Lakefronts Archives - Geneva Lakefront Realty

Park Drive Sells

It’s tax day. There’s snow on the ground. If we look at those two conditions we could all agree that things are terrible. Except out West, they’d all be so happy with some freshie on the ground, but they’ve all lost their minds, a condition publicly proclaimed with little more than a flat brim hat. And I suppose except around here, too, because recent elections show that people love taxes. Crave taxes! They vote for them time and time again. For the children, they say. Yes, things could be terrible today if they weren’t so absurd.

But what was I trying to talk about? That’s right, the lakefront market. Last Friday I sold my listing on Park Drive on the South Shore. That’s a nice little sale for our market, at $2.1MM, a reasonable number for both buyer and seller. The sale came in at $26,582 per front foot, which is behind the 2018 average but close enough. And about that average, $27,994 for 2018. Does this mean this sale on Park was some outstanding value relative to the 2018 average? No, it doesn’t really mean that. Does it mean that the lakefront market has softened, as evidenced by this sale on Park? No, it doesn’t mean that, either. Further, this year there have been 18 YTD lakefront and lake access sales, up from 14 for YTD 2018, down from 25 YTD 2017. Does this mean the market is better than last year but worse than it was in 2017? Don’t be ridiculous.

That’s the problem with the metrics of real estate in a small volume market. They don’t really matter. Sure, there are places and properties where they matter, like a 100′ vacant lot with reasonably level frontage. That sort of property might be worth $2.5MM today. Why shouldn’t it be worth $2,799,400? After all, that’s what the data tells us it should be worth. The reason is simple. Each sale on Geneva is a unique situation, with no two parcels (excepting rare instances where platted lots are identical on a specific section of a specific roadway) being the same. That’s why the data is less a blending of the market’s uneven edges and more a collection of anecdote. What’s 100 feet of frontage worth? Somewhere between $2,000,000 and $3,000,000. Is that good enough?

I suppose I know the answer. It isn’t good enough. That’s why your choice in representation, be it sell or buy side, matters so much here. If you’re bopping around Phoenix and you’re just dying for a three bedroom cinder block ranch with a stone yard and a kidney shaped pool, you’re in luck. Zillow might sell you that house. Or Opendoor, or the real estate agent who works in the station next to your aunt in the Great Clips on Rattlesnake Way. You know, the one around the corner from Parched Parkway. But these are desert jokes, and they’re ridiculous, just like the thought that you need special care when you’re buying a ranch in Phoenix.

This isn’t Phoenix. It isn’t Naperville, either. It’s a dynamic market where numbers don’t always justify value, and where value isn’t always justified by comps. It’s a market where a $2MM house with 60 feet of frontage can be wildly overpriced, where another $2MM house with 60 feet of frontage, a half mile away, can be a screaming value. I used to sit at this desk and see this market as you see it. As other agents still see it. With a smirk that was a blended emotion of bemusement and confusion. Today I see it differently. It’s clear to me. And if you want it to be clear to you, we should be working together.

Bonnie Brae Sells

By David Curry david_curry
November 9, 2018
Market Updates

Over the past few years, there have been some Bonnie Brae sales. Priced between $1.6MM and $3.8MM, these sales have all made market sense. The street is nice, the North Shore location desirable, the approach along idyllic Snake Road hard to beat. Of these sales, three in total, each property that sold has since been transformed by the new owner. One of the homes that sold was torn down to make way for a splendid new lakefront retreat. Another was significantly renovated and expanded, so much so that you’d be forgiven if you thought the current structure was built recently from scratch. The other home that sold has been improved, updated, cleaned and polished. Lakefront owners like to improve their homes, this much we know.

This week I closed my newest lakefront sale on Bonnie Brae, for $3,800,000. This one of wide frontage and delicious, dark, deciduous depth. The home was the renovated and remade Ryerson boathouse, one of the last few remaining on this lake, and likely the only one that stands on a large estate sized parcel of land. You can read about it here, and watch the video below. It was a great house, and it was no wonder that it sold shortly after coming to market in late September. Certain sales befuddle and certain sales confirm what it is that we already understand. This sale was obvious. Beautiful dirt with a charming, historical home, all at the end of Bonnie Brae, which finds its way along Snake Road. What’s not to like?

