The bad news: The lake is a little closer than you hoped.

I have a friend who bought a similar place on Lake Ontario. In fact the pictured situation looks nearly identical to what he will face in his future. He’s now about 20-25 feet from the shore, but his lakefront lawn is diminishing every year from erosion, some years a little, some years a lot. Just like the place in the picture, his property is maybe 20-30 feet above the level of the lake.

We thought he was a fool for buying a doomed property, but here is his logic:

What he knows is that in 30 years his cottage almost certainly will not be there. He doesn’t know what will happen in 10 years or 20, and he’s already 71 years old and has no heirs, so he felt that the low price of the large cottage was worth it. A young family would not have bought the place, even at the rock-bottom asking price, knowing it will eventually be part of Lake Ontario, but he gambled that the cottage would hold out longer than he will.

But this picture reminded me that his place will look almost exactly like this someday!