There’s a little known real estate secret that I’m about to share with you, so huddle up. July and August usually aren’t great months for the Lake Geneva real estate market. That’s it. That’s my secret. While it’s far from life altering, it should provide a glimpse into the health of the market here if viewed through my sage kaleidoscope. If the market here shows continued movement from the spring rush through July and August, that unexpected summer activity is a nice segue to our typically virile fall market. We’re not selling real estate in the summer, and we’re not selling lifestyles as Josh Flagg would squeak, we’re selling bridges. Bridges from the spring market to the fall market connected by sales that the market needs, but doesn’t always expect. These sales provide lubrication from one peak market to the next, and a spate of such sales is vital to the overall health of any vacation home market. But enough about bridges, onto the oddly placed Tuesday market update.
There has been just one lone closing this month of a lakefront or lake access single family home. That sale, for $475k, was of a modest ranch in Shore Haven. That particular home had a most recent list price of $499k, but if you scrape off the shallow and final list to sale ratio you can see that the property was actually first listed in the fall of 2009 for $739k. Was that home worth anywhere near $739k in the fall of 2009? No way. But that listing did set in motion the awkward procession that is a seller chasing a retreating market. Better than listing high and chasing the market down and around until you finally catch it would be to list appropriately from the onset, and sell more quickly for more money. List that home for $559k in the fall of 2009 and perhaps the ultimate sales price would have been higher. No condemnation for this sale, just a simple market truth delivered to you courtesy a very recent sale. I don’t talk about Shore Haven too much, largely because I prefer the Lake Geneva Club if I’m in the market for a single lane association home on the south shore.
In a twist of horrible irony, the association that I’ve told you I harbor no love for (Sunset Hills) now has two pending sales. It doesn’t surprise that I am not involved in either sale. I still don’t like you Sunset Hills, no matter if you tempt me with volume. Moving to an association I dearly love, there is a new pending sale in the Loch Vista Club. That cottage, listed at $399k, has been for sale for quite some time. I’m glad to see a sale in that club, but my own highly personal opinion is that other homes on the street would have caught my eye before this one. The top of the street location is never something I’m keen on, and if I’m walking to and from the lake, I’m looking for the closest proximity so that my walk back to the lake requires minimal physical exertion and even less rappelling equipment. I’m not a great knot tier.
The two entry level lakefront homes on Circle Parkway are still under contract, and if you’re a buyer you should take notice when these close as to which buyer secured the better bargain. I’m betting it’s the buyer whom I’m representing, but that’s just a hunch. The South Lakeshore Drive lakefront for $2.9MM remains under contract, and I know of other lakefront offers circulating at the moment. If the lakefront market can close four or five lakefront homes during July and August, that sets the stage for a terrific fall run. Again, we’re building bridges here and while I’d like to pretend it’s hard work, I really do more yammering than I do hammering. This might be the first time I’d worked a rhyme of a joke into a post. My apologies.
A home in Country Club Estates has recently gone under contract ($599k), and the parkway home in Williams Bay ($699k) continues to wait for its rapidly approaching closing date. There has been a nice sign of life recently in the lakefront condo market, though I’m labeling showing activity as that sign instead of closing activity. The closings will have to wait, for now I’m content to report showings that are on the rise that just might signal a tick up in lakefront condo closing activity. The entry level lakefront market could use a new offering or two to inject some life into that single family segment, but there are plenty of solid values in the upper reaches of our lakefront market, including some terrific land buys on the North Shore of Fontana and my favorite listing that lies silently on the tip of Cedar Point.
This morning, it is sunny and it is warm. I can see the lake from the Eastern window of my office, and it is shimmering and bright like a polished jewel just as you’d expect it to be. Feign injury or illness and come up to take a boat ride with me today and we’ll look at some houses along the way. With 134 available single family lakefront and lake access vacation homes on the MLS this morning, there has to be at least one that catches your eye. It’ll be fun. I promise. I’m a Realtor.