Lake Geneva Foreclosure Update

If you suffered through the State Of The Union address last week, and combined that sentiment with the “surprisingly” lower unemployment statistic on Friday, you might be under the impression that things are getting better. Like much, much better. While it is true that stability has returned to some degree to most real estate markets, it is also true that foreclosures continue to be a lingering presence. Then again, foreclosure isn’t so much lingering as it is hovering, over pretty much every market, belching out REO’s and raining down lis pendens notices with alarming regularity. Can a broad recovery take place when this is the forecast? Um, no?

The Lake Geneva foreclosure scene remains one of the better scenes around the nation, but it is still a scene with activity. A few years ago many were keen on saying that Lake Geneva was somehow different. That we wouldn’t ever suffer the sort of foreclosure trouble that has pervaded other, lesser markets. While this is true to some extent, Lake Geneva has not entirely avoided this sort of trouble. The vacation home market has been resilient, and I expect 2012 to represent a continued display of that attribute, but the vacation home market is, nonetheless, affected.

The lakefront market has a foreclosure in the city of Lake Geneva that continues to steep. It’s also a foreclosure that appears to have some equity left on the table, so if buyers are smart they’ll wait out that property and pounce when it comes to market as REO. If some trigger happy buyer buys it at sheriff’s sale, so be it, but I wouldn’t be that buyer. There are other foreclosures around the lake but not on it- one or so in Cedar Point Park, another in Country Club Estates, and maybe one in Indian Hills. The pending foreclosure in Country Club is a property that has flirted with foreclosures over recent years yet has never hit the open market. This is a bad idea. If teetering on the brink of foreclosure it is best to employ the Dave Curry rules for avoiding foreclosure. In case you forgot them, they are, in no particular order:

1. Buy lottery tickets
2. Buy lottery tickets
3. List your home
4. Buy lottery tickets

After all, someone’s gonna lotto. Geneva National has ongoing foreclosures popping up with consistency, which still doesn’t bother me all that much given the magnificent size of that development. The time shares at the Grand Geneva have been regular guests on the lis pendens and sheriff’s sale screens, which is something that every single person alive saw coming. Lake Lawn has foreclosures too, so apparently the re-opening didn’t solve the liquidity problem there. I see at least one foreclosure action in the Meridien DBA The Bella Vista, which is a trend that I fear will continue there for a long, long time to come. Whenever an individual association suffers a sales drought, foreclosures are going to occur.

This concise foreclosure report is important to consider when looking for Lake Geneva real estate, but it isn’t the entire story. If watching a particular market segment here it is best that you know the recent foreclosure history so that you might better gauge the prospects of increased foreclosures moving forward. My brother is looking for some real estate in Chicago right now. When he looks, I always ask him about the foreclosure history of that building. He gets annoyed when I do that. But the reason I do it there is the same reason you should do it here. If a particular segment has proven mostly immune to foreclosure over the past three years, the odds are strong that it will continue to perform above the rest of the market. Conversely, if foreclosures have been prevalent in a segment, it’s supremely important to buy at prices that are well below current levels in order to build in some protection against a downside that is obviously eminent.