💰 Lake Financing Is Not Always Ordinary Financing
A second home, a seasonal cabin and a primary residence are three different loans, and a small lake cottage can be harder to finance than a bigger house in town. Worth a ten-minute conversation before you fall for one. Free pre-qualification with Jarod Sanders, SIRE’s in-house lender.Jarod Sanders · CrossCountry Mortgage · NMLS #2337228
Thirty-six listings are on the market around the Lake of Egypt this morning: 22 houses and 13 lots, from $86,000 to $850,000, with the middle of the house market sitting right around $424,000.
That spread is the whole point of this lake. It is not one market with one kind of buyer. So here is the snapshot, and then three houses — the top of it, the middle of it, and the way in.
Yesterday’s Yardstick Does Not Work Here
In yesterday’s Market Monday we compared nine towns on asking price per square foot, and it was a useful way to see the region. At the lake it falls apart completely.
Right now the per-foot figures on lake houses run from about $88 to about $612 — a seven-to-one spread inside one small market. The $612 is a 621-square-foot cabin built in 2021. The $88 is a three-bedroom on more than an acre, away from the water.
Neither number is wrong and neither tells you much, because at a lake you are not buying square footage. You are buying the water, and how close you are to it. Two houses a quarter mile apart can differ by a factor of three per foot for reasons that have nothing to do with the houses. When somebody quotes you a per-foot number out here, ask what it is measuring.
The Top of the Market
🏠 11514 Julie Ln, Marion — $850,000
5 bed, 3 bath, 3,648 sq ft, built 2006, about $233 per square foot. Listed 32 days.
The most expensive house on the lake right now, and notably not the most expensive per foot — four smaller listings ask more per square foot than this one does. That is the lake pricing its position rather than its floor plan.
For scale, the next two are $699,900 and $655,000, and only five of the 22 houses are asking above $500,000. The top of this market is thin, which is normal here and worth knowing if you are selling into it: your buyer pool is a handful of people, and they are not in a hurry.
The Middle
🏠 1195 N Lake Shore Dr, Goreville — $459,000
4 bed, 2 bath, 2,240 sq ft, built 1981, about $205 per square foot. Listed 87 days.
Almost exactly the middle of this market, and a fair picture of what the middle looks like: a four-bedroom from the early eighties, on the lake, at a price where most of what you are paying for is the address.
The middle is where the lake actually trades. Fourteen of the 22 houses are priced between $300,000 and $600,000, and that band is moving reasonably — several listings in it are at 6, 8, 19 and 26 days.
The Way In
🏠 45 Donetta Ln, Creal Springs — $109,000
3 bed, 2 bath, 1,232 sq ft, built 1993, about $88 per square foot. Listed 43 days.
The cheapest per foot on the board and one of only four houses in the lake search under $200,000. This is the honest version of “getting into the lake area” — a normal 1990s house, near the lake rather than on it.
And that distinction is the one that matters most out here. A listing can mention the Lake of Egypt because it is on the water, because it has deeded access, because it is a ten-minute drive, or because the seller likes the lake. Those are four different properties and they are not four different prices — they are four different worlds of price.
We will not tell you from a listing record which of those any given house is. That is a question you answer standing in the yard, and it is most of what a local broker is actually for.
🚤 Looking at the Lake?
Tell us roughly what you are after — full-time house, weekend place, or a lot to build on — and a SIRE broker will send you what actually fits. We have been selling around this lake for years, and the difference between two listings a quarter-mile apart is usually not in the description.
The Lots
Thirteen lots are listed, from $17,000 to $1,500,000. Their median time on the market is 67 days against 43 for houses, and 5 of the 13 have been listed more than 90 days — which fits what we found last time we looked at land here. A house sells to anyone who wants the lake. A lot only sells to someone who also wants to build.
If you are thinking about a lot, the question to settle before you make an offer is not the price. It is water, septic, and what it takes to get a build approved on that particular piece of ground.
Everything on the Market Around the Lake
Live listings around the Lake of Egypt — newest first, the same feed our brokers work from.
📱 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.
Text Greg · 618.925.8654
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: Figures come from a pull of active local MLS listing data on September 22, 2026, using a search of listing remarks referencing the Lake of Egypt — 36 listings in total (22 houses, 13 lots, 1 other property type excluded from both groups). Because the search keys on listing remarks rather than a mapped shoreline, it captures homes on the water, homes with deeded or community access, and homes simply near the lake, without distinguishing between them — that distinction drives price more than anything else out here, and we are not able to determine it from a listing record. Addresses fall in Marion, Goreville, Creal Springs and Carbondale. All prices are asking prices on homes currently for sale, not closed sales. Price per square foot is calculated from listed price and published square footage. One house does not publish a day count and is excluded from time-on-market medians only, never from the listing counts. Time on market is not a price history — we can see how long a property has been listed, not whether or how it has been repriced, and a listing leaving the market is not evidence that it sold. Twenty-two houses and thirteen lots are small samples; treat the shape as sound and the precise figures as approximate. Listings are represented by various brokerages. Nothing here is an appraisal, a loan offer, or a rate quote. Southern Illinois Realty Experts is an Equal Housing Opportunity brokerage.