Category Archives: Lake homes

Big Is Back: Living Large Never Went Out of Style When It Comes to Second Homes

Read this story on CandysDirt about how the rich seem to be accelerating the size and scope of their new homes. Then know this: whatever is happening to the primary home market is being mimic’ed in second and third homes. Prices may be soft, but the rich are getting out their checkbooks for beach homes and mountain ski palaces. Told you about Jon Huntsman’s dad, right?

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Yes, The Economy Sucks Bad Air But… Vacation Homes Sure Are Getting Cheap

If you want to look at a market that makes residential real estate even in say, Detroit look good, look at second homes. Last year, the median price of a vacation home in the U.S. fell 11%. Compare that to what the National Association of Realtors tells us the ordinary primary residence did — fell 5 percent … Continue reading

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The Temp in Hayden, Idaho is 63 Degrees With a High of 80: Second Home Nirvana

Now here’s a home to cool you off. You’ll be wearing a sweater up here tonight and totally chilling on beautiful, crystal clear Lake Hayden. (You are about 45 miles east of Spokane, but who cares?) This amazing home has 142′ of deepwater frontage on one of the largest lots in an area known as English Point, only a 1/4 mile hike from National & State Forests. The huge, 4100 square foot plus, three bedroom home was built in 1960 and has a Brady Bunch quality about it, but is a contemporary northwest waterfront masterpiece completely (and tastefully) remodeled in 2009. Talk about family get-togethers: the open floor plan has dinner seating for 28 people! Absolute 180 degree waterfront views. The main house has an exercise spa and pilates room, as if swimming won’t be enough exercise. To recover, go fetch a bottle or two from the wine cellar. There are three separate buildings total, all with lake views, boat docks amd a charming guest home which I’d take right about now! The home is listed at $1, 350,000 but from what I’ve read, the whole state of Idaho is one big fire sale. Nearest airport would be Spokane, but you could always fly into the FBO at Coeur D’Alene.

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More Lake Cypress Springs: Make Your Second Home a Lake House

Love me a Honda: Auto dealer extraordinaire Rusty Wallis and his family in front of their dock at Lake Cypress Springs.

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What Five Million Buys on Lake Cypress Springs: 50 Acres, 4 Slips, 1000 Feet Shoreline: Dallas Second Home News

Now here’s a spread! A 50 acre waterfront estate includes not one or two but three lakefront homes that total 10,700+ sqft of living space, with a total of 10+ bedrooms/baths, a library, complete gym, media room, 2 boathouses with 4 slips total, 3 garages with enough spaces to park 11 vehicles, a private beach, 1000 linear ft of shoreline on the main lake, 2 stocked ponds, workshop, nursery. Grandparents dream for a family compound. This one is $4,900,000, it’s like buying your own dang TOWN! Eagle Rock Estate: $4,900,000.

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Where To Buy A Vacation Home NOW: Second Home News

Let’s face it: if you had to pick the most suffering, beat-up child in this real estate mess, it would be the second home market. This is probably the worst time ever for the second home market because most areas overbuilt during the boom, priced too high, and are now left with inventory. Getting a mortgage on a first home is hard enough, and investors are now limited to 7 mortgages including your homestead under Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac guidelines.

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Aspen Broker to Rich and Famous Says Second Home Market is Looking Up

Flathead Lake, Montana

Steven Shane had a twisted holiday this year. The Aspen, Colo., real estate broker, who graduated from selling snowboards to multi-million dollar ski chalets, handled one of the most complex deals of his real estate career over the holidays. End of the year, the rich go shopping for real estate. The sale of a simple duplex turned into a six-sided transaction worth nearly $12 million and dragged in buyers from the United Kingdom, California and Colorado. All that to unload one little half-duplex in Aspen, CO.

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More Free Tickets to the Park Cities Historic and Preservation Society Home Tour Next Weekend!

All the second homes in Destin, Port Aransas or Pebble Beach could not pull me away from next Saturday’s Park Cities Historic and Preservation Society‘s Spring home tour. That’s April 2, 2011, from 10 am – 4 pm. The owners of six gloriously historic and architecturally significant Park Cities homes will toss open their doors to all House Candy lovers. The homes are: 4236 Armstrong Parkway, 4809 Drexel Drive, 4308 Stanhope, 4200 Shenandoah, 7715 Turtle Creek Blvd. and 3830 Windsor Lane, pictured here. Even better, get your shopping fix in: during the home tour, there will be a boutique at the 4809 Drexel Drive, Highland Park, home, featuring preferred vendor items. The Home Tour is open to the public and tickets are available now.

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The Best Places in America for Second Homes

Beacon Hill

Barrons is bragging how they called it: the second home market has bottomed, and the rich are out swooping up the bargains. Prices of high-end second homes have sunk, some as low as 40%. And Barrons lists the top second home markets in the US. Sea Island, Georgia was rated number one. Next comes Maui, The Hamptons, Aspen, Martha’s Vineyard, Lake Tahoe, Kiawah Island, S.C., Palm Beach, Pebble Beach, Greater Palm Springs, Sun Valley, Bray’s Island Plantation, Lake Geneva (where I used to go as a Chicago kid), and Ashville, N.C. The Barrons report (not sure if sub. req.) tells why these places are so glorious, and lists average prices like $2.5 to $4 million. With prices and places like these, no wonder readers got ticked off — check the comments!

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Trouble Selling That Second Home? Don’t Agonize, Fractionalize

A Muksego, Wisconson couple fed up with the housing market are now trying to sell their vacation home north of Chicago by fractionalizing it. The 1,800-square-foot ranch which they bought in 1999 is a 1950′s era on a three-acre island in Little Muskego Lake, pictured here. Now they want the cash out for another project so instead of letting the home languish on the market, they are selling twelve shares to nine owners, who would each pay $69,900  for a one-twelfth share, which amounts to one week per quarter. The Sauers would own some of the shares, and the house would be rented out on major holidays, such as Memorial Day, 4th of July week, Labor Day and New Year’s Eve, to cover the property’s expenses.

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