Observing the Lake Erie Effect of the Real Estate Kind

Many of the typical real estate axioms aren’t applicable as far as homes for sale located in a recreation area such as Lakeside/Marblehead, Ohio.  Due to unsupervised real estate development from earlier times, you can’t include an evaluation of neighboring homes.  In general, the idea of having a place close to the water supersedes everything else.  Hints of the recession came in the form of a housing bubble that peaked around 2005.

The hodgepodge development that would hopefully add to the charm or quaintness of this area remains part of the real estate scene. 

If you were to think in typical real estate axioms, such as buying into a neighborhood with mobile homes on the same street, you may think the house you’re looking at would have a diminished value – not.  On top of that, with bank owned foreclosure properties, a $70,000 cottage may be located next to a new house worth twice that much.

Lakeside/Marblehead is geographically situated on a peninsula. Any location isn’t far from either Lake Erie or Sandusky Bay.  At one time, bay area real estate carried a stigma, but that idea was vanquished with the construction of beautiful new housing developments along the shoreline.  Little fishing campgrounds still thread into the fabric of the community.  

Nowadays, the newly coveted places to be are in these developments with street names like Marblewood, Water’s Edge, and Commodore. 

What a potential buyer is looking at here is an either/or situation with very little middle ground.  The housing bubble started its upward ascent in Lakeside/Marblehead in the year 2,000.  Mobile homes were selling at an average minimum of thirty thousand.  Tiny vinyl sided cottages with missing floors sold for fifty thousand.  Narrow lots with 60’ x 90’ borders -$100, 000.  At the three-year mark the housing bubble peaked and stalled.

In a gated community with century homes, waterfront houses peaked with asking prices anywhere from one to three million.  This neighborhood is gated behind nothing more than a simple hurricane fence with three entry points. 

Houses are packed so tightly together in this “quaint” fenced in community that many roofs are a meager three feet apart. You might be able to find a deal with something that’s a few blocks from the lake, because the south Lakeside area is yet to be encompassed by the fence.  Once that happens, the newly annexed neighborhood sees the overall value of their homes escalate.  Buying into the south side of the tracks neighborhood before the annexation guarantees a worthwhile return.  But, the question is, would it be worth the wait?

Still, as per usual, the closer to the water the higher the value. To be located within the fenced in community gives exclusivity.  You’d be looking at an average asking price of three to four hundred thousand, because the location is close to the Lake. These are the higher end houses that are selling, according to realtor accounts.  One beautiful, old sandstone house (only a short block from the water) recently sold for a rumored three million.

Drastic cuts in the asking price, and low interest loans will help stimulate sales.  Realtors in the Lakeside/Marblehead area have earned it and deserve to have some steady commissions rolling in for a change.

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