Thirty-six properties are on the market around Lake of Egypt right now — 21 houses and 15 lots, $29,000 to $1.5 million, about $12.5 million in total asking price.
Seven of them listed in the last fifteen days. One went up yesterday. And nine of them have been sitting since June or earlier.
That spread is the most useful thing on this page, because the lake market is not one market. It is two, and they behave nothing alike.
Houses Move. Land Waits.
| Listings | Median days on market | Under 45 days | Past 90 days | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Houses | 21 | 38 days | 13 (65%) | 3 (15%) |
| Land & lots | 15 | 88 days | 5 (33%) | 6 (40%) |
A lot at Lake of Egypt sits more than twice as long as a house does, and it is nearly three times as likely to still be for sale after three months. Two-thirds of the houses are gone from the board inside six weeks. Two-thirds of the land is still there after six weeks.
None of that is a knock on the lots — we spent last Tuesday's post on why lake land is the most affordable way in, and that is still true. It is a statement about who is shopping. A finished house sells to anybody who wants to be on the water this summer. A lot sells only to the much smaller group of people who want to be on the water and are prepared to build, which means a builder, a construction loan, a perc test and a year of patience. Fewer buyers means longer listings. That is the whole mechanism.
For a buyer, that is worth knowing before you start: if you want a house, be ready to move in days. If you want a lot, you will probably have room to think — and room to negotiate.
The Seven That Just Listed
🏠 Bermuda Dr, Marion — $395,000 · listed yesterday
The newest thing on the lake, on the board for one day. Twenty-four hundred square feet with three full baths, built in 2000, and priced at $161 a foot against a $191 median for lake houses — under the going rate per foot for the area, in a size and vintage that tends to move fast here. If you have been waiting for something to come up, this is what "come up" looks like, and the houses in this bracket have been averaging thirty-eight days.
🏝️ S Lakeshore Dr, Goreville — $425,000 · 12 days
Lakeshore Drive is Lakeshore Drive — the address does a lot of the talking, and the per-foot price reflects it at $216 against that $191 median. You are not paying for square footage on this one. You are paying for where it sits, which is the entire logic of lakefront pricing and the reason a 1,964-square-foot house here asks more per foot than a larger one a mile inland.
⭐ Cherokee Dr, Goreville — $129,900 · 11 days
This is the one to look at twice. A four-year-old three-bedroom, in the lake area, under $130,000. At $108 a foot it is the cheapest per-foot house on this entire list, and it is also one of the newest structures on it. Most of what sells cheap around here is old. This is not old. Whatever the trade-off turns out to be — setting, lot, distance to water, access — it is worth finding out in person rather than guessing from a screen, and at eleven days it has not been sitting.
The other three new arrivals are all land: a lot on Otis St in Marion at $29,000 (11 days), Kyler Ct in Marion at $50,000 (15 days), and Friendship Loop Rd in Goreville at $99,000 (12 days). There is also an $86,000 two-bedroom on Steele Acres Ln listed two days ago by the owner directly.
💰 The Good Ones Go in Five Weeks
Half the houses at the lake are under contract inside 38 days. If you are not pre-qualified when the right one lists, you are not really in the running. Free, no-pressure pre-qual with Jarod Sanders, SIRE's in-house lender.Jarod Sanders · CrossCountry Mortgage · NMLS #2337228
And the Nine That Have Been Waiting
At the other end of the board, nine listings have passed ninety days. The two longest:
| Property | Asking | Days listed | Type |
|---|---|---|---|
| Lake Of Egypt Rd, Marion | $189,900 | 231 | House |
| Grange Hall Rd, Marion | $1,500,000 | 217 | Land, 19.8 acres |
| Clifty Heights Rd | $125,000 | 149 | Land |
| Mcbride Ct | $90,000 | 106 | Land |
| N Shoreland Dr, Marion | $85,000 | 103 | Land |
| Bahama Dr, Marion | $449,000 | 101 | House |
Two of those we have written about before. Bahama Dr was a spotlight in our August 30th lake post, when it had been listed about ten weeks; it is now past a hundred days. The 19.8-acre Grange Hall parcel appeared in last week's land post as the top of the market, and it has been available since February.
An important caution about what that column does and does not mean. Days on market measures how long a listing has been available. It is not a price history, and we are not going to tell you which of these have been reduced, because we do not have verified price-change records for them and we are not going to guess at somebody's pricing decisions in public. A long listing can mean an ambitious price. It can also mean a specialized property waiting for the one right buyer — which is exactly what a $1.5 million twenty-acre parcel is.
What it does mean, practically: a seller at day 150 has had a lot of time to get realistic, and a seller at day 3 has not. If you are a buyer with patience, the bottom of that table is where your leverage lives. If you are a seller somewhere in it, the market has been telling you something for a while now, and a broker who will say so plainly is worth more to you than one who will not.
Everything on the Market at the Lake
Live listings around Lake of Egypt, newest first — the same feed our brokers work from.
What Greg Holthaus Tells People Shopping the Lake
Thirty-eight days is the number I would tattoo on a lake buyer's hand. That is the median for houses out here, which means half of them are spoken for faster than that, and the good ones are always in the faster half. People tell me they want to watch the market for a few months and see what comes up. What actually happens is they watch three houses they liked go under contract while they are still deciding whether to get pre-qualified.
Land is the opposite and you should treat it that way. Eighty-eight days is the median for lots, two out of five are still sitting after three months, and nobody is going to outbid you on Thursday. Take your time, walk it, get the perc test, ask the questions. The patience that costs you a house is the patience that gets you a better deal on a lot.
And if you are the one at two hundred and thirty days — call me or call somebody. Two hundred and thirty days is not bad luck.
Lake of Egypt Market FAQ
How many homes are for sale at Lake of Egypt right now?
How fast do homes sell at Lake of Egypt?
Why does lake land take longer to sell than lake houses?
What does a long time on market tell a buyer?
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📱 Got a Question About This Market? Text Greg.
Buying? Selling? Not sure where to start? Text Greg Holthaus directly — just tell him you saw his blog. He'll help you think through your decision, match you with the best broker for your situation, and point you in the right direction. He's open to a text any time.
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Who is Greg Holthaus?
Greg Holthaus is the Owner and Designated Managing Broker of Southern Illinois Realty Experts, with 25+ years in Southern Illinois real estate and more than 10,000 transactions closed. He leads a full-service operation — home sales, mortgage, title, and property management under one roof — with offices in Marion, Herrin, and Carbondale. Meet Greg ›
About the numbers: Listing counts, asking prices, sizes, build years and days-on-market come from local MLS listing data as of September 15, 2026, for active listings whose records reference Lake of Egypt in and around Marion, Creal Springs, Goreville and Tunnel Hill. “Days on market” measures how long a listing has been available — it is not a price history. We do not publish price-change claims we cannot verify, so no listing here is described as reduced. Median price per square foot for lake houses ($191) is calculated across the 21 currently listed houses that publish both bedroom count and square footage. Listings are represented by various brokerages, and any property mentioned here can go pending, sell, or change price at any time — if something catches your eye, reach out and we will confirm current status. Nothing here is a loan offer, rate quote, or guarantee. Southern Illinois Realty Experts is an Equal Housing Opportunity brokerage.