Lake Geneva YTD Sales

I have a strange feeling today, and I’ve had it for a while. It isn’t the feeling I feel deep inside my molar that cracked a couple weeks ago while I was greedily inhaling some caramel corn that my wife bought from one of the 73 farmer’s markets she stops at weekly. It is, instead, a feeling of curiosity. Market curiosity. The story goes like this: We have tons of lakefront showing activity. Absolute heaps and heaps of it. Brokers that I pass in their cars and always talking on their phones, presumably loudly, obnoxiously. That breathless feeling that was rampant in 2006 is once again overtaking everyone, everywhere. The market is in flames, like it’s-Detroit-and-gasoline-is-cheap style flames.

Or is it? Because for this incredible feeling of activity, and of showings that occur on the lakefront with amazing regularity, I see just three lakefront sales pending in the MLS, and just 16 lakefront sales year to date. Don’t get me wrong, that sales tally is remarkable, and it points to a year end figure that will likely be 22 or 23, but still. I see buyers come to listings, express interest, follow up with more interest, and then, with the flick of a switch, crickets. Loud, chirping, crickets. Like the ones in my garage. Activity, it seems, doesn’t always translate into contracts. If I was only able to see market activity, and then I was kept behind a very thick shroud where I was unable to see the outcome of that activity I would guess, in my induced blindness, that there would be no fewer than six lakefront sales pending today. This is, as I mentioned, not the case.

Year to date, the Lake Geneva single family vacation home market has had 63 lakefront and lake access sales. 16 of those were lakefront, 27 of those were priced under $500k. Of the total, I’ve closed 9 of them, which is somewhat important given I’m one person and I make up approximately 15% of the activity in the Lake Geneva vacation home market, and as much as 30% of the lakefront market over the past four years, so that’s better than a poke in the eye with even a dull stick. As YTD figures cannot, by their very nature, exist in a vacuum, let’s see how those 63 transactions stick up to prior years. This isn’t the only metric for judging a markets’ competency, but it’s a good one.

2012 was a good year for the market, but we had just 46 lakefront and lake access sales of of this date of that year. Of those, 13 were lakefronts, and I had four of those sales (for what it’s worth). 2011 had 51 such sales, with 11 being lakefront. Of those 11 lakefront sales, 3 were mine, which doesn’t matter much unless you’re a lakefront buyer and you’re looking for a lakefront-ish agent who may or may not know the lake, the market, and the inventory, rather well. 2010, the year that began this recovery, had 41 sales YTD, 11 of which were lakefront, two of which were mine. For shame. But those two sales accounted for over $8.2MM in sales, so.

The fall market at the lake is well underway. It pains me to write that, but in the admission of the coming season there is some hope. We have lots and lots of good time left. We have market time that is potent right through Thanksgiving, and last year, if it is to be of some historical importance, should be noted that I wrote to lakefront contracts during the month of December. Sellers looking to sell have some hesitations entering fall. They think it’s the wrong time to sell. But the buyers who are hovering right now, begging for new inventory, may indeed see this differently. New inventory will be received with excitement, as this fall market should be every bit as viable as was the spring market from six months ago. Expect more activity, more sales, and a climactic end to what has already been an exceptional year. Yes, Comrade Vladimir, I said it has been absolutely exceptional.

Come see me this Saturday at the Eastbank Condominiums. My four bedroom lakefront unit (with canopied slip) is down to $775k. I’ll be holding it open from 11 am until 1 pm Saturday. Follow the signs off of South Lakeshore Drive and Campbell Street just south of downtown.

Also, this weekend is the taste of Lake Geneva. From the city’s website:

Lake Geneva Country Meats presents the 4th annual Taste of Lake Geneva on Saturday, September 14. Come down to Flat Iron Park from 11am until 5pm, where food tents will be set up featuring tempting treats from the area’s finest dining establishments.