For me, I remain appreciative and grateful to those clients and customers who choose me to represent their fine vacation homes. This market is loaded with competition. Every agent is the best, the newest, the most amazing. I’m just here in Williams Bay, sitting at this desk that’s really just a few long oak boards bound together by glue and screws. I’m thankful for the chance to assist all of my clients, and this seller was no exception. To the seller, a sincere and lasting thank you. To the buyer, who now gets to experience this place from the front row, congratulations.

Vista Del Lago Sells

It isn’t easy being a large condo association. In fact, a seat on a board at such an association is the worse sort of punishment, the sort for which you volunteer. Geneva National knows this pain, and it knows it well. Large associations have different problems than do the small associations, owing mostly to the scale of it all. Lots of land, lots of amenities, lots of structures, and unfortunately, lots of owners. Vista Del Lago, the largest condominium association on the lake, knows these problems all too well.

There’s been a learning curve of sorts at Vista. New ownership flooded in during the 2000s condo boom, and unlike the average of the previous ownership, these owners were more affluent and as a result, more demanding. Expectations soared, and along with it, the request for improvements. This should be better and so should that. New retaining walls here, new roofs there, new landscaping around the corner. The property was old enough by then to need some serious attention, and as a new group of owners settled in, the attention was paid.

There were some management concerns, so management changed. There was some maintenance concerns, so maintenance changed. There were reasons to improve Vista, so the improvements were made. But that makes it sound like there wasn’t a struggle, because there was. Whenever a large group needs to make decisions in unison, there is a struggle. But today, the smoke is clearing and Vista, with those improvements made, has once again found favor in the market. It’s a good time to be at Vista Del Lago.

The market hasn’t fully recovered, mind you, but it’s finally gaining some ground. This week I closed on a sale of a four bedroom condo for $520,000. Currently, there are two other units at Vista pending sale, with just two others active on the market. There was a time not too many years ago when it wasn’t uncommon to have six or more units available at the same time. These recent sales and this lack of inventory is just what the doctor ordered, assuming the doctor was ordering Vista Del Lago to return to form.

Today, there are only eight available lakefront condominiums on Geneva Lake. That’s a low total, to be certain. The most amazing of them all? Obviously my Bay Colony unit in Williams Bay. First floor unit, boat slip, perfect lake views and a stunning interior. For real, stunning. You’ll be stunned. Actually. I wouldn’t ever use that word out of context. For now, let’s celebrate the Vista sale. It means a lot to the market, and I expect the lakefront condo market to continue its long recovery throughout the coming summer. If you’re looking for a ready-made lakefront experience and your budget doesn’t allow for single family, there’s no better way to indulge in the lakefront scene. If you’re wondering who to work with towards this end, email him here.

Lake Geneva Market Update

Next week I’m going to do an in depth review of Abbey Springs, Geneva National, the lakefront condo market, and the secondary condo markets (Abbey Villas, Abbey Hill, Willabay, Bayside Point, etc). But today we’re going to look at the lake access and lakefront markets, because there are some interesting things occurring within these segments. I wrote earlier this week that each segment is active, which sounds like something easy to do and easier to write, but it’s not easy to do. Rarely do all pricing segments of one major market feature the same general mood. Rarely does a $200k cottage sell with the same frequency as a $4.5MM lakefront. But that’s what we have today, and it’s really quite amazing.

We know the entry level vacation home segment is super active with 10 out of the 28 homes priced under $500k currently showing as active with offer. What’s more interesting to me is that we have 22 homes available priced between $500k and $1MM and just three of those are pending sale. That’s not a terrible number, and that’s actually not what’s particularly unique. In this price range buyers will generally be able to find a transferable boatslip. Not always, but often. They’ll also typically be looking for a lake view, or proximity to the lake, or something unique about the house. What’s curious today is that of the three homes pending sale in this segment, just one of those homes has a slip. The other two do not, and both are priced in the $600s. Buyers buy for all sorts of reasons, so I would never seek to explain all purchase behavior, but if I’m a buyer in this segment I’m likely looking for a slip first, and every single other thing second. Buyers often think they won’t need a slip. Then, after the first weekend at the new lake house, they’re wondering where they’re going to moor the boat they’d like to buy.

