A bulldozer used in continuing erosion mitigation at Portage Lakefront and Riverwalk sits parked near the shore Wednesday, September 2, 2020. (Kyle Telechan / Post-Tribune)
Lakefront erosion is not hurting property values for communities along Lake Michigan’s shoreline, where housing prices have been on the rise since months after the COVID-19 pandemic and because of Illinois residents heading across state lines for lower taxes.
That was the takeaway of a Thursday panel discussion featuring local real estate agents, a representative of the Porter County Assessor’s Office who handles residential assessments, and members of the Porter County Property Tax Assessment Board of Appeals.
Many lakefront homes are actually across the road from Lake Michigan and its beaches, distancing them from rising lake levels that are eating away at beach space, said Beth Doherty, a real estate agent who works in Beverly Shores and Dune Acres.
This year’s real estate market, she said, started hot and slowed because of the pandemic.
“Then somebody let the cat out of the bag and it hasn’t slowed down since,” she said. “I haven’t seen an impact on property values so far.”
Real estate agent Mark Hull, who lives in Dune Acres, said lake levels go up and down but this year has been an exception.
“It seems to be as bad as I’ve ever seen it,” he said, adding Ogden Dunes was especially bad. “There’s almost no beach there.”
He gets a lot of concerned calls from Chicago residents looking at homes in the dunes, he said, and can’t be sure lake levels will stop rising.
“Has it impacted the values? It’s hard to see. It’s a special situation with COVID. A lot of people from Chicago are wanting to escape the city,” he said, adding there aren’t a lot of homes available on the lakefront.
With hiking and biking trails, birdwatching and other pursuits available in lakefront communities, Herndon said she thinks people buy homes there “for other reasons than the lake.” Since high waters and shrinking beaches have been an issue for so long, she added, many people don’t know that the communities once had beautiful beaches.
“I think people are hoping it will go down,” she said of the lake levels.
Ogden Dunes resident Joe Repay, one of a handful of people who attended the panel, said he was always told his assessment was high because he was by the beach, but now panelists were saying it was other things.
He added that his property values haven’t returned to the high level they were at in 2008.
“This kind of thing is going to go away,” he said, adding he doesn’t think property values will remain high, which should be taken into consideration. “Illinois is going to run out of people to come over.”
Peggy Hendron, who handles residential assessments for the assessor’s office, said the office started getting calls and emails during the spring from property owners who wanted to know if they would get a rebate because of the erosion.
Between erosion and the pandemic, Hendron said, she figured there was no way home values should’ve gone up until she went through recent sales.
“On the lakefront there a lot of sales and almost every sale has been going for over the assessed valuation,” she said.
In Beverly Shores, where sales have been trending upwards and there have been 25 sales so far this year, Hendron said there are five active listings, ranging from $575,000 to $1.6 million.
Additionally, sale prices have been averaging $287,000 more than assessed valuation.
“When I look at this, I would come to the same conclusion” as the real estate agents, she said, adding some recent homebuyers already have filed for remodeling permits for large-scale projects like in-ground pools and expansions.
Assessor Jon Snyder, who organized the panel discussion and serves as secretary for the PTABOA, said the increase in property values was a surprise to him as well.
“When I started looking into it over the summer, I thought there would be a massive loss to property values,” he said, adding the pandemic and Illinois residents fleeing higher taxes helped drive values up despite the erosion. “I’m really shocked by the number of sales and the amount they’re selling for.”
Property values in Porter County continue to be “very strong,” he said, though the county could face the economic crisis it had when Bethlehem Steel declared bankruptcy.
“But the real estate here has been amazing. Hopefully that will continue,” he said.
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