If you know this market, and I mean, really know this market, then you know that there are pockets of inventory within this market that are truly unique. Yes, your house on XYZ Street with those gold tone granite counters is unique, but that’s not the sort of unique I’m talking about. Because when I’m talking about unique, I can only be talking about one thing: Location. Without a unique location, the house itself must work so very hard to make the someone consider it to be unique. And often times, when someone works hard to make a house unique, well, it just turns out to be uniquely awful. Have you seen my 16th century turret?
It’s true that every market focuses most intently on location, but the concept of an ideal location is rarely binary. The lakefront is the location that finds the highest number of admirers, and it would generally be true that inside any particular association that the homes that are the farthest from the lake might be the lease desirable. The market would also readily agree that homes one off the lake, or otherwise exceptionally close to the lake without being directly on it, would be the second most desirable sort of real estate here. This is true in the Loch Vista Club and in Country Club Estates as it is in Geneva Manor and Knollwood. But these associations all find their one off homes situated across some variety of street, or small lane, from the lake itself.
Now consider the home in Cedar Point Park that I just sold last Friday. This is a Parkway Home, which feels so important that I should capitalize it. Cedar Point has had a resurgence in demand of late, funneling from the lakefront itself (never would 2010 Dave Curry have imagined $4MM+ spec homes selling here), all the way to the back end where cottages are now routinely finding footing in the $300k-$400k range. The only segment of the market that hasn’t required a resurgence is the Parkway Home, as that home never strayed from the market’s favor. That’s because in our market the parkways are as unique as any location has ever been, as they effortlessly allow a lake access home to live and play as though they are indeed lakefront. This front row location is rare, and it’s desirable, and two adjectives have never so anemically described something so finite. The home I just sold isn’t just a Parkway Home, it’s the first PH off of the lakefront, with views galore and a simply sweet cottage setting that cannot be ignored.
This sale, during the height of our nationwide confusion, is notable, I think. Here we have a buyer with vacation home goals, and some lengthy time in the market trying to capture satisfy their leisurely itch. This was a buyer last fall, last winter, and now this spring. This was a buyer at S&P 3300, and this was a buyer at S&P 2200. Some might find that odd. Some might find that bold. I see it as a buyer who understands that every summer matters, and one who senses there’s no point in sitting on our collective hands worrying away whatever crises might have us embroiled at the moment, or whatever crises might be coming next month, or next year. I thank this buyer for their loyalty and trust, and look forward to helping the newest crop of buyers now arriving on our shores. The Quarantine Buyers, which are the sort of buyers who love the city, but recognize that when the city is shut down there’s absolutely no point in spending your weekends there. More on that later this week as we discuss the buyers who have pulled back from their vacation home search, and the buyers who have initiated one.