Lake Geneva and The Southern Lakes Lake Association 2020-2026 Real Estate Study
By Kim and Joel Reyenga, eXp Realty | YourWiscoHome.com
Quick answer: Lake association homes are the volume market in the Lake Geneva and Southern Lakes Region, with 1,654 single family closings between 2020 and 2026 and a median that rose from $270,000 to $423,273. The thing most buyers actually want is a boat slip, and only 205 of those sales carried language proving the slip transfers. When the association waiting list is too long, a dockominium is the way around it.
This study covers what a lake access home has sold for, association by association, what a documented slip adds, and what a deeded slip costs on its own.
What lake access actually means
Lake access means you own a right to use water you do not own. That right takes 4 forms, and they are not interchangeable:
- A deeded easement to a named outlot or pier, recorded against your parcel
- An association membership that conveys with the home and carries dues
- An undivided or shared interest in a lake lot held by a group of owners
- A waitlist position for a slip, which is not a property right at all
The first 3 convey. The fourth often does not. That distinction is the subject of half this page, and it is one of the 4 ownership types that define this market.
Lake access outsells lakefront
Across the 26 lakes, 1,654 single family lake association homes closed between 2020 and 2026, against 859 lakefront sales. Lakefront is the smaller and more expensive segment.
Put another way, most people who say they own on a lake here own a right rather than a shore.
| Year | Sales | Median |
|---|---|---|
| 2020 | 326 | $270,000 |
| 2021 | 285 | $305,000 |
| 2022 | 242 | $327,000 |
| 2023 | 207 | $355,000 |
| 2024 | 237 | $397,500 |
| 2025 | 224 | $407,500 |
| 2026 YTD | 133 | $423,273 |
The median is up 56.8 percent since 2020 while annual volume fell by roughly 40 percent from the 2020 peak. Fewer of these houses trade every year, and the ones that do trade higher. For current month-to-month conditions rather than the 7-year view, see the latest market update. Trailing 12 months, the segment ran 216 sales at a $425,000 median, up 12.8 percent over the prior 12 months even as volume slipped 8.5 percent.
The largest lake associations by closed volume
83 named associations cleared 3 or more sales since 2020. These are the 20 largest.
| Association | Lake | Sales 2020-2026 | Median | Confirmed slips |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Country Club Estates | Geneva Lake | 137 | $635,000 | 1 |
| Lake Como Beach | Lake Como | 129 | $290,000 | 0 |
| Oakwood Hills | Bohners Lake | 60 | $262,500 | 2 |
| Delmar | Delavan Lake | 54 | $213,000 | 0 |
| Cedar Point Park | Geneva Lake | 40 | $682,500 | 0 |
| Lake Elizabeth Manor | Lake Elizabeth | 32 | $252,250 | 0 |
| Mariner Hills | Lauderdale Lakes | 26 | $253,500 | 3 |
| Cedar Park | Browns Lake | 21 | $209,000 | 0 |
| View Crest | Delavan Lake | 20 | $380,000 | 11 |
| Delavan Highlands | Delavan Lake | 19 | $320,000 | 1 |
| Interlaken | Lake Wandawega | 19 | $275,000 | 0 |
| Sunset Hills | Geneva Lake | 17 | $595,000 | 0 |
| Knollwood | Geneva Lake | 15 | $670,000 | 0 |
| Assembly Park | Delavan Lake | 14 | $252,100 | 0 |
| Glenwood Springs | Geneva Lake | 14 | $725,000 | 0 |
| Lake Wandawega | Lake Wandawega | 12 | $325,000 | 0 |
| Scattered Oaks | Whitewater Lake | 11 | $360,000 | 0 |
| Indian Hills | Geneva Lake | 10 | $775,800 | 0 |
| Wooddale | Geneva Lake | 10 | $695,000 | 2 |
| Ravenswood | Delavan Lake | 9 | $400,000 | 3 |
Two things stand out. Geneva Lake associations occupy 7 of the 20 and carry the highest medians, which is what you would expect. And View Crest on Delavan Lake shows 11 confirmed transferable slips against 20 sales, by far the highest slip density of any association on the list. That is not an accident of the data. It is a structural feature of that association, and it shows up in how those homes get priced.
The slip problem
Here is the number that should change how you shop. Across all 2,433 lake association records since 2020:
| Slip status in the listing | Records |
|---|---|
| No slip mentioned | 1,198 |
| Pier or dock feature, transferability unclear | 439 |
| Waitlist, rental, or no slip | 216 |
| Slip or pier mentioned, transferability unclear | 215 |
| Confirmed transferable or included | 205 |
| Boat slip feature, transferability unclear | 160 |
814 listings mentioned a slip, pier or dock without making clear whether it transfers. Only 205 said so explicitly.
