Lake Geneva Market Update

I turned my heat on last night. I didn’t want to, but in my house, I get accused of leaving the heat off as long as possible not just because I like to sleep in the cold, with just my blanket and my hatred of cold weather to keep me warm, but also because I am cheap. Both are true. September isn’t supposed to be like this. I am not supposed to be wearing a light jacket in the morning. I should not have been conned into wearing those fall boots that I told you about just last week. Those boots were for October, not September. I am dismayed, and that is an understatement. The water is cooling rapidly, the steam rising from the lake, and the trees fading to that lighter, duller green, signaling resignation and queuing their, and our, inevitable defeat.

But just because leaves change without a fight, and water temperatures are convinced to cool by thirty something degree evenings, doesn’t mean I too will fall so easily. I will fight this fall, at least for another two weeks. It may win the battle for my outerwear, but it will not win the battle for my soul. It may be fall on the outside, but I’m still summer at my heart. I will hold out for as long as possible and like a martyr on a pile of lit sticks I will not give up what I believe in just because of a little momentary suffering. In other words, beat it fall.

The market at Lake Geneva is in a bit of a holding pattern at the moment. It doesn’t feel like summer and it isn’t quite yet fall, and the market is still quiet from the bustle of returning kids to school. In this adaptation there is a lull, though I fully expect the lull to dissipate as we move further into the real fall that is October. The market will return yet this year, and I think it probably will do so relatively soon. Price reductions are prevalent right now, as we knew they would be, as sellers jockey for position before the market expires sometime around the time that you buy your Thanksgiving turkey. That is to say that I assume you buy your turkey a few days a head of time, to give it time to thaw. If you buy a fresh turkey, I commend you, but I must warn you that once I too bought a fresh, organic, happy turkey. I was promised that it lived its life in harmony with nature, content to peck at grain and at worms, and wander through fields of golden wheat. I was told this would make the turkey happy, and in turn, his or her meat would be tender and moist, which was the least it could do to repay us for our gentle coddling. Instead, this meat was tough and gamy, like a pheasant minus the buckshot, which led me another belief that contradicts Michael Pollan directly: It’s not the free-range lifestyle that makes a turkey delicious and moist, it’s the steroids.

Anyway, the market here is slow right now, but with 142 lakefront and lake access homes available, that tepid atmosphere won’t last long. Buyers will return in stronger numbers, and then, after those fair weather buyers disappear, many of the real buyers will arrive, sometime around early December. They’ll wait for seller apathy to grow to uncontrollable levels, and then they’ll low ball. It’ll be like bowling, for sellers, but instead of a heavy ball with three holes in it we’ll throw several sheets of papers at them with numbers scribbled on the first page that might be even more devastating than a 9 pound ball of synthetics.

I see several listings out there right now, besides most of my own, that I think should probably be considered. There’s still that cheap listing in the Loch Vista Club that I want someone to buy, and a few other homes with slips in the $500k-$700k range that I think might be bought right now that the season has subsided. Lakefront is where the real action is, and I expect the fall market to pick up steam in this segment more than any other. There are two lakefronts pending sale, and one additional property that had been pending has been reintroduced to the market after the deal crumbled in what I assume was the 11th hour. The entry level portion of this lakefront market is primed to deliver at least three terrific deals this fall, and anyone tempted by the idea of a quality lakefront in the $1.2MM- $1.35MM range would do well to email me right this very moment so we can discuss these opportunities. Remember, for each lakefront that sells in the $1.3MM range, that’s one fewer entry level lakefront that exists in this market- not that exists on the open market, but that exists, period. Pending properties in our vacation home market right now include those two on the lakefront, a Glenwood Springs home with private pier, one of my Harvard Club listings with a slip, a cottage in the Birches, one in Country Club Estates.

There are several quality lakefront offerings, several of which I’m brokering, in the $2MM to $3MM range. Expect some sellers to deal in this bracket in an attempt at unloading the property before winter. Same goes for the lakefront condo market, as sellers struggle with an ongoing lack of buyers and work to position their properties at such a price that buyers will see obvious value. My listing at Fontana Shores ($995k) has been reduced significantly, as has my lakefront condo at Bay Colony ($539k). Both feature sellers looking to move onward and upward, so lakefront buyers in that price segment would be wise to consider those. There will be deals this fall, plenty of them, if only you’ll harness and focus your motivation towards one singular goal: to spend your weekends like you’ve never spent them before.