To the most seasoned lake lover, the municipal boundaries that surround Geneva Lake are of little consequence. To others, the skinny lines that divide Fontana from Linn Township mean much more. Today, a little geography lesson and the tax implications and individual market issues that arise from the four municipalities that border my ethereal lake. To a regular water lover, there is no such thing as the “right” spot or the “wrong” spot on Geneva Lake, and anyone seeking a Lake Geneva vacation home here would be wise to consider the entire body of water and the homes that surround it as one confluent market- at least at first. Once a buyer delves deeper into the market here, they’ll find that the individual municipalities that offer vacation homes here really do matter.
The four municipalities that touch the water are Lake Geneva, Williams Bay, Fontana, and Linn Township (Walworth Township dives toward the lake between Fontana and Williams Bay, but it’s such a small section that it’s dead to me). Linn Township makes up the majority of the lake, with its boundaries running on both the north and south sides of the lake. The township areas are not contiguous, which is obviously odd. Linn Township runs along the south side of the lake from Fontana East to Lake Geneva, and again on the north side of the lake from Lake Geneva west to Williams Bay. Linn Township is home to many lakefront estates, with famous roads like Snake and Basswood residing within the Linn Township territory. Some of my favorite lake access associations are in Linn, including Knollwood with their beautiful lakefront park, and the Lake Geneva Club with it’s idyllic single lane. Linn Township is the only municipality on the lake that is not connected to any form of city water and sewer. As a result, every property in Linn (excepting the South Shore Club for their different set up) is serviced by a private well and septic or holding tank.
Buyers can take objection with this well and septic situation, and as anyone who watched in horror as Owen Wilson delivered that carved Chuppah onto a yard with an overflowing septic can attest, septic fields can have problems. They can, but they usually don’t. Holding tanks offer even less trouble, and anyone with the ability to pick up a phone and schedule regular maintenance can easily own a holding tank. Even though the market in Linn Township is entirely unaffected from a pricing standpoint as a result of the well and septic situation, there are, at times, buyers who would rather not look at properties that do not have city water and sewer. If there is a single, trivial drawback to Linn Township, this would be it.
Taxes in Linn are pretty reasonable, and with a .014 mil rate, only Fontana boasts a lower rate of taxation. But since Linn boasts assessed values that are generally less than Fontana’s, Linn is probably the lowest taxed municipality with lake frontage on Geneva. For the sake of this post, we’ll use the average mil rates, and ignore the fact that rates can change marginally depending on where a particular home is located in a particular municipality owing to a possible difference in school district.
Williams Bay, the home of my youth and purveyor of fine lakefront weeds, is an all around terrific community. For owners looking to experience a vacation home setting with a little less hub bub, Williams Bay is a very fine option. The mil rate in the Bay is .0159, so the tax rate is marginally higher than Linn Township, but significantly lower than the city of Lake Geneva. The entire Village of Williams Bay is serviced by municipal sewer and water, so any septic tank haters will find refuge within the Bay’s friendly, weed loving, lake shielding borders. The market in the Bay is solid, with lake associations like The Loch Vista Club and Cedar Point Park, and plenty of entry level lakefront homes available on the Cedar Point bluff. One just sold this week for $1.35MM, furthering my opinion that entry level lakefront has fallen from the $1.5MM to $1.8MM range, to the $1.1MM to $1.35MM range.
Fontana has become the crown jewel of the Lake Geneva vacation home market. The tax rate in Fontana is the lowest at .0123, though the assessed values are stiff when compared with the same values in Linn or the Bay. Lake access associations are plentiful, with Country Club Estates, Buena Vista, and Club Unique leading the way. The Abbey Harbor anchors the lakefront scene, with Gordy’s and Chuck’s drawing lake lovers and people watchers and red bathing suit lovers in droves. In addition to the lake access homes here, some of the finest and most desirable lakefront properties are available along the Fontana stretch of South Lakeshore Drive, extending westward from the Abbey Harbor all the way past Abbey Springs. To put Fontana in further perspective- if 100 people call me today looking for a Lake Geneva vacation home, 50 of them won’t care where the house is as long as it’s close to the lake, 10 of them will want to be in the City of Lake Geneva, 10 in Williams Bay, and the remaining majority will specifically ask to be in Fontana.
The City of Lake Geneva, not to be confused under any circumstance with the body of water that is Geneva Lake, is quite obviously the hub of the vacation market here. The city boasts some of the finest lakefront estates, as well as most of the lakefront condominiums on Geneva. The city is serviced by city water and sewer, and anyone seeking to be right in the middle of the action would do well to consider a vacation home in the city of Lake Geneva. While the city is crowded in the summer, once you get into the lakefront residential sections of town, the pace slows, and the experience is pure relaxation. The city center itself is lovely during any season, and I on Sunday summer mornings I often find myself with a cup of coffee in hand, playing tourist in my own town. I do that, and I like it. A drawback to the city is that the taxes can be a bit cumbersome. The mil rate in Lake Geneva is .021, making it the highest taxed municipality on the lake. The high taxes there are a bit of an annoyance, since Lake Geneva is also the only city that has an industrial business base, and huge amounts of room tax income from the various hotels that operate within the city limits. One would think that these additional sources of tax income would allow the residential tax rate to be less, but if one thought that one would be wrong.
Is the topic of municipal taxation boring? Absolutely. Is it a necessary bit of information that anyone looking for a vacation home here should be aware of? As in Jeopardy, I must answer in the form of another question. Did the sushi binge of Monday night push the start of my diet to this morning?