I was going to write this morning a response to a recent article in the Wall Street Journal. The article, Homeowners Hit The Jackpot, appeared to be, at the headline level, something that might interest me. Then I read the article and deemed it rife with stupidity. How could I respond to something as lame as that article? And so I decided instead to write a market update. Lake Geneva, it’s December. It’s almost time to start talking about the year in the past tense, but if we did that now we’d miss the present. It’s December, and there’s a lot happening. Here’s your Lake Geneva Market Update.
Yesterday, I closed on W4160 Lakeview in Linn Township. I had that cute little lakefront for sale for what felt like most of my life, but was, in fact, just the last two summers. The house was what you’d expect of an entry level lakefront. 50 feet of frontage, no garage, basic finishes. It was a charming little place, with a boathouse that most estates would like to own. The house was simple, the sales price $1,260,000. The new buyers happy, sure, but not yet certain just how good it will be to own a weekend home on this lake. The seller had owned the house for 11 years and didn’t make any money on it. In that, I failed. But the owner told me yesterday that although the house isn’t the fanciest on the lake, and although the bedrooms are small and the kitchen boasting white appliances, his family looks at that property as the place where the best of their memories were made. That, after all, is what this whole game is about.
This week I brought to market a lake access home in Shore Haven. It’s a nice house, this Shore Haven place. It has a slight, squinting view of the lake if the leaves are in the right position (on the ground). It also has a two car garage and plenty of parking, attributes which are rare in the lake access world. The house is charming, the finishes nice enough, the layout comfortable with the possibility of attic expansion if someone so desired. But that’s not really the thing that matters with this $749k new listing. What matters is the boat slip. Slips, in the eyes of the wandering market, are all created equal. You either have one or you don’t. If you have one you’re lucky. It you haven’t one you’re sad. You didn’t need one, you said. But above a certain price point off the lake you do need one, because everyone else expects one even if you don’t. That said, this boat slip is fantastic. It’s deep and it’s big and it’s easy to pull in and out of, no matter if a north wind is howling from Williams Bay. Boat slips matter, and this slip that accompanies this house is an absolute gem.
Last week I closed on a Bay Colony condo. I don’t sell a lot of condos anymore, but I sold a ground floor two bedroom in the north building for $415k. That price is significant, as that $415k price is the lowest paid for any unit in either Bay Colony building since at least 2005. Does the kitchen have a Viking range? Don’t be ridiculous. It might after the remodel, but it doesn’t now, and that’s why I negotiated on behalf of a client and we pushed a $475k asking price to a $415k closing price. Want to buy a condo on the lake? We can go bargain hunting together.
For the remainder of the year we’ll see a few new contracts, but mostly we’ll see the closings of homes that have been placed under contract over recent weeks and months. Lest you think it’s a bad idea to buy a lake house in December, consider the importance and duration of a Lake Geneva summer. If you want to be ready for summer you have to prepare in the winter. It’s December, which means it’s basically winter, and now is the time to start your preparations for the upcoming summer. The summer, not coincidentally, which has the chance to either be the best summer of your life or just another one.