking distance. The park is large and grassy, with two boating piers, a swimming pier, and a rarity among private Geneva associations- a sand beach. If you’re the sort that thinks swimming off a pier sounds scary, you can timidly inch your way into the water at this private association beach. Oh, and there are lots of slips in the association, but you’ll probably never get one. The slips are not transferable, so when you buy there you put your name on a waiting list for a slip. I believe the next person in line for a slip put their name on the list sometime in the 1970’s. I’m not joking.
The association offers a wide variety of housing stock, featuring everything from newly constructed homes that test the limits of lot lines, to humble cottages that fit even the most frugal vacation home lovers budget. For a large association, there is a surprisingly low number of available properties on the open market. As of this morning, only four Knollwood homes are on the market, and that low inventory number is a good thing for the association. Low inventory numbers means less competition, which in turn puts less pricing stress on the sellers, which ultimately props up the prices for the entire association. Low inventory, great for owners, not so great for buyers.
Just as the inventory is meager, the YTD sales are as well. Just two homes have sold in the association this year, including a pretty decent little cottage on Indian that closed for $170k last month. The other sale took place earlier this year, and at a closed price of $360k was a terrific deal given the proximity to the water and the very robust square footage of the home. Current inventory is priced from the mid $200k’s to nearly $800k, and none of the available properties excite me too terribly much.
If you’re looking in Knollwood, there are a few things to consider. The association is very close to Williams Bay, but it is in Linn Township, so well and septic are the rule there. Being in Linn, the taxes also tend to be less than they’d be in any other lakefront municipality, so like everything at Lake Geneva, there are clear cut pros and cons. I like the association, and think if I were a buyer in search of a lake access property, I’d consider it. That said, better deals exist at the moment in other associations, even if those associations don’t possess the same lakefront panache.