The other range that continues to impress is the off-water lake access market over $1MM. This range was slow last year at this time, with ample inventory and few buyers. The market has absorbed much of that aged 2016 product. Today there are 10 off water homes priced between $1MM and $1.7MM. Of those, two are under contract. That might not seem like a lot, but it is. As the entry level lakefront inventory shrinks (just two lakefront homes priced under $1.5MM today), expect to see this market garner more and more attention. The idea here is simple. If a buyer can’t buy lakefront, they’ll look for the next best thing. And if lakefront is rare and pricy, often buyers will seek some sort of off-water property with a slip or a view or maybe both. These are not market mistakes, generally anyway, but they are market moves born not out of pure desire, but simply out of limited options. I’d like to take the pretty girl to the prom, but she’s already going with the quarterback, so I’ll take this other girl, who likes fidget spinners and eats erasers, but her hair is okay.

Lastly, the lakefront market itself. There are offers being flung around like so many pancakes at the fly-in-breakfast. The one out West of Walworth. These offers are generally coming together, but increasingly sellers are holding out for more money. Better terms. This might be a good idea or it might be a mistake, and I’m going to go with mistake. Some of the properties with offers are flawed- and the sellers used to understand those flaws. Now the sellers figure the market is in their favor, and their flaws are hidden by the hysteria of it all. They shouldn’t be this way. The market can turn as quickly as a 10 percent correction in the S&P, so sellers should remain confident but cautious. New pending sale mentions this week include the Congress Club listing in the $1.6s, the north shore Fontana lakefront in the low $2s, and the lakefront on South Lakeshore in Fontana in the mid $4s. These sales will all make sense once they close, so I see nothing particularly unique or exciting here. Rounding out the lakefront activity, my pending contract on the Folly Lane property listed in the high $7s.

Inventory remains the question for each segment. The MLS only shows 17 true lakefront homes available this morning. Of those, there are some nice properties, some rare properties, and some that represent solid value. The low inventory situation will likely persist this year, though I’d expect several new offerings to come to market over the next 30-45 days. As always, if you’d like to know about these new offerings before the rest of the market, just let me know. The lake today is buzzing with activity, and not just of the housing variety. Landscape crews are hustling to mulch beds and plant annuals. Pier guys are racing to install the last of the piers. Irrigation systems are being activated. It’s a frenzy, to be sure. But it’s our frenzy and I wouldn’t have it any other way.

Above, a new lakefront I’m bringing to market next week.

Geneva Lakefront Market Update

I almost bought a car in December. It was late December. The snow was falling and it was cold and it had been Christmas but it wasn’t yet the new year. I drove to the dealership, took a ride in the car that I was thinking of buying, and then sat in the chair across from the salesman for what felt like two hours. It felt that way because it was that way, and I sat and thought and looked around and thought some more. I wasn’t sure what to do. The deal was in place, the trade on my car negotiated, the new vehicle ready and able and if I just said yes I would have driven it home. My children would have looked it over with great admiration, and my wife would have told me how superficial and horrible I was. Things were so close.

But I couldn’t do it, not then, and not in the days since, because I have commitment problems as it relates to cars. I dislike purchases that depreciate rapidly, which is also why I’m a solid $30 chicken dinner guy even when I kind of want the $62 ribeye. I drove from that car dealer and emailed the salesman the next day to work on a few final tweaks of our possible deal. The car, I was told, had sold. I spend hours, no days, weeks contemplating most purchases, no matter how seemingly trivial they might be. Although I am an alpha consumer, I’m reluctant.