That gap is where deals go wrong. A listing that says "boat slip" may mean a deeded slip that conveys at closing, an association assignment that runs with the property, or the seller's position on a waiting list that resets the moment the property changes hands. All 3 look identical in a listing photo.
Ask for the recorded instrument or the association bylaw. Not the listing sheet. If the seller cannot produce it, treat the slip as worth nothing until they can. This is the same discipline that keeps a listing from overpromising the lifestyle it cannot document.
Where confirmed slips actually exist
| Lake | Confirmed transferable slips | Median sale price |
|---|---|---|
| Geneva Lake | 65 | $1,010,000 |
| Lauderdale Lakes | 51 | $425,000 |
| Delavan Lake | 31 | $416,000 |
| Browns Lake | 19 | $245,000 |
| Lake Mary | 18 | $392,000 |
| Whitewater Lake | 8 | $200,550 |
| Powers Lake | 5 | $750,000 |
| Lake Elizabeth | 3 | $156,000 |
Lakes with fewer than 3 confirmed slip sales are not listed, because the count is too thin to describe a market.
Documented slips are also getting scarcer. Confirmed slip sales ran 45 in 2020 and 50 in 2021, then dropped to 22, 21 and 20 across 2022 through 2024, recovered to 37 in 2025, and stand at 10 so far in 2026. Whatever the cause, a buyer competing for one today is competing in a thinner field than a buyer in 2021 was.
What a confirmed slip is worth
Compare lake association single family homes that carried a confirmed transferable slip against homes on the same lake that carried none.
| Lake | With confirmed slip | Without | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Geneva Lake | $1,372,000 (32 sales) | $650,000 (190 sales) | 111% |
| Delavan Lake | $410,000 (28 sales) | $272,500 (119 sales) | 50% |
| Lake Mary | $350,000 (3 sales) | $235,700 (26 sales) | 48% |
| Lauderdale Lakes | $475,000 (37 sales) | $398,750 (20 sales) | 19% |
Read this carefully. It compares medians and does not control for anything else. Homes with confirmed slips also tend to sit in better-located associations, closer to the water, on better streets. Some of that gap is location rather than the slip itself, and this data cannot separate the two.
What the table does establish is direction and scale. On Geneva Lake the spread is large enough that documenting a slip before listing is the highest-return hour a seller in this segment can spend. On the Lauderdale chain, where slips are common enough to be unremarkable, the spread narrows to 19 percent.
Lake condominiums carry slips too
92 of the 205 confirmed transferable slips since 2020 attached to lake condominium units rather than single family homes. The remaining 113 were single family.
Condominium slip policy is set by the association declaration and can differ from what a seller believes, which is covered separately. Geneva National and Abbey Springs both illustrate the point, and our guide to selling in Fontana goes deeper on the Abbey Springs structure.
When the waiting list is the problem
Association slips at the larger communities run on waiting lists. Abbey Springs, for one, allocates its Lakefront Yacht Club slips and in-and-out marina service that way. Lakefront access comes with ownership. A specific slip does not.
If the list is long, there is a way around it: buy the slip itself.
The dockominium
A dockominium is a boat slip that has been condominiumized and sold as its own parcel of real estate. It has a tax key. It has a deed. It has no house, no roof and no lawn.
Every dockominium sale in the Lake Geneva and Southern Lakes Region since 2020 has been at Abbey Harbor in Fontana, on Geneva Lake. All 46 of them. There is no second market anywhere in the region.
That makes Abbey Harbor the only clean price signal for a deeded Geneva Lake slip, which is why appraisers reach for it.
| Year | Sales | Median | Range |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2020 | 8 | $187,500 | $157,700 to $207,000 |
| 2021 | 5 | $214,999 | $182,000 to $224,999 |
| 2022 | 8 | $283,190 | $220,000 to $325,000 |
| 2023 | 7 | $340,000 | $220,000 to $375,000 |
| 2024 | 10 | $359,500 | $251,000 to $390,000 |
| 2025 | 6 | $386,000 | $282,000 to $435,000 |
| 2026 YTD | 2 | $442,500 | $440,000 to $445,000 |
Seven consecutive years of gains, with no down year. A slip that traded at $187,500 in 2020 trades near $442,500 today, a 136 percent move. Across all 46 sales the median is $325,000 and the full range runs $157,700 to $445,000, with size and location in the harbor driving the spread.
