Ohio Area Nice for Vacation

Ohio Area Nice for Vacation

If planning for a summer vacation, Ohio has really beautiful, balmy summers, and Lake Erie provides lots of recreation. I love my summer vacation home there. I call it the place where the breezes meet. Located near a former religious retreat, it’s clustered on the edge of the lake basin near the southern tip of Lake Erie. To the south side, adjoining the lake is the Sandusky Bay, popular for water sports, and camping. Around this vicinity a town’s population can zoom from 10,000 to a million in one season.

Restrictions on buildings over three stories high reduce availability of hotel accommodations to a certain extent since there is only so much shoreline to go around. For this reason, the accessibility of reservations is best at least six months in advance. It’s a toss up to say exactly why this area is so popular, but activities galore might be part of the reason. In addition to this, ferries shuttle vacationers to three different islands.

In the village of Marblehead, which occupies the extreme tip of what I can best describe as a peninsula, visitors can catch a ferry to Kelley’s Island for dinner and drinks. Marblehead is an interesting area that is experiencing growth while preserving some of its historical quaintness. The Kukay building, which was once an old movie theatre, is newly renovated with deference to the older qualities of the architecture.

Today this building houses a restaurant, a coffee shop with wireless LAN, and The ExLibris bookstore whose proceeds go to establishing a permanent village library. Visitors who take the quieter vacations flock to this bookstore where hardbacks are only two dollars, and paperbacks go for a dollar.

Next-door neighbor to the Kukay building is Wee Willie’s tavern, a great place for beers and football games, where they also serve delicious French fries prepared with no transfats. Not too far away is a gorgeous Russian Orthodox Church that sponsors a yearly Halupka Festival in August. The polka dancing and ethnic buffet make for an unbeatable good time. Around the bend is one of the few remaining lighthouses in the U.S.A.

Two other ferries, located a little farther north in the town of Port Clinton, transport cars and people to an island called Put In Bay, the home of two historical wineries. Lake Erie plays host to such a busy array of activities that visitors often prefer the jet express ferry to be transported back and forth so they can hurry on to the next event. My favorite time of year to visit Put In Bay is the fourth of July, when historic reenactments with real Muzzleloader rifles replicate the War of Independence. Scaling to the top of Perry Monument gives more perspective of the famous battles. A lot of people bring children, but if you do, I recommend steering clear of the main street revelry in this case. Free shuttles can veer around the more adult activities, and people can have picnics in the park where swings and sandboxes are available. The beaches everywhere around Lake Erie are good for taking kids swimming because the water stays shallow near the water's for a long way into the lake.

As the original draw, boating, fishing and camping are still popular activities. Walleye and perch remain the foremost catch. Some people boat the inlets for water skiing. Others easily trailer jets skis for use on Sandusky bay, which is on the south side of the “peninsula.” Water parks and miniature golf courses are dotted around. Across the bay, in Sandusky, is the famous amusement park, Cedar Point.

When the chaos of the tourist season is over, the desolate cold winters have a whole different set of visitors who like to avoid the crowds. Colorful Ohio autumns lead to an oddly serene and beautiful desolation. Without the leaves on the trees, it’s a black and white photograph of frozen shorelines and gray-blue skies. Lending to the restful type of vacation, Reiki Massage is available throughout the year.

Hopefully I haven’t made this sound like a fairytale, although there’s a life-size fiberglass dinosaur right around the corner from my house. As per usual, everything has a down side. Sometimes the traffic is congested since there is only one main road that leads around the finger shaped piece of land between two bodies of water. A little planning minimizes this factor if a trip is plotted to make right turns only. Getting stuck behind slow driving tourists gets annoying, so this is to be expected during peak season. Every now and then there is a chance to pass. I’m very picky about restaurants, and though plentiful, I often find the quality is lacking. A few good places are turning up since this area is experiencing a growth spurt. All the same, accommodating the sudden population explosion is tough for local businesses insofar as finding good employees, who merely get crash courses instead of thorough training. Still, the trade off is worthwhile since there is so much to offer in the way of recreation. Lake Erie is a summer vacation place that has something for everyone.

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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