Back in 2010, I contributed to a real estate article that was published in the USA Today Newspaper. It was a section that took a weekly look at the second home vacation market. The article was titled "Lake Winnipesaukee New Hampshire — An Accessible Tahoe of The East." It was a good article and great exposure for our region on a national level. It pictured an aerial photo of Weirs Beach, stating, "it was on the southwestern coast, a popular tourist spot with a boardwalk, large public beach, cruises, mini-golf, and arcades." Photos of several homes for sale on the lake and a locus map were also displayed. The author stated the Lake appealed to northeastern urbanities seeking lakefront living with a quaint Norman Rockwell flair with skiing nearby.
As usual, I provided a bunch of data and tidbits for the article; however, it was this quote that landed me a ton of emails from the west coast and the Lake Tahoe Area "Because it is big and deep and clean and ringed with ski areas, mountains, hiking trails, and outdoor recreation, people refer to it as the Lake Tahoe of the East," says Frank Roche, owner of Roche Realty Group, "But unlike Tahoe, it is within an eight-hour drive of tens of millions of people. Each town is different. There are many demographics." It's amazing the feedback I received and shows how competitive the west coast is with the east coast. Yes. It's very similar to the New England Patriots vs. San Francisco 49ers… or the Celtics vs. The Lakers.
The emails were real interesting reads. It was very obvious that the west coast loves and adores Lake Tahoe just like we love our Winni. But don't try to compare them. I tried to be diplomatic with the emails, telling them I've been up there a number of times. One of my best friends had a home at Tahoe, and I loved visiting. The lake is beautiful, a milky blue color similar to Lake Thun, an alpine lake in Switzerland; however, there's only one island in Emerald Bay, and the rest of the lake is a cylindrical bowl surrounded by towering peaks with cold water temperatures. The deep azure waters are crystal clear, where you can see up to 70 feet near Bliss State Park. Can you imagine Tahoe is 1,644 feet deep, the second deepest in the USA, just after Crater Lake in Oregon at 1,949 feet deep, compared to Winnipesaukee at 212 feet deep? Must say, though, the downhill skiing in the winter is awesome out there, with lots of ski areas and challenges.
The article took a look at all the towns and the islands, and the home prices quoted back then were much less than what we are seeing in this market. It also indicated Lake Winnipesaukee was the site of the first U.S. intercollegiate sporting event, the 1852 Harvard Yale crew regatta, and it referred to Funspot in Weirs Beach as the world's largest arcade in Guinness World Records.
In any case, Lake Winnipesaukee has lots of interesting facts. There are 253 natural islands with vegetation. About 130 of them are over 0.25 acres in size. 27 of these are 25 acres or larger. There are six bridged islands. The largest, Long Island, is 1,186 acres, followed by Bear at 780 acres and Cow at 522.
There's a total shoreline of 288 miles because of the long peninsulas and islands. The driving distance around the lake is 63 miles. Tahoe, on the other hand, has 72 miles of shoreline. It's estimated that Lake Winnipesaukee contains 625 billion gallons of water — that's a lot of water. However, Tahoe holds about 39 trillion gallons of water because of its immense depth — enough water to cover the state of California to a depth of 14½ inches. The surface area covers 191 square miles compared to Winnipesaukee's 72 square miles. Hard to believe because Winnipesaukee has a lot more shoreline than Tahoe because of its irregular shape.
• According to legend, Lake Winnipesaukee got its name as "The Smile of The Great Spirit" because of the love of two Native Americans.
• Lakeport is the only dam that releases water from Lake Winnipesauke in Paugus Bay, and before the dam was built, the water level was 3-5 feet below what it is now.
• The paddle Streamer, MS Mount Washington, was launched in the spring of 1872 to carry mail, goods, and passengers on the lake under the flag of the Boston & Maine Railroad. Sadly in 1939, a fire from the railroad's station spread to the ship at the dock and destroyed it.
• In 1833 the steamer Belknap launched in Lakeport and made runs to Center Harbor, Wolfeboro, Alton Bay, and The Weirs. It was 96 feet long. Can you imagine it made its rounds without any buoys to mark rock hazards on the way?
• As a result of the navigation hazards, New Hampshire was the first state in the USA to mark inland lakes for navigation in 1891.
• Early navigation lights were oil lamps that would hold a three-day supply of oil along the Weirs Channel.
• As time passed, acetylene lamps came into use on the light buoys, later replaced with 12-volt dry cell battery lights. Patrol boat officers back then would carry lots of these batteries for replacement. Solar batteries were introduced in the 1990s.
• The earliest navigation chart of Winnipesaukee goes back to 1,911 with 200 buoys on it. The series of buoys that mark "The Graveyard" are not on this chart.
• Think of attempting to get around on Winnipesaukee today with only 200 buoys instead of the actual 777 buoys we have today. You would need a few replacement propellers if you didn't know the lake as the early steamboat captains did.
• The first buoys were made from hemlock 8' or 16' long with a cement block chained to the buoy. The transition from wood to plastic buoys took place in the mid-1990s.
So, you can see from the above that Lake Winnipesaukee is much more difficult to navigate than Lake Tahoe because of the multitude of islands, long peninsulas, and, most importantly, rock outcroppings. My daughter Katie learned her lesson years ago by taking out an outdrive near Bear Island. So, all of us have to look out for those 777 buoys. It's obvious that Lake Tahoe doesn't have this problem where the average depth is 1,000 feet, and the maximum depth is 1,644 feet. I don't think your propeller will find rocks at these depths. However, I would get very bored boating on Tahoe; it's almost like an open ocean or great lake. The intricacies of Winnipesaukee islands, long peninsulas, and charming lake towns with town docks and eateries make Lake Winnipesaukee a "Boater's Dream," just keep your eye on the buoys.
To keep you posted on Lake Winnipesaukee waterfront sales, there were 65 closed sales from Jan. 1 to Sept. 15, 2022. Forty-nine were mainland waterfront sales, and 16 were island sales. The median sales price was $1,575,000. The average sales price was $2,026,166, with $131,700,800 in sales volume. The median days on the market was seven. The highest sales price was $8,100,000, and the lowest was $415,000 for an island property.
This article was written by Frank Roche, president of Roche Realty Group in Meredith & Laconia, NH. Frank can be reached at 603-279-7046. Please feel free to visit www.RocheRealty.com to learn more about the Lakes Region and its real estate market.
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