Step inside the most expensive house for sale in Madison at $4.25 million | Business News

The most expensive house on the market in Madison has five bedrooms, five-and-a-half bathrooms, roughly 100 feet of Lake Mendota frontage — and a big slide that twists within the spiral staircase down the middle of the house.

With an asking price of $4.25 million, 5404 Lake Mendota Drive is listed for nearly two times the price of its closest comparison on the market, a $2.17 million house that also looks out onto Lake Mendota. While zoning records consider it a single-family home, it could easily house two average American households of roughly three people.

Property records indicate that David Sheriff, the former president of a software company, owns the 6,113-square-foot house, custom-built in 2019. It includes a subtle nautical theme — the wood, stucco and stone of the house and sharp corners invoke a boat in places, with a port window looking out from one of the showers.

“It is going to sell,” said Shelly Sprinkman, the listing agent for the property, who has shown the house nine times since it went on the market in late May.

But approaching two months on the market, the house remains available.

Home sales in Madison and nationwide have started to slow after multiple years of high growth. That trend seems to be especially true in the luxury home market.

The market for luxury homes typically moves at a different pace and with less fervor compared to the rest of the housing market, Sprinkman said. Until sales surged in the last few years, it was rare for a house that cost $1 million or more to receive multiple offers at once.

Currently, the market is moving through what Sprinkman called a “readjustment period” after peaking in April. Prices, already on the rise before the pandemic, climbed even higher in the wake of COVID-19, as homeowners from New York, California and other places moved to Madison.

“People sold their expensive homes and moved to Madison — they can afford to pay cash here,” said Chris Venden, another Madison Realtor.

After April, the fervor began to calm, Venden said. In the past 90 days, of 48 houses priced at $800,000 or more, 17 have either sold or have accepted offers. The 31 unsold homes have spent an average of 72 days on the market, Venden said. In a similar time period last year, from May 2021 through July 2021, 25 houses in the same price range sold — not including the number of houses with accepted offers that closed later in that window.

Nationally, luxury home sales declined by 17.8% year over year in the three month period ending April 30, according to real estate brokerage Redfin. The drop marks the largest decrease in sales since the pandemic began.

“We’ve just started to see the slowdown over the last month or so,” Venden said. “We’re still seeing some competing offers in the luxury market.”

Increasing interest rates and losses in the stock market have contributed to the slowdown, said Josh Lavik, a Madison Realtor. That dynamic plays out at all levels of the market, Lavik said, but the shifts are more dramatic at the upper edge: One client looking for a lakefront luxury home, whose budget was roughly $2 million, adjusted his price range down by $500,000, he said.

A number of Lavik’s “high net-worth clients” have also paused their plans for moving as they wait out turbulence in the economy. “They would still be willing to make a move for the right house,” he said. “But that sense of urgency isn’t quite as high.”

For the Mendota Drive home, Sprinkman used the price per square foot of comparable properties and the price of other empty lakefront lots to settle on the $4.25 million figure, she said.

“You’re going to want to love this house,” said Sprinkman, who specializes in lakefront homes. “You have to walk in and love everything about it.” Given its price point, the eventual owners will likely not leave much in the budget for renovations, she said.

The house boasts a fast-heating Teppanyaki grill, a theater room, an outdoor shower, a steam shower, a toilet with a self-opening lid and heated seat, a three-car garage with a fourth garage door to bring in kayaks, a green roof and two laundry rooms.

The house’s design also prioritizes access to views — even the mirror in the owner’s bathroom slides to reveal a window facing out onto Lake Mendota. The lighting system can be entirely automated. No one room looks quite like another — there’s a tile pattern meant to look like a riverbed in one bathroom, a curved ceiling in a bedroom, and a wood ceiling with exposed beams overlooking the living room.

“That house is incredible,” Lavik said. “It’s kind of a unicorn.”

The person who does love the house will likely be looking to seize upon an opportunity to live on Lake Mendota, she said. Only four active listings were available on the lake as of Wednesday, two of which have drawn offers.

“The exceptional aspect of this house is the placement,” she said, noting that the plot is completely flat. “This really is a rare vantage point where from all the windows, you can see the lake.”

And, of course, the new owners will need to appreciate what Sprinkman described as Sheriff’s “whimsical” appeal to the “inner child” — sliding from the second floor to the first.

“Everybody loves it,” Sprinkman said. “It’s fun. And it’s very fast.”