Tony Frentz reads a book in a room of his home that overlooks a ravine.
Americans like their backyards, and given the choice of looking at another house or into the woods, they choose the seclusion and beauty of a ravine lot, Frentz said. “The cool part about Mankato is that it is surrounded by hills. There are pockets of wooded hilltops, bluffs and ravines,” Frentz said. Frentz and his wife, Anne, also built their home on a ravine in Woodhill Court. “I like the privacy best. We have colorful Maple trees. It’s really pretty,” Frentz said. The Frentzes’ two school-aged daughters hike and play in the woods, and their preschool-age son collects sticks and pretends they’re swords. “It’s nice to have woods around, because the girls get used to being outdoors,” Frentz said. Mary Ann Donahue, real estate agent for Century 21 Atwood Realty, educates people moving to Mankato about the value of ravine lots. While decorating trends come and go, ravine lots are always in demand. On average, Donahue estimates that ravine homes in older neighborhoods can be $40,000 more than non-ravine homes, and in new neighborhoods, they can be up to $60,000 more. Ravine lots have two main advantages: privacy and view. Privacy is the No. 1 reason that people choose ravine lots, Donahue said. “I’ve sold a lot of upper end homes on ravine lots in the past year in this economy,” Donahue said.
16 • JANUARY 2012 • MANKATO MAGAZINE
Donahue advises her clients to look at what’s behind the ravine. In the summer, she makes sure they see the back of the ravine, because for six months of the year when the leaves are down, that’s the view. In the winter, Donahue recommends that clients have an arborist inspect the trees for diseases or dead trees. When spring comes, they may have a costly project if there are large dead or diseased trees on their property. Typically, ravine lots require little upkeep, as Steve and Connie Saggau have found. For seven years, they have made their home on a ravine on South Brook Circle in Mankato. “It’s one of the prettiest settings we’ve had,” Steve said. The Saggaus have lived all over the upper Midwest, including two lake homes. They moved to their current home from the country. “With a ravine lot, it’s the best of living in the country, but with pizza delivery,” Connie said. Currently, they are listing their home with Donahue, because they are moving back to Ceylon, where they are refurbishing the family farmstead. Connie enjoys watching their resident doe with two new fawns in tow almost every year. They also see wild turkeys, cardinals and a family of robins. Wildflowers decorate the woods, too. “The view is never the same when you look out. When one wildflower stops blooming, another one begins,” Connie said. M