2021–2025 broad waterfront population
Finger Lakes explorer
Conesus Lake market field guide
The median is real. The market inside it is not one thing.
Five years of waterfront sales reveal a lake split among conventional homes, small seasonal properties, multi-unit buildings, and unit- or lot-style ownership. The useful story starts after we stop blending them blindly.
3,208acres
7.8 milength
59 ftmaximum depth
Westernmost Finger Lake · Genesee River watershed
The five-year read
173 market-price closings. Two useful lenses.
The source export contains 176 unique residential MLS rows marked On Waterfront = Yes and Body of Water Name = Conesus Lake. Three nominal $1 transfers are removed from the 173-row market-price population shown here.
The screened cohort then removes 26 additional records whose MLS address form uses recurring unit or lot identifiers. It does not declare their legal form; it keeps visibly different products from setting the benchmark for a conventional waterfront house.
Same search, with disclosed address-form exclusions
Compared with $667,500 in the broad population
Five annual cuts
The gap between the two medians is information.
The screened line is not “more correct.” It answers a narrower question: what did the more conventional waterfront-home cohort look like after obvious unit, lot, and nominal-transfer records were set aside?
| Year | Broad closings | Broad median | Screened closings | Screened median | Screened median DOM |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 31 | $435,500 | 27 | 7 | |
| 2022 | 32 | $481,500 | 29 | 8 | |
| 2023 | 44 | $605,025 | 34 | 7 | |
| 2024 | 40 | $557,500 | 36 | 8.5 | |
| 2025 | 26 | $667,500 | 21 | 12 |
Counts are MLS rows, not unique parcels. A property can appear more than once if it resold or was entered in more than one property category. DOM is the median for the screened cohort and is not cumulative market time across relists.
Inside 2025
An $80,000 closing and a $1.85 million closing both said “waterfront.”
That 23-fold range is not noise to delete. It is the lake telling us that tenure, improvements, size, condition, and usable water access need to be verified before price is interpreted.
Under $250K6
$250K–$499K2
$500K–$749K7
$750K–$999K8
$1M+3
Livonia13
Conesus7
Geneseo5
Groveland1
2025 broad population: 26 closings. Municipality uses the MLS area field. Price bands count all market-price rows, including the unit/lot-style records discussed above.
Snapshot · September 13, 2026
Five active waterfront listings are a selection, not a trend.
The asking-price range was $324,900 to $1,199,900, with a median of $599,000. Three listings were in the Conesus MLS area, one in Livonia, and one in Geneseo. Median current DOM was five days, while the two longest-running listings had reached 68 and 146 days.
The lake beyond the listings
Conesus is close to Rochester, heavily settled, and still ecologically complicated.
Its roughly 3,208 acres touch four shoreline towns: Livonia, Geneseo, Groveland, and Conesus. A local lake association traces the modern lake community to utility access, Rochester proximity, and long-running civic work around water levels, sewers, docks, and watershed protection.
Conesus Lake Association lake factsThe outlet became infrastructure.
A weir was constructed near Route 256 while Rochester evaluated Conesus as a possible water supply. The lake association’s account connects later outlet controls to flooding, shoreline erosion, and lake-level management.
Lake-level historyOrganized lake stewardship is not new.
The Conesus Lake Association dates its founding to 1932. Its history includes work on property numbering, dock laws, perimeter sewer and water lines, flood gates, and the watershed plan.
About the CLA“Waterfront” includes water-quality diligence.
NYSDEC’s 2024 lake report classifies Conesus as mesotrophic, notes frequent harmful-algal-bloom reports, and says invasive species are reported. Its March 2025 assessment lists the lake as impaired for several uses. Buyers should review current notices—not rely on a general lake reputation.
NYSDEC 2024 lake reportBefore comparing two properties
Ask what the deed—and the shoreline—actually give you.
- Ownership formFee-simple parcel, condominium, cooperative, leasehold, association, or another structure?
- Water rightsDirect frontage, shared frontage, deeded access, dock assignment, or a view without legal access?
- UtilitiesVerify sewer, water, gas, and private-system details for the specific parcel rather than assuming lakewide uniformity.
- Shoreline conditionReview seawall, bank, stairs, dock approvals, depth, weeds, exposure, drainage, and practical swimming or boat use.
- Municipal rulesConfirm the shoreline town, zoning, rental rules, flood information, permits, and code history.
- Environmental recordCheck current NYSDEC and county water-quality notices, HAB reports, and watershed information.
Reproduce the result
Method, exclusions, and limits
Market-price population
NYS Alliance of MLS Matrix; status S-Closed/Rented; closing dates January 1, 2021 through December 31, 2025; property types Single Family Residential, Condo and Townhouse, and Multi-Family Residential (2–4 units); On Waterfront = Yes; Body of Water Name matched to Conesus Lake without regard to capitalization. The export produced 176 unique MLS numbers; removing three $1 sale-price records produced the 173-row market-price cohort.
Screened cohort
From the market-price cohort, 26 additional records presented with recurring unit or lot identifiers were removed, leaving 147 rows. The screen is based on the MLS address form—not a legal opinion about tenure. The internal exclusion key is retained with the private source analysis.
Known limits
MLS fields are participant-entered and may be incomplete. Counts describe listings, not unique parcels or arms-length deeds. Medians are not an appraisal and the annual series is not repeat-sales appreciation. Current inventory was retrieved September 13, 2026.
Additional sources: NYSDEC waterbody assessment, NYSDEC watershed inventory, and Conesus Lake watershed-plan history. Data analysis by Rochester Investment. Last updated September 14, 2026.
Local experience, disclosed at the end
Updegraff Group Realty has documented Conesus waterfront experience.
The brokerage record confirms a 2020 Conesus Lake waterfront transaction with Updegraff Group Realty on both sides. That experience supports practical context; it does not change the lakewide statistics above.
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