August. It’s August now and it’s too late for you. If you’re at home and your vacation home dreams are there with you, then you’ve already blown it. This August will not be special for you. It might be special for you if you enter into a contract to buy a vacation home during this month, but otherwise it’ll be uneventful and horrible. You went to Lollapalooza over the weekend? Terrific, that also sounds boring. The good news is that while this August is a complete and utter waste, next August can be spectacular. And next July, too. June, sure. May, and its Memorial Day, delightful. And so it goes, a summer still underway but an August already wasted. That’s your upbeat Monday morning message. Enjoy your week!
The market is remarkably active today. The lakefront in particular. A few weeks ago I sold my large lakefront listing on the North Shore near Pebble Point. A buyer paid $3.93MM for 181′ of dead level frontage and four acres of fabulous depth. This lot is likely the best vacant lot to sell on this lake in quite some time. I prefer it over the lot that sold near Alta Vista a few years back for $6MM. That lot is sold, and with it I’m back to where I belong in the MLS rankings for Walworth County- Number One. Another large lakefront on Basswood is under contract with an asking price just under $4MM. That home had been for sale for quite a while, and finally found a spurt of activity this summer before finalizing a contract last month. Two hundred feet of frontage with an old house will always find a buyer, assuming the price slowly succumbs to the market’s expectations.
The South Shore Club has had a nice injection of activity, as I listed and then almost immediately went under contract on a large home just to the lakeside and west of the pool. At $2.99MM this was the first home in this sort of location to come to market since I sold a foreclosure two years ago on the east side of the pool. The home sold quickly because it’s a large home, with elevated finishes, and a most beautiful lake view. The other listing in the South Shore Club is farther towards the back, with less of a view, but I expect that home to benefit from my soon-to-print-comp, and that home will sell this year as well. If you’re looking at the SSC and don’t want to swing the $2.7MM+ price to be on the circle, I have my lot on Forest Hill Court available for just $598k, including home plans.
Just last week a home on the Abbey Harbor came to market, and then this last weekend that home went under contract. Do buyers love harbor front? Of course not, but buyers do love new and fancy and if you’re a buyer who loves large boats and new and fancy well then you’ve met your ideal situation. At $2.8MM the seller was rewarded in large part because of the lack of quality lakefront inventory in that price range. The SSC home is a similar beneficiary. If the lakefront had more inventory in the $2-5MM segment, buyers would absorb much of it with little delay. If you’re a seller sitting on a home in that segment and you’ve thought of selling, now is the time to call me. Actually, email me, since my return phone call habits are terrible at best.
Entry level lakefronts continue to be shown regularly, but are failing to attract contracts. I just reduced my lakefront on Lakeview to $1.419MM, and that’s likely the best entry level property on the market. With just 27 lakefront homes available, and two more vacation lots (my Loramoor lakefront being the best option there), buyers have few options to choose from. The good news for buyers is that aged inventory is already starting the reduction process. Sellers know that while this market is a 365 day market now, buyer traffic will slow by November, meaning there’s just 90 days of solid market time left for 2016. Smart sellers are evaluating their position in the market and reducing. It’s not a desperate move by any means, it’s just smart business. Watch for the savvy sellers who have experienced significant market time to reduce soon. Of course the smart buyers are the ones working with me to both strangle deals out of this aged inventory and pounce on the new inventory.
Above, the boathouse at my W4160 Lakeview listing. Yours for $1.419MM.