Houses of Hyacinth Road -- Lake Chelan's Gold Coast

Hyacinth Road in Manson does not seem to know that the rest of the country is deep in the middle of a recession. Maybe this mile long stretch of road never got the memo. The quiet road has always been home to higher-end waterfront homes since pre-war days. But over the past 10 years the size and quality of homes has increased exponentially.

Jeremy Jaeke, founder of Visio and a former Vice President at Microsoft is currently building what may be the most impressive home on Lake Chelan. The software industry maverick paid nearly $3 million dollars for his 3 acre spread on Hyacinth, only to bulldoze the existing home for what is reportedly a $4 million dollar new construction. The former CEO of Visio sold his company to Microsoft for a staggering $1.3 billion dollars in 1999. (see article: http://news.zdnet.com/2100-9595_22-103251.html?legacy=zdnn&chkpt=hpqs014), reportedly netting the CEO several hundred million dollars at the time. Jaeke seems to be building a trend with his mega mansions. Several years ago he purchased his Capitol Hill home in Seattle for $3 million dollars, which soon underwent a multi-million dollar renovation.

Do his Manson neighbors mind? Not at all. Property values seem to only be increasing with the Bloxom estate two doors down currently being offered at a whopping $3.9 million dollars. If you can shell out this kind of dough for a few acres of waterfront orchard, you'll probably want to wreck the existing home too for your mega mansion. The current house is a modest 2500 square foot rambler built in the 1960s, but the land is one of the largest and most level bulkheaded lots on the lake.

Other houses of grand proportions are cropping up at the south end of Hyacinth. Other wealthy 206ers are seeing the value of this unique stretch of land on Lake Chelan's north shore.