By Scott Rapp 

When Bob Bower went looking to buy lakefront property earlier this year, he didn't hesitate to hunt for a summer home in the Cayuga land-claim area.

 "Maybe I'm crazy, I don't know," Bower said, chuckling. "I honestly felt there would be a negotiated settlement ... and that they're certainly not going to move all these landowners."

 Bower, who lives and owns a business in Springport, is close to buying a two-bedroom, year-round house on the northeast shore of Cayuga Lake. It lies in the heart of the land-claim area. Bower, the Springport town supervisor, expects to close the deal next month.

 The owner, Roger Segelken of Ithaca, said it took 18 months and two realty companies to sell his lake-front home to Bower. Segelken also dropped the asking price, which he declined to disclose, by more than $30,000.

 "It seemed like a long time to me," Segelken said. "I really believe people are staying away from any property in the (land-claim) area."

 It's hard to pinpoint what effect the long-standing land-claim dispute is producing on real estate sales in the disputed area. Several Realtors interviewed said home sales in the land-claim area have remained constant over recent years, and sale prices are holding.

 They also said it's difficult, however, to know how many people steer clear of the area solely because of the dispute.

 But Segelken remains convinced the shadow of the land claim slowed the sale of his home.

 "I think this does cast some kind of cloud over real estate until it is settled," Segelken said.

 The Cayuga Indian Nation filed a lawsuit in 1980 to seek the return of 64,027 acres in Cayuga and Seneca counties that rim the northern end of Cayuga Lake. The case is pending in federal court in Syracuse, where a trial is scheduled to start Oct. 4.

 The Cayugas claim in the lawsuit that the state illegally snatched the land from their ancestors by violating a 1790 federal law. Last week, a nation spokesman threatened to seek eviction of all 7,000 property owners in the land-claim area if the dispute is not settled out of court.

 The Cayuga County Legislature voted last week, under pressure from many residents, to stop negotiating a settlement and take the case to trial. The federal judge hearing the case ruled in June that no one would be evicted.

 Midge Fricano, the owner of Lake Country Real Estate in Auburn, said "it's been a boom year for lake property. ... I haven't had someone say to me that they're not buying that property because it's in the land-claim area."

 She said three factors typically contribute to a house not selling: price, location and condition. "If a house is not selling, it's a problem in one of those areas."

 In Cayuga County, 1999 housing sales have dropped slightly from last year, but the average sale price has risen, according to statistics from the county Association of Realtors. The statistics include sales for the entire county.

 Between Jan. 1 and June 23 this year, 151 residential properties were sold, at an average price of $77,313. For the same period in 1998, 161 residences were sold, averaging $68,936 per sale, according to the Realtors.

 Similar statistics for Seneca County were unavailable from the Greater Rochester Association of Realtors Inc.

 Mel Russo, a Seneca County real-estate agent and anti-claim activist who sells property in both counties, said a few people have backed out of sales this year because of the land claim.

 "What's happening is, some people are getting scared," he said. All in all, he said, Russo's not having trouble selling homes in the contested area.

 Even though the land claim is heading toward trial, local banks continue to loan money to home buyers in the disputed area, provided title insurance is purchased to protect the mortgage. The price of the policies increase with the size of the mortgage.

 "Cayuga Bank's position is and has been to make money available in the land-claim area," said Robert A. Padula, the bank's retail lending manager.

 In Union Springs, Jean Seither has been trying to sell her sister's lakefront house on Cayuga Street since 1991. Her sister lives in an extended-care facility in Vestal, near Binghamton. She's asking about $200,000.

 Seither, who lives next door, said she believes high property taxes and the land claim have combined to discourage would-be buyers.

 "I think people don't want to settle in a place and have the Indians take over, you know," she said.

 Nearby in Union Springs, Nancy T. Downey is getting ready to sell her home so she can live closer to her three adult children in Florida.

 But Downey, a retired postal worker who has lived the last 35 years in her two-story, Federal-style home on Center Street, worries whether the land claim will hurt her chances to sell her house.

 "If I was buying, I would think twice about buying into the land-claim area," she said.