If the American Dream is buying a house, then owning a million-dollar mansion must be the American Fantasy.
Oh, to greet the day with a view of the lake. Oh, to watch the sunset ripples from your designer perch. Oh, oh, oh.
Sorry to fillet your fantasy, but $1 million may pay only for the dirt next to the lake.
Consider that travel entrepreneur Wayne Heller paid $3.4 million for what he considered a lakefront teardown in Winter Park, Fla., known as Casa Feliz.
A two-acre lakefront lot in Winter Park’s Windsong community just went for $2.4 million. One custom builder said that if a buyer came to him with only $1 million for house and land, he’d have to pass on the job.
“We all think that $1 million buys you a wonderful dream house … but it’s just surprising what $1 million gets you nowadays,” said longtime Orlando custom builder Ray Coudriet.
As more millionaires are minted with every stock-market success and technology buy-out, a million-dollar house just doesn’t mean the same thing it used to mean. For starters, those houses are becoming, well, common.
Two years ago, Coldwell Banker had 41 houses listed for more than $1 million in Florida. Today the company has more than 400.
“We have a lot of — and I hate this expression — but we have a lot of new money,” said Susan Antal, who oversees Coldwell Banker’s luxury-home division in Florida.
Regardless of the money’s vintage, it takes a lot of it to finance a million-dollar house.
With a 20 percent down payment, the monthly mortgage bill would be about $7,000 and you would need an annual income of about $250,000.
In the million-dollar bracket, buyers are more likely to put half the money down, requiring monthly payments of about $4,800 and annual incomes of about $190,000.
Just how many of your neighbors make that kind of money? About 1 percent of the population in central Florida has a family income of $200,000 and above, according to Orlando economist Chris Jones.
In metropolitan Orlando, the number of sales in the $750,000-and-up category more than quadrupled in four years, going from 49 in 1996 to 129 in 1999, according to the Greater Orlando Association of Realtors. Through November, 134 houses sold in that price range.
Buyers might not get the bang for their million bucks that they used to, but that much money can buy something special. That much money will get you anything from a new estate with a three-car garage in a gated community to a 1930s house with only a carport. In terms of size, age and location, $1 million buys a variety of things.
A ranch with 30 acres, indoor and outdoor horse arenas, stables, tennis court, swimming pool, pond, guest quarters and a W-shaped house in north Lake County sits next to the Ocala National Forest. It is priced at $870,000.
Million-dollar properties are selling more than ever in the rural areas, said listing agent Connie Wilhelm of Coldwell Banker Camelot. She said out-of-state buyers are plucking up nice homes on five-acre pieces of lakefront property.
“I’ve been in this business 27 years. In the past, you would have a million-dollar buyer every once in a while but not like the frequency you see today,” Wilhelm said. She estimated that she had seen 10 million-dollar buyers in the last year.
La Joya Ranch has 380 acres and a manufactured home on Carter Island Road in south Lake County. Nestled next to the Withlachoochee State Forest, the property has not yet succumbed to the growing development pressures that have consumed so many ranches and citrus groves. The price is $1.07 million.
If you’re looking for the greatest number of million-dollar listings that are new houses, go to one of the oldest parts of Central Florida, Winter Park. All but three of the 20 Winter Park houses listed for sale in the $800,000 to $1.2 million range this fall were built in 2000.
If you’re looking for the newest million-dollar houses in Central Florida, check out the place best known for old houses. The only city in Central Florida that boasts about its “olde”section has more new million-dollar babies than any local area.
Winter Park’s Windsong community expects that half of the community’s 261 lots will sell for at least $1 million, said project manager Roger Arrowsmith. Research indicates the community should be sold out in three years, he added.
Budge Huskey, former president of the Greater Orlando Association of Realtors, said, “In today’s luxury market, we are finding that $1 million is buying less in terms of land and square footage, but far more in features and finish.”
