CEDAR LAKE | While new housing starts have declined by 30 percent in Crown Point and elsewhere in the region in the wake of this year's nationwide housing market bust, Cedar Lake appears to be defying gravity.

But the continued boom in home sales that bucks the national trend isn't good news to everyone -- particularly those who had grown accustomed to this once sleepy south Lake County burg.

Cedar Lake Town Manager Joan Boyer said the town has seen 151 housing starts in 2007 to date, about the same number as last year.

"Its hasn't gotten low down here," Boyer said.

The show piece of the town's new development are the 60 condominiums rising like a bluff on the lake's eastern shore.

Town Council President Bob Carnahan has reported that the first 20 condos developer Whiteco Industries planned on the town's namesake lake were sold -- for about $300,000 each -- before the units were built.

Another 20 condos are selling for about $369,000 each, he said. Carnahan also said Whiteco is building a Lighthouse restaurant on the lake with a banquet facility and boat tours.

Meanwhile, some residents, including Mary Sikma, are left longing for the quieter Cedar Lake that used to be.

The local librarian and 40-year resident said she loved being able to get around town quickly because of the lack of traffic, loved driving past the farms that once ringed the community and loved the whole smalltown atmosphere.

"The sprawl on U.S. 41 used to stop at Schererville," Sikma said. "Now its down here."

Sikma hasn't moved away, but the community she loves has moved -- from a sleepy lake resort in decline to the stage on which the latest scenes in the county's economic development drama are being played.

"All the major developers, V3, Hawk Development and Whiteco are there," Crown Point Planning Director Curt Graves said. "They are building for young couples in their 30s who cannot afford Crown Point."

Bill Wellman, a vice president at Whiteco Industries, said his company hopes to build another 140 single cottages, condominiums and duplexes.

Wellman said there is a lucrative market to provide residential lake settings at a reasonable price and closer than Wisconsin or Michigan.

He said if the South Shore commuter line is extended through Cedar Lake, the town could be a Mecca for young adults wanting to catch a train into Chicago.

But Greg Parker, a Republican who won the town council's 7th Ward seat in the Nov. 6 general election, said many townspeople have legitimate concerns.

"Our infrastructure needs to be brought up to the same speed as our growth," he said. "There are concerns about property-tax increases, particularly among those on fixed incomes. We need to protect them from the impact of these new projects."