Affordable Waterfront -- Want To Live By Water? Look Beyond The Sound To The Region's Many Lakes

These summer months are when the dream starts. Rather than having to pile into the car for a trip to the beach, why not live there?

Indeed, beyond having a view, nothing else is as dear to Seattle-area residents as the idea of owning a waterfront house. But then reality interrupts the dream in the form of the too-rich price tag: $700,000 to several million to live on Lakes Washington or Sammamish or close-in Puget Sound.

What many waterfront dreamers may not realize is those aren't the only ponds in town. The western third of King County alone has about 80 lakes, "and the majority of them we'd find people living on," notes Sharon Walton, lake specialist for the King County Water and Land Resource Division.

Add Pierce County, home of the 2,296-acre Lake Tapps, and Snohomish County, which counts Lake Stevens as the largest of roughly two dozen livable lakes, and we're talking massive amounts of shoreline within commuting distance of major employment centers.

"There are just all kinds of little lakes, and they're affordable," observes Helen Svenson, a John L. Scott agent who lives on Seatac's Angle Lake. "You can go to Puget Sound and pay a fortune for a little piece of property - or you can come to a lake and swim."

Ann Philbrick-Walton, who lives on Lake Tapps and sells property there for John L. Scott, says lake living attracts "all different types, but basically they're recreational people. They want skiing and boating and swimming."

Philbrick-Walton says that while the market has been strong, lakefront is not drawing multiple offers.

Among those who this summer bought waterfront - for their first home, no less - are Todd and Janet Gibson. He works in radio advertising sales, she's an educator. They started their house search on the Sammamish Plateau, and waterfront wasn't even an inkling.

But when the Gibsons learned they'd need to spend a couple of hundred thousand for a basic house - then realized what those dollars would buy in South King County, "it shifted our whole mode of thinking," Todd says.

By having their financing lined up and being the first offer, the Gibsons snared a 1,000-square-foot, two-bedroom, two-bath waterfront house in prime condition for about $160,000. It's on Steel Lake.

Even though living in Federal Way means long commutes to work - Todd's in downtown Seattle, and Janet's in Redmond - the decision to buy wasn't hard.

"You realize there's only so much waterfront," Todd says, "so your property should retain its value no matter what. And it helps when you wake up and look at that" - that being racing sculls plying the early morning water and bird life amid the lily pads near his dock.

According to King County lake specialist Walton, this area's many lakes were carved by receding glaciers and are fed by stream flow. They range in size from Lake Washington, which covers 22,000 acres, down to 1.3-acre Fury Lake - a beaver pond, actually - just northeast of Snoqualmie.

Many of the lesser-known residential lakes are under 100 acres; by comparison, Seattle's popular Green Lake is 255 acres.

Individual preference

Walton says each lake has "its own character and people move to them for different reasons. Some very small lakes may have only a dozen houses or so. They tend to be very quiet reprieves from the rest of the world."

Among the quieter ones are Pipe, Lucerne and Desire, all in South King County. None allows power boats, but that hardly spoils fishing for trout, perch, bass or other species.

Others, including King County's Sawyer and Meridian, at 279 acres and 150 acres respectively, and Pierce County's 2,296-acre Lake Tapps, draw avid recreational users because they allow power boats and water skiing.

But would-be buyers should know that sometimes this can change. For example, Lake Wilderness, just south of Maple Valley, used to allow 8-mile-per-hour power boat usage on its 67 acres. Last year the Lake Wilderness Preservation Association successfully petitioned the King County Council to get motors off the lake.

"Partly it was for safety purposes, partly for getting oil off, partly for the noise," explains Roger King, association president.

From Walton's perspective, what's important isn't so much a lake's usage, but the quality of the water entering it. "That's key. High quality water generally means a quality lake system. Those with a rich lake bottom support more biological life."

Those with a lesser quality water supply are more in danger of being loved to death by development - which could endanger swimming as noxious weeds proliferate and water quality drops.

From Claudia Naibert's perspective as an associate broker in Windermere's Federal Way office, the many lakes in her area are plain good business - and have been for years.

"These lakes were built up pretty early . . . in the 1940s and 1950s. Probably they (the homes) were summer houses at one time, but now people live on lakes year around and commute to work."

Any good deals left?

Are there any lakes that are still relatively undiscovered? Naibert laughs. "Not anymore; they're a pretty desirable commodity."

How about someplace waterfront land can still be had, if not for a song, at least a short symphony?

John L. Scott agent John Nelson says even lots on a relatively unknown lake like Debra Jane (within the town limits of Bonney Lake) command $60,000-$70,000 - making it unlikely people would buy waterfront land to camp on or move in an inexpensive trailer.

And prices are going up, Nelson says. "What we've seen since the spring of this year is much more demand, and they're (buildable lots) going more quickly."

While there are no undiscovered lakes, there are a few that look that way. Touring South End waterfront recently, Naibert pulled up to one.