This is a fine way to be, assuming you don’t want to secure something that might be fleeting. Just a week ago I wrote a bit on the state of the lakefront market. I was considering the pending sales on the lake and the market reaction to new inventory that had been slowly trickling on. My theory was that a market can be better gauged by the reaction, either swift or slow, to new inventory than it can be by the absorption of the old inventory. Since then, two things have occurred that have cemented my opinion of this market.

I listed that small lakefront with 60′ of level frontage a couple of weeks ago. Within a week, I had it under contract. Last week, an odd lakefront came to market in the mid $3s, and it didn’t even last a week before a buyer put it under contract. These are the two newest lakefront additions, both unique in their own way, both under contract within mere days of listing. If you’re wondering about the state of our lakefront market, these sales should help you understand just what you’re up against.

There are motivated buyers aplenty. More now than I think I can ever remember. There are buyers for entry level and buyers for large estates. There are buyers for land and buyers for finish, there are those who want to find value and those who just want to find a shiny marble shower. The market has plenty of matches, we just need some kindling. If you’re a buyer who, like me, finds it difficult to make a decision in any reasonable amount of time, this market is not going to be easy for you. But if you’re a buyer who knows what you want, and you trust your agent (that’s me) to guide you to lasting value, then it’s time to act. Inventory will be coming to market, but you need to get early eyes on it if you’re going to have a shot. Want to know what’s going on before the rest of the market? Tell me what you’re looking for and you’ll be in the know before some automated MLS feed spits the listing your way.

Geneva Lakefront Market Update

By David Curry david_curry
February 20, 2017
Market Updates

I’ve been writing 2017 on my checks with solid consistency for the better part of a month now. There are no more sixes that have been scratched into sevens. It’s 2017 and we know it, the shock of a new year has worn off. Spring is racing towards us, or it’s here, or it’s not, no one is sure. The year isn’t old enough to judge yet, but at seven weeks, the market is ready for a 2017 assessment.

The best way to judge an early year market is not by watching the closing data. Closings in January were sales from November or December. They are hold overs that pay testament to the prior year activity, and so they aren’t important. No matter, there haven’t been any 2017 lakefront closings to discuss. But there have been some new listings to review, and in those new listings there’s a bit of a story. The market can be measured by sales, measured by inventory, but also measured by the market reaction to new inventory. Let’s discuss that.

Last week a new lakefront in Cedar Point came to market in the $1.5MM range. A few days later, that lakefront property had sold. A magnificent sales job by the participating agents? A super rare piece of inventory that throngs of buyers had been anxiously awaiting? Not really, just an entry level lakefront that came to market cheap, and sold quickly. Every property has a price at which it will sell immediately, so there’s no secret to that particular sauce. But the sale proves the entry level market still has considerable legs even after the high volume year that was 2016. The quick listing and sale is a good sign for our market.

Two other lakefronts were brought to market this year, one being my listing in the South Shore Club that you’re looking at in the above photo. That’s a great house, but I haven’t sold it yet. It’s only been on market for three weeks, so by now it’s only fair to recognize that I didn’t price it as a fire sale. Another home in the South Shore Club that hasn’t sold for years came back to market as well, leaving two available homes in the club. Remember, these aren’t association homes priced as lakefronts. They’re $5MM lakefronts priced as $3MM association homes.

Another lakefront in Fontana hit the market at just under $6MM. That’s a nice lakefront home to be sure, and it’s only been on market for the past two weeks or so. Three new listings in total, one sold immediately, the other two for sale. No carry over sales from 2016 yet, although there are a couple that will be closing over the coming weeks as there are currently five lakefront homes pending sale (including new contracts on the Solar Lane lakefront and the harbor front home in Country Club Estates). So where does that leave us? Do we have the makings of a dynamic 2017 or are we seven weeks into a dud? The quick sale in Cedar Point tells us that buyers are ready and willing to pounce, but the two available at the higher ranges suggest buyers are still measured, still cautious, still paying attention. After all, this is the Midwest and we do measured very, very well.