Two caveats worth stating. The 2026 figure rests on 2 sales, so treat it as an indication rather than a settled market, the same way a thin comparable set widens appraisal risk. And a dockominium is a separate purchase from a home, financed differently, so talk to a lender who has done one before you assume terms.
How to document a slip before you list
If you own a lake association home and believe you have a slip, do this before the photos are taken:
- Find the recorded instrument, the association bylaw, or the assignment letter that creates the right
- Confirm in writing whether the right transfers on sale or terminates
- If it is a waitlist position, confirm whether the position transfers or resets
- Get the slip number, dimensions and location in writing
- Give all of it to your agent before the listing goes live, not during attorney review
A slip you can prove is an asset. A slip you cannot prove is a disclosure problem, and it surfaces at the worst possible moment. If the property is a second home you use a dozen weekends a year, gather the documents on a trip up rather than under deadline.
Methodology
Data comes from a flexmls export of 15,555 Single Family and Condominium records covering full calendar years 2020 through 2026 year to date, as of August 21, 2026, deduplicated to 14,799 closed sales. The trailing 12 month window runs August 22, 2025 through August 21, 2026.
Lake association records are non-lakefront properties with MLS water access or rights, or an association indicator, tied to one of the 26 lakes in the region: 1,654 single family and 779 condominium, 2,433 total.
A slip is counted as confirmed only where listing language explicitly supports a transferable, deeded, assigned, guaranteed, included or property-specific slip or pier berth. Generic mentions are counted as unclear rather than assumed. This is deliberately conservative, so the real number of transferable slips is probably somewhat higher than 205.
Association names were normalized before medians were computed, because the MLS subdivision field is free text and the same association appears spelled several ways. Medians were recomputed from underlying sold prices rather than averaged from published medians.
Medians describe the mix of properties that sold. They are not a repeat-sales index and should not be read as the appreciation of any individual property.
Frequently asked questions
Does a boat slip transfer when I buy a lake access home?
Not automatically. Of 2,433 lake association sales in the region since 2020, only 205 carried listing language explicit enough to confirm the slip transfers. Another 814 mentioned a slip, pier or dock without making transferability clear, and 216 were waitlist, rental or no slip. Ask for the recorded instrument or the association bylaw before you assign any value to a slip.
How much is a boat slip worth on Geneva Lake?
Two ways to measure it. Sold on its own as a dockominium at Abbey Harbor in Fontana, the median moved from $187,500 in 2020 to $442,500 in 2026 year to date. Attached to a home, Geneva Lake lake association homes with a confirmed transferable slip carried a $1,372,000 median across 32 sales against $650,000 for 190 sales without one, though that comparison does not control for location.
What is a dockominium?
A boat slip that has been condominiumized and sold as its own parcel of real estate, with its own tax key and deed and no dwelling attached. In the Lake Geneva and Southern Lakes Region, all 46 dockominium sales since 2020 have been at Abbey Harbor in Fontana on Geneva Lake.
What is the difference between deeded and association lake access?
A deeded easement is recorded against your parcel and runs with the land. Association access comes through a membership that conveys with the home and carries dues, with use governed by the association's rules. A shared or undivided interest in a lake lot is a third form. A waitlist position is not a property right and may not survive a sale.
Which lake association has the most homes selling?
Country Club Estates on Geneva Lake, with 137 closed sales between 2020 and 2026 at a $635,000 median, followed by Lake Como Beach on Lake Como with 129 sales at $290,000 and Oakwood Hills on Bohners Lake with 60 sales at $262,500.
How long is the boat slip waiting list?
It varies by association and no association publishes a standing figure, so the only reliable answer comes from the association itself. Ask where a specific property sits on the list, whether that position transfers on sale, and what the recent turnover has been. If the wait is longer than you want, a deeded dockominium is the alternative.
Find out what your slip is worth
Most sellers in this segment have never had anyone tell them whether their lake access is documented, and most buyers have never been told to ask. We have run every lake association sale in the region back to 2020 and traced every slip the listing language could confirm.
If you are selling, we will tell you whether your slip is worth documenting before we list. If you are buying, we will tell you exactly what conveys before you write an offer. Call Kim and Joel Reyenga at (262) 325-9867, or request a property valuation.
Start with the regional overview if you are still deciding which lake, or browse current lake and lake-access listings. For the lakes themselves, our companion lifestyle site covers all 26.