Winter 2023: Big Snow Hammered Tahoe Real Estate Sales

Winter Sales Down by Half

Low inventory, high interest rates, and unprecedented snowfall left the Tahoe Truckee real estate market with a sluggish start to 2023.

Throughout the region, the volume of sales was roughly half of what we had seen in the first quarter of last year. On the California side, including Truckee and the ski areas, only 98 homes changed hands in the first quarter of this year (compared to 182 the year before).

Most Sales in Tahoe Donner

As in past years, the majority of the sales were in Tahoe Donner. The median sales price there fell to $1.2 million (down from $1.3 million the year before). More than half of the homes closed for over $1 million, reflecting an emerging trend toward luxury in Truckee’s largest subdivision.

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Gray's Crossing: A Design-Driven Success Story

Home Values Double over a Decade

It was an idea ahead of its time. 

The year was 2004, and the idea was to create a new community near downtown Truckee to fill the niche between the more affordable (and higher elevation) homes of Tahoe Donner, and the more exclusive, gated community of Lahontan, where some of Tahoe's most celebrated architects were designing homes that felt like a page out of a Craftsman Bungalow on a scale approaching the Ahwahnee Hotel.

The community was named for Joseph Gray, a Truckee founding "father" of sorts whose cabin still stands as an historic landmark downtown. Early lot sales were brisk.  Investors and spec home builders gobbled up the early offerings, and by 2007, some prime lots were fetching more than half a…

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Guide to Tahoe Truckee Golf Course Homes

Market Favors Buyers

With Fall upon us here in Tahoe Truckee, the golf season is officially about to wind down to a close here in the mountains.  But if you have been dreaming of a golf course home here at one of our beautiful communities, this might well be the BEST time to buy:

• There are fewer buyers in the market
• Inventory is strong
• The Fed's monetary policy has had a downward pressure on pricing

California or Nevada?

Golf is everywhere here in Tahoe Truckee. And in this guide I have not included public (or semi-public) courses like the two excellent golf course in Incline Village, the public course at Brockway (near Kings Beach, CA), Coyote Moon in Truckee, Tahoe Donner (which, while open to the public, also offers nice homes…

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Gobbling Up Tahoe's Gated Golf Course Homes

Despite news of inflation and a stock market that's been pummeled by the Fed's unrelenting attack on interest rates, homes in gated golf course communities around Lake Tahoe continue to show strong sales.  As of this writing (Sept 23), 79 homes have sold this year in gated communities from Truckee (home to the Martis Valley trio of Lahontan, Martis Camp & Schaffer's Mill) to the East Shore of the Nevada side of the Lake, where money is consistently flowing into Clear Creek, a gated golf course community off Highway 50 with its own lakefront clubhouse at Tahoe.

Many of these sales are cash, which suggests that luxury real estate continues to be a good investment when the stock market is on wobbly knees.

Here's the quick wrap:

Clear Creek,…

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Tahoe Truckee Real Estate: Can it Keep Going Up?

Despite rising interest rates, high prices at the pump, and the war in Ukraine, buyer demand for Tahoe Truckee real estate remained strong in the first four months of this year.  Some markets showed impressive gains over last year, and some presented the opportunity to negotiate on price.

Overall, buyers showed a strong preference for the very old (or new meant to look old), and the very new. 

One example of this is a Carnelian Bay lakefront that sold for more than $23 million. With pine paneling and a great room framed by log scissor trusses, it looks like it was built in the 1940s, but it’s actually less than 10 years old.  A Bruce Olson masterpiece, it captures the unique charm of homes built with organic materials like granite and the big…

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Tahoe Truckee Real Estate: Home Prices Hit New Highs in 2021

Median Home Sales Price up 40 percent in Tahoe Truckee

Despite the smoke that kept many would-be buyers at bay through much of August, 2021 was a record-breaking year for Tahoe/Truckee real estate sales.  The median sales price in many of our major markets rose to levels never seen before.

In all of Tahoe/Truckee, which includes Donