DFWCRE8TIVE

'You are always on vacation'
Buyers snatching up lakefront lots not for weekend getaways but for a permanent retreat
12:00 AM CDT on Saturday, September 3, 2005
By MARICE RICHTER / The Dallas Morning News

Carl and Patsy Buck often take advantage of their covered deck near the shore of Lewisville Lake in Highland Village. But that's not good enough for him. He wants to feel like every day is the weekend. He has managed to achieve that with a home in Highland Village that is "putting distance" to the water's edge of Lewisville Lake. "Every day, it's great to be alive," said Mr. Buck, who lives in the Highland Shores development. "I sit outside in the morning, watch the sunrise, drink my coffee and read the newspaper. "It's a different lifestyle," he said. "But once it gets in your blood, you wouldn't want to live anywhere else."

Mr. Buck is hardly alone. Residents from Rockwall to northwest Fort Worth have anted up the cash to pay pricey premiums for lots overlooking lakes such as Lewisville, Grapevine, Eagle Mountain, Joe Pool and Ray Hubbard. Many lakefront homes are priced from $250,000 to upward of $1 million, depending on size and location. With choice lots dwindling on the most centrally located Dallas-Fort Worth lakes, determined buyers are grabbing fixer-upper houses – or tearing down older structures and rebuilding for the sake of the views.

Others are staking claim to lakefront lots in sleepy, out-of-the-way places like Oak Point, a community on the shores of the northwest quadrant of Lewisville Lake. The demand for property in communities such as Oak Point, Lakewood Village and Little Elm are expected to skyrocket once the planned Lewisville Lake toll bridge opens, providing a significant link for the north side of the lake. "Lewisville is a huge lake, and if you live on the north side, you are basically cut off," said Bernard Weinstein, director of the Center for Economic Development at the University of North Texas. "To get to ... [Dallas/Fort Worth International] Airport from Oak Point takes more than a hour now because you have to go around the lake.

"Once the bridge is built, you can cross the lake and get there in probably 25 to 30 minutes," he said. "That will open up possibilities for all types of development." The 1.7-mile bridge will be built by the North Texas Tollway Authority, which plans to open it in 2008. The bridge is part of a 13-mile east-west connection between Interstate 35E and the Dallas North Tollway. The bridge will cross the lake between the communities of Lake Dallas and Little Elm.

Little Elm growing
Little Elm doesn't need the bridge to spur demand or development. Ten years ago, Little Elm was a sleepy little lakefront community with a population of about 1,100. The current population estimate is about 20,000, making it one of the fastest-growing communities in North Texas. Town officials attribute part of community's population swell to the northward march of growth from Dallas County. With Frisco as its neighbor to the east, Little Elm was in the right place to catch some of the Collin County spillover, officials said.

But officials said they also believe that newcomers choose Little Elm for the laid-back, easygoing lifestyle that is disappearing from some of the more densely developed communities around the lake. More than two-thirds – or 23 miles – of Little Elm's corporate limits are shoreline on the lake. "You can still buy a lakefront lot for a reasonable price in Little Elm," said Frank Kastner, a longtime resident and member of the Town Council. "That will probably change eventually, but now it's still possible."

Despite the growth spurt, Little Elm officials say the laid-back ambience of their town is similar to places like Highland Village and Grapevine 30 to 40 years ago. In the 1950s and early 1960s, shortly after their openings, Grapevine and Lewisville lakes became weekend destinations for Dallas residents, who built second homes in the most accessible locations, including Highland Village and north Grapevine. "Highland Village was named after Highland Park because so many Highland Park residents had second homes here," said Sue Thompson, community services director for Highland Village and a longtime resident.

Soon after that, a different breed of resident started to arrive: those who would make permanent homes of the lakefront neighborhoods. Mr. Buck and his wife, Patsy, moved to one of Highland Village's original neighborhoods in 1970, after discovering the community while house hunting. "We had wanted to live in Denton because it was a college town," said Mr. Buck, who moved to the Dallas area for a new job that year. "But we really liked Highland Village because of the lake and the beautiful hilly terrain." The Bucks now live in the master-planned community of Highland Shores, where they can walk down to the lake from their back yard. "I can't imagine living anywhere else," he said.

Mix of styles
Meanwhile, David and Darlene Freed have found their nirvana in a lakefront house on a peninsula jutting off the southern shore of Grapevine Lake. Their home is surrounded by an eclectic mix of housing styles, ranging from newly built estates to modest cottages that are about 50 years old. Some of the homes have been passed down from generation to generation. With the majority of homes dating to the 1960s and 1970s, many are undergoing refurbishment – and a few are being replaced.

The Freeds bought their 1968 bungalow-style home in 2003 and spent a year renovating before moving in. They bought the home even though it meant downsizing and moving out of a home they had just built three years earlier in another part of Grapevine. "I don't intend to ever sell this house," said Ms. Freed, a member of the Grapevine City Council and a 22-year resident of Grapevine. "We don't have to drive an hour-and-a-half on the weekends to get to the lake. "We live at the lake all the time," she said. "It feels like you are always on vacation."

Leslee Heizenrader of Grapevine wanted that same type of lifestyle when she went looking for a lakefront lot about 13 years ago. She found the perfect site on a bluff overlooking Grapevine Lake. But the property she wanted was part of a 15-acre tract that the owner wouldn't divide. Instead of just building a home, she developed a subdivision. Several of the nine homes in Labrador Bay have lake views, but Ms. Heizenrader saved the most spectacular for herself. "I feel like I live in another world, not in the middle of the metroplex," said the retired American Airlines captain. "It's so pretty and tranquil, and we have seen all types of wildlife in our yard, including a bobcat."

Bill McKee, who describes himself as a steward of the environment, lives with his family in Oak Point on Lewisville Lake – a place that he describes as ideal. "Our home is tucked back in the woods, and we have this beautiful view," he said. "We have a wonderful sense of peacefulness." The location of his home is probably too inconvenient to many employment centers in the Dallas area, but it's only a 14-mile commute for Dr. McKee, a UNT economics professor. "There are few things in life that live up to their expectations," he said. "But living on the lake is definitely one of them."

E-mail mrichter@dallasnews.com