Bonnie Tanner is selling her two-story, three-bedroom home on Kent's tiny Lake Fenwick - only 18 acres and shaped like an elongated throat lozenge. She loves it there, but now that she's retired, she wants to travel. Priced at $312,000, the deal includes an adjacent cottage that rents for $650 a month.

Much of Lake Fenwick's west side will never be built upon because it's a park. As Tanner leads visitors onto her spacious deck overlooking the lake, it becomes obvious why the east side cannot be developed.

It's a forested hillside so steep the county has forbidden it. Looking at the lake and the trees every day, "I find it really restful," Tanner says. "There are so many birds I couldn't begin to count them all."

Yet the remoteness is deceiving because Fenwick is located between the Valley Freeway and I-5, making it easily commutable.

Tanner thinks her home probably began as a 1930s cabin, then grew, and points to a quaint, obviously old rock fireplace as proof.

As Naibert continues her home tour, visiting a $219,000 property on Star Lake, a $269,000 home on Steel Lake and one on Geneva listed for $207,000, it becomes obvious that older homes are the norm.

Indeed, though lovingly maintained, these less-expensive homes quite often have 1950s or `60s floor plans and features: single-pane windows, small closets, sparkle ceilings, carports.

Naibert estimates they'd sell for $50,000 to $100,000 less if they were in the same neighborhoods, but not waterfront.

Touring the solidly built 1950s Star Lake home - its cramped dining area off the kitchen also doubles as the home's entry - Naibert predicts "somebody will buy and remodel."

That's what often happens to lakefront properties, she says. If so, the new owners must be mindful of regulations regarding wetlands, and if they have a septic system instead of a sewer hookup, that may affect what they can do, too.

Lakefront, or new home?

Naibert says buyers often start out wanting both lakefront and a newer home with modern amenities. They can find those houses on some of the larger lakes, like Tapps, for instance, or Stevens, which is five miles east of Everett and recently had for sale a $334,000 four-bedroom, 2 1/2-bath home with such luxuries as a built-in vacuum system and walk-in closets.

But on smaller lakes or smaller budgets, Naibert says buyers often must make a choice - buy knowing the house needs a remodel, or forget it in favor of a home in a newer subdivision in the same area.

Often they choose the subdivision.

Even then, what they do may affect lakefront homes, notes Roger King, of the Lake Wilderness Preservation Association. And the effect of nearby development is something he thinks those who covet waterfront living should consider.

The problem, King says, is choking weeds - particularly milfoil, which is found in most area lakes, having arrived on the motors of visiting boats (many lakes have public boat ramps).

On Wilderness, the weeds' growth is spurred by lawn fertilizers that seep into the water table from nearby homes. King understands how it happens so easily.

"Imagine yourself buying a new home. You've paid $300,000-$500,000 and you want a nice green lawn. You can imagine yourself saying, `I don't live on the lake, I don't even use it, so what do I care.'

"You can't force them to do what's good for the lake," he sighs. So the burden falls on those who own Lake Wilderness waterfront.

Thus they formed their preservation association, as have owners around many area lakes.

"We're attempting to get the lake in shape, and our biggest challenge is the weeds," King reports. "We have to raise money to do that. Hopefully we can get another grant."

Another scourge is Canada geese.

On Angle Lake, Helen Svenson says, "some people feed them and they shouldn't," while others put up small flags or fences to thwart the birds' fouling their lawns and docks. Svenson's latest tactic is buying two duck-chasing dachshunds.

Still, after 32 years of lake living, Svenson says nothing - not milfoil, not development, not geese - can dim the allure.

"You can get up in the morning, and sometimes the fog is there and you can't see across the lake. Other times, it's just blue sky and blue water. It's always changing.

"The water," Svenson concludes, "is a peaceful thing."

------------------------------------ Web site offers a quick way to find out about buying waterfront property ------------------------------------

The easiest way to get a sense of available lakeside properties, besides reading the ads or contacting a realtor, is to call up the Washington State Information Network's Northwest Real Estate site on the World Wide Web at http://www.nwrealestate.com.

That site offers photos, descriptions and prices of almost all waterfront properties, including riverfront, for sale anywhere in Western Washington.

A recent King County search by city, for instance, turned up 16 waterfront listings in Issaquah alone, the least expensive being a $229,000 cottage on Pine Lake.

Over the summer, there have also been listings for a $139,950 two-bedroom home on Lake Margaret near Duvall, a $279,000 Redmond-area Ames Lake house measuring 1,800 square feet, a $187,900 three-bedroom home on Lake Wilderness in Maple Valley, and on Federal Way's Liberty Lake a couple of one-bedroom condos each priced under $40,000.

---------------------- More about local lakes ----------------------

Want to know more about local lakes? The King County Water and Land Resource Division offers a 30-page booklet, "Lakeside Logic: A Guide to Lake Stewardship in King County." The first copy is free; additional copies are $1 each. They can be ordered either by writing to the resource division at 700 Fifth Ave., Suite 2200, Seattle, WA 98104; or by phoning: 206-296-8382. That's also the number to call for questions about specific King County lakes.