I have no knowledge of horse racing. Or of horses in general. I know they are pleasing to look at from a distance. When they are inside white fences on hillsides mixed with grass and trees, they look absolutely magnificent. I don’t know why anyone would beat a dead horse, and I don’t know where that idea of beating these once beautiful, now dead, animals came from. Perhaps it was a racing thing. Maybe horses would race and they would race so hard they would die, but they would also lose. And so once they lost and died the owner who had invested heaps of money into them would walk out of the stands and beat the dead horse.

I know I could Google that phrase and find out immediately the origin of it, but I refuse to do so. Today, I’ve got my own dead horse, and I plan to beat it mercilessly. Unfortunately, instead of the horse being an actual dead horse, my horse is a living and breathing real estate market: The lakefront condo market. I can’t stay away from it, in large part because I have quality inventory in this market that just can’t seem to break through and actually sell. The market that once thrived, is now the most minor player in the Lake Geneva vacation home market. There are bursts of life at times; great rushes of speed. But at most other times this prior star just lays around, content to nibble some grass and absorb a boot kick from someone like me who wishes so badly that it’d get up.

Even that isn’t fair. The lakefront condo market has had a decent year, and I’ve been fortunate to play a very large, possibly starring role in this nascent recovery. I sold that beautiful unit at East Bank in June ($750k), and the month before that I sold the REO property at Bayshore in Williams Bay ($330k). But that was my involvement and that, while making up a large portion of the volume YTD, isn’t really all that much. There is a rumor that a three bedroom unit at Fontana Shores is under contract, which is a very good thing. It’s not a very good thing, because in order for it to qualify as very good that buyer would have to be on my three bedroom unit that I have listed at Fontana Shores. But I understand not everyone likes easy patio access to the front lawn and pier and not everyone likes Viking ranges and Sub Zero refrigerators.

Just kidding. Everyone does like those things. But that unit is still available so a buyer can still find their way to that unit and buy it for what is likely to be a tremendous price. There are other units available on the lakefront too. I have a unit at Bay Colony, which should be noted is the lowest priced unit in the building. I have a unit at Bay Shore, one with a super low $409k asking price and low taxes and dues and a great lakeview and swimming pool. There are other units too- those others at Fontana Shores, and two big fat joints in Stone Manor. A unit is listed at East Bank as well, and if you’d like to know what it might be worth just look to the paragraph above and scan to the second line, just after the seventh word.

There is a unit at Somerset, and something should be said here about both that unit at the unit at Eastbank. To fully understand the state of the lakefront condo market you must understand just how hot these two units were back in the mid 2000s. To have inventory back then at Eastbank was a major thrill. That inventory at the time would have been in the $1.2MM-$1.5MM range, and those units, when listed, sold. It was on fire. The same goes for Somerset. I remember writing to owners there (in vain) begging them to sell because I either had a buyer ready to buy or knew some other broker who did. There was activity then, and the market was as hot as any individual market has ever been.

There are units at Vista Del Lago too, but with Vista having such a difficult year, and with people yelling at me every time I say something

With that in mind, that’s why it’s so troubling to see units in these places sit idle. So why aren’t they selling? Well, because there has been a slight shift in the appeal of the condominium within the market, and in a low volume market even a slight shift can be devastating. The year end volume for 2012 will look respectable in light of recent years. It will. But when great units sit with no traction in the market, the only way to truly motivate the market is through price. I promise to keep kicking this lame horse until it gets up and starts to run again.