The only thing we know so far is that the market is low on inventory, which is the same thing we knew at the end of December. Without new inventory, there’s no fuel for this fire. The stock market stability is wonderful for our real estate market, and interest rates remain low, albeit it at higher lows than last year. And there are buyers, plenty of buyers. All we need now is some more inventory, and I expect the market will find a way to provide that in the coming weeks. If you’re a buyer in search of something you haven’t yet found, let’s talk.

Geneva Lakefront 2016 Market Review

29. It might sound like a lot, or it might sound like nothing at all. If we have 29 quarters, we don’t really even have enough money to buy a lunch at Culver’s. But then again, I’m currently battling towards the world’s most amazing physical transformation, and so I’m unable to go to Culver’s. This is difficult. If we have 29 electoral college votes, we still have nothing. But if we have 29 cars, we’d be considered to be a collector, because who, if not a collector, has so many? If we have 29 children, we’d have lots of children and we’d have a television show. But if we have 29 cousins, no one would really care. A show called “29 Cousins” wouldn’t really raise an eyebrow. But we don’t have 29 of any of those things, we have 29 lakefront sales on Geneva Lake in 2016 and we should all be very proud of that total.

Those 29 sales (that link won’t include the vacant land sales) represent a slight decrease from the remarkable 2015 tally of 31, but the reality is that both years represent about as much volume as this market can potentially muster. The 29 sales from 2016 included one home in the South Shore Club ($2.75MM), and three vacant lots. For the purposes of this morning, we’ll include the vacant lots as we average out the increasingly antiquated Price Per Foot metric. I dislike this method of valuing properties, but that’s only because I feel it fails to properly account for the compression that exists when frontage increases beyond 100 feet. The results are skewed by a larger number of entry level sales as those properties with 50 or so feel tend to sell $25-30k per front foot, while 100′ lots with barebones homes tend to sell around $20k per foot. Even so, let’s consider the PPF.

In total, 2919 feet of lakefront sold this year. That’s roughly 2.5% of the entire frontage on Geneva Lake. That’s no small number. We sold a total of 2713 feet of frontage in 2015. During 2016, we sold $72,372,000 worth of lakefront proper, bringing our price per foot to a whopping $27,193, or an 8% increase over the 2015 average of $25,161. That number is high, but it’s not reflective of the actual value of a foot of raw frontage. The number is bloated this year for two reasons. First off, we sold seven lakefronts under $1.55MM, and those entry level properties tend to sell at a higher PPF. Secondly, we sold four properties over $4.25MM this year, and those four properties alone averaged $40,298 per front foot. They averaged this lofty number because three of those four were fantastically beautiful homes that carried a premium for their quality. If you were to ask me for the value of a 100′ lot of reasonable size, I’d point you to the two sales on Lackey that prove out a value closer to $20k per foot than $27k per foot.

Of the 29 sales, I closed 10 of them. To put it a different way, of the $73,172,000 worth of lakefront that changed hands this year, I was directly involved in nearly 50% of that volume. I bring that up as I see some other agents’ advertising and it seems as though there’s still some confusion as to who leads the lakefront market. Anyway, the simple reality of 2016 is that it was a complete and utter success for the lakefront market. Most notable in the volume is the activity at the very top end of our market. The two sales, both my listings, that closed for $9.950MM and $7.35MM, proved that we have strength in our upper bracket, but it also proved that in order to find those buyers the product must match an incredible home on an estate sized parcel of land.

I also found the existence of entry level inventory to be curious. After several years of strong sales in this segment, we printed another six sales under $1.55MM. The lake proves that just as soon as we think we’re going to run out of a particular type of inventory, we don’t. When we think the last 100′ lot with a junky house has been sold, we see more 100′ lots with junky houses come to market. When we think the last 50′ lot for $1.25MM has sold, we sell another 50′ lot for $1.25MM. The market has a way of letting people catch up to it, so long as the buyers are patient and wait for the inventory that matches their desire. 2016 was a terrific year, but it wasn’t necessarily unexpected. I thought the year would be solid as long as inventory presented, and that’s exactly what happened.

