Luxury Homes Fly Off Market in Lake Michigan Beach Town

New Buffalo’s luxury market is running hot, and a $9 million listing is the latest signal.

The 7,200-square-foot home, set on a half-acre of Lake Michigan frontage at 11791 Marquette Drive, hit the market this week, following a string of big-ticket home sales in the Lake Michigan beach town, Crain’s reported.

The seller is represented by @properties Christie’s agent Liz Roch. The asking price for the eight-bedroom home is $1,252 per square foot.

The seller is Mary McNaughton, beneficiary of a trust established for her and her late husband, Bill, longtime Hinsdale residents. The home was built in 2020 with a wall-of-glass façade and European white oak finishes framing wide-open lake views.

Demand at the high end in New Buffalo, Michigan, roughly 71 miles from downtown Chicago, has been fierce. Three multimillion-dollar homes near the McNaughton property went under contract recently almost immediately after listing.

The home of former Illinois House GOP leader Lee Daniels, priced just under $7 million, found a buyer in six days last month. A lakefront property a few doors down on the coveted Marquette Drive listed at just below $7 million went under contract in three days.

An inland home on Prospect Drive overlooking the Galien River — the green-roofed retreat owned by Malört-maker Tremaine Atkinson — listed at about $6 million in late August and was under contract within two weeks. Atkinson’s home is the only one known to have closed so far.

Given the speed at which all three went pending, brokers expect those deals to land close to or above ask.

The McNaughton house added fresh inventory to a stretch of shoreline where buyers have been pouncing. Interior photos show rough-hewn ceiling beams, crisp white finishes and a peak-roofed sitting room wrapped in glass. The trust paid $1.85 million for the site in 2019 and completed construction the following year.

New Buffalo’s pricing ceiling rose last spring when another Marquette Drive property closed at $8.25 million, in the town’s most-expensive sale of all time. With this latest listing starting above that mark, the market looks poised to test just how high lakefront demand can climb.

— Eric Weilbacher