Every home we are showing right now

On our sample data, Lake Mendota frontage runs roughly $14,000 to $26,000 per foot of shoreline depending on exposure, depth and the house itself. Lake Monona is meaningfully less, commonly $9,000 to $15,000 a foot. Lake Waubesa and Lake Ripley are lower again. Those are illustration figures, not an appraisal, and any individual property can sit well outside the range.

For most buyers, yes. Shorewood Hills residents get a beach, a pier and a slip program by village permit. Monona has a swim pier and two launches. McFarland has a village landing. You give up stepping off your own lawn into the water, and you often cut the tax bill in half.

A sectional aluminum pier with a canopy lift commonly runs $9,000 to $18,000 installed as a sample figure, plus $600 to $1,200 a year for seasonal in-and-out service. Permanent crib piers are a different order of cost and usually come with the property.

Yes. Mendota typically closes in early January and opens in late March or early April, though it varies a lot year to year. For the house it means ice pressure against the shoreline, so you want to see the condition of any seawall, rip-rap or crib work before you buy.