There have been sales over the past several months that I contend would have never happened if the entry level lakefront market were not so utterly devoid of inventory. I have said this and written this with relative consistency. The theory is that buyers in the $1MM to $1.5MM price range would prefer lakefront is given the choice, even if the lakefront is a dump and the non-lakefront is a prize. Beauty is fleeting and any cosmetic deficiencies can be remedied with enough cash and desire, but locations never, ever change. If you’re looking at a gorgeous home with a view between two garages, you can primp and pamper that home and gold plate most non-porous surfaces and when you’re finally finished and ready for the show, you’ll unveil a very fancy home with a view between two garages. The structures can be fixed, or razed, or gilded, but location, like diamonds and my extra 30 pounds, is forever.
And so, knowing this as they do, buyers usually choose lakefront squalor over non-lakefront splendor. But during times like these, when the market is thin with inventory and buyers are stacked like so many salmon swimming upstream, buyers will choose other options if the lakefront that they tepidly desire isn’t available. This is why sales in Loramoor have occurred in the $1MM+ range. This is why the one Wrigley “lakefront” has sold and the other will sell this month. The market has not been consistent in rewarding off-lakefront homes as a result of the 2010 run on entry level lakefronts. The large estate like property on Conference Point in the mid $1MMs has not yet sold, even though I’ve spent the better part of two years thinking it should. There are other properties that appear primed to benefit from the complete and thorough lack of inventory in the entry level reaches of our lakefront market, but one primary market that should be benefiting is the upper end lakefront condo market.
If buyers in the $1MM to $1.5MM range generally want views, slips, piers, and square footage, then the upper tier lakefront condo should be a direct beneficiary of this interest. If a buyer is motivated to be on the lake, with views galore and constant lake breezes rinsing their brains of their weekday trials, then the lakefront condo would be the logical next step if the single family lakefront market isn’t providing an option to scratch their lakefront itch. Thankfully, of late, it seems as though buyers are taking a bit of notice at the few, select, larger lakefront condominiums that are currently available.
Stone Manor is the king of the large lakefront condo. The units are spacious, which might be likened to me calling last Monday’s clothed swim mildly unexpected. The place is a prize, if a sort of strange prize where you win and you hold that prize up above your head wondering just what you’re doing to do with it now. Stone Manor is a very expensive leg lamp. Which isn’t to say I don’t like Stone Manor, which I do, and my like is probably actually love, which makes my mockery of the building here a bit unexplainable. It’s not that the building isn’t great, it’s just that the building requires a unique buyer who has pockets as deep as the water off of Conference Point. Which, for the record, I charted as 141′ on my Sunday morning fishing trip. All that Stone Manor talk to say this: Stone Manor is obviously the ruler of the large lakefront condominium market on Geneva, but the current pricing of the entry level lakefront market precludes the building from discussion in this context.
The buildings that appear to be first in line to benefit from this ongoing inventory drought in the single family lakefront market include Somerset, Eastbank, and Harbor Watch. These are the condominiums that have offerings in the $1MM to $1.5MM range, and these are the units that would be likely participants in the battle for the hearts, minds and wallets of the entry level lakefront buyers. (Two units available in Harbor Watch, one in Somerset, none in Eastbank). There are other, larger lakefront units as well. These larger units outside of the aforementioned buildings are the result of combining two or more units, as is the case with the double unit at The Fontana Club. There is also a double unit at Fontana Shores that I might be bringing to market later this week.
These large lakefront condominiums exist, and they should find a spot on the showing schedule of any entry level lakefront buyer who has been put off by the paltry inventory of the single family market. The square footage that can be found in the lakefront units typically far exceeds that square footage available in lakefront homes of the same price, and for buyers seeking a low maintenance weekend at the lake, the large lakefront condominium just might be the ticket. I remain confident that if you’re looking for a lakefront condo on Geneva, big or small, you’ll know who to call, or email as may be the case. See you at the lake.