Kezar Lake Lakefront Property Nudges $4.5 Million

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May 3, 2009
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May 8, 2009

Kezar Lake Lakefront Property Nudges $4.5 Million


As a real estate broker specializing in the purchase and sale of lakefront property I often hear from folks how expensive lakefront real estate is. Well, it’s true. It has become expensive – I agree – but I also like to point out that you used to get a year at Harvard for $8,000. Remember when Ford introduced the Maverick? Brand new for $1,995! But I date myself. The point is that lakefront property is expensive – compared to what it used to cost. And so is everything else.
Then I saw this listing on Kezar Lake in Lovell – a 4 bedroom, 4.5 bath contemporary with 290 feet of frontage on Kezar Lake sitting on 3.7 acres. The list price? $4,495,000.
Now, let me say right up front, I have never seen this property. No doubt, this is one fantastic and wonderful property and I’m sure the listing broker and the owner have excellent reasons for arriving at the asking price they did. However, I have just been getting used to seeing properties – exceptional properties – blow through the million dollar mark around here. A two million dollar list price is a very rare property for local lakefront. Three million is unheard of. Now this. This is really expensive.
When we advise buyers what to offer for a property we ask them to look at the two main components – the lot and the structure. For example, if the structure is 2000 square feet and is of average or better contruction, one might use a mulitplier of $150 per square foot for an approximate cost basis. 2000 sf x $150 equals $300,000 – the estimated value of the structure.
The value of the lot is a little trickier because its value is determined by its size, its amount of frontage on the lake, the contours of the terrain, what the entry into the water is like, and what the lake itself is like. This is where an experienced real estate agent with lakefront knowledge can really help.
When I looked at this $4.5 million listing I said to myself, “Well, maybe it is of the most superb and incredible construction, so let’s more than double the construction estimator to $350 per square foot. This house is 5000 sf, so that’s $1.75 million in the structure. That still leaves a balance of $2.75 million for the lot – 3.7 acres with 290 feet of shorefrontage on Kezar Lake. This may be a little unfair (like trying to figure out how much A-Rod gets paid for each plate appearance), but that’s more than $9,400 per linear foot of shore frontage.”
Now, you will get no argument from me that Kezar Lake is one of the most desireable lakes around and necessarily commands the highest prices for lakefront properties. (I will write more about the attractions of Kezar Lake in a future blog). In fact, there well may be someone out there who would part with $4.5 million to own such a magnificient property. Good luck to all involved. (Heck, maybe I’ll bring the buyer!) But, for someone who remembers the $1,995 Ford Maverick, $4.5 million is an awfully big number.

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