For 2017, we’re facing higher interest rates and severely limited inventory. The rates should have some negative drag, but gains or stability in the stock market will offset that. Inventory will be the problem of 2017, as we start the year with just 13 true lakefront homes for sale. Of those, I have an offer being negotiated on one of them. The result of this low inventory will be higher priced listings, as sellers who don’t really care to sell will likely price their homes at prices that reflect their lack of motivation. This could be a problem for 2017, but I’m guessing we’ll add enough inventory to see volume totals in a reasonable range once this year ends. Will we sell 28 lakefronts again? Not likely. But can we get to 20? You bet. The key in this market is for buyers to understand that even though prices have escalated, there is still value to be found. Much of the inventory that remains is now aged and buyers may have the ability to negotiate sold value. That is, assuming, they’re working with the right agent, and if you’ve just finished reading this, then you already know who that is.

1014 South Lakeshore Sells

By David Curry david_curry
November 21, 2016
Market Updates

The most important lakefront home I’ve ever sold is 1014 South Lakeshore Drive in Fontana. I sold that home for the first time in 2010 for $5.885MM. At the time, it was the largest sale I had ever completed, by a factor of at least two. It mattered, this sale, it mattered a whole lot. The fact that I sold the home owned by the owner of our largest local brokerage was something that people noticed, and it helped propel me to the volume that I’ve been pleased to represent since. Last week, I sold that home again. This time for $7,350,000, and as you could imagine, the sale matters this time around as well.

I first listed that home two years ago and received an offer within a few months of the initial listing. That offer didn’t come together, and then the property sat on the market for all of the following year. The reason it languished for some time is simple: when buyers are looking to spend $7.95MM they are expecting perfection, and any slight blemish that might interrupt that perception is cause for rejection. And so I worked and I worked and then over the summer a new contract, a new scheduled closing date, a new buyer on the line for 1014 South Lakeshore.

In the months that followed there were plenty of ups and downs, other buyers wishing to buy the house came forward, and the house that I couldn’t sell for nearly two years became a house I could have sold two or three times. The market turned, buyers at the higher levels materialized, and 1014 South Lakeshore became a house that was no longer just an expensive house in Fontana. It was THE house in Fontana. Last week it closed, and I remain eternally grateful to the seller who has trusted me with so many lakefront purchases and sales. Loyalty is a frail thing in real estate, and when a client remains loyal over a fifteen year period that’s a special and unique thing. To that seller I owe much, perhaps a career.

Another sale last week, this one with more intrigue. In November of 2015 pier 514 sold for $3.95MM. It was a nice sale, a good market price for 186 feet of Fontana frontage spread out over 4 acres. That lakefront just sold again last week, this time for $5.45MM. There is no typo here. There were no improvements done to the house, unlike the sale at 1014 that underwent a supreme facelift and renovation over the years since the 2010 print. Pier 514 just sold for $1.5MM more than it sold for last year. 12 months, 38% appreciation. Wow.

So did the market move that much? Of course not. To suggest it did is pure insanity. The market didn’t move more than a few points, but some buyer from somewhere, perhaps a buyer with a penchant for filming Lincoln commercials, that buyer thought $5.45MM was a reasonable ransom for that large property. Do I think that buyer overpaid? It doesn’t particularly matter, because if a buyer wanted 186′ in Fontana with 4 acres of woods, there were no other options. Personally, I like my sale near Pebble Point with 181′ of frontage and 4 acres for $3.93MM much better, but that’s just me, and I’m value minded. For the market, it’s a terrific sale, for that buyer turned seller, a magnificent maneuver in a typically stodgy market.

Another week, two more sales, both over $5MM. I wasn’t involved in the lower priced sale, but 2016 has now seen six lakefront properties print over $3.9MM. Of those six, I’ve represented either the buyer or seller in five of them. Those sales have helped push my sales volume over $56,000,000 on the year, and I don’t mention that to be vain. I simply mention that to prove a point. If you’re a lakefront buyer or seller with a Geneva focus, now we both know I’m the guy for you.

Blog : Lakefronts

Above, a new lakefront I’m bringing to market next week.