Scugog homes priced $1,000,000, topping out at $1.5 million

Most of the rural listings in this band sit on lots created decades ago, because the Oak Ridges Moraine plan, the Greenbelt Plan and the Region's official plan reportedly restrict new severances in the countryside to narrow cases, so a ten-acre parcel cannot generally be split for a child's house or sold in pieces. That scarcity is part of what you pay for. A hobby farm may carry a farm property class assessment that lowers the tax bill as long as the land qualifies, and a cropping lease with the farmer next door may run past your closing. Barns and drive sheds should have been permitted, and a change of use, from livestock to a home business for example, may need the township's approval. Get the well log, the septic record and the survey, and walk the boundary with the survey in hand, since old fence lines and legal lines rarely agree.

Lake Scugog's shore is where the band's judgment calls live. The lake is shallow, warm and weedy by August, part of the Trent-Severn system with its level managed at Lindsay, and the shoreline is regulated by Kawartha Conservation, so a new dock, shore wall or boathouse needs a permit, and a rebuild of an old cottage will be reviewed for its setback from the water. In return, the lake gives long views, quiet paddling, fishing and reliable winter ice. Before committing, confirm the frontage is owned rather than an original shore road allowance, check the age and depth of the water intake or well, ask the insurer about overland flooding, and look at how the property handles spring runoff. Houses on Scugog Island cross the causeway to reach Port Perry, a detail some buyers like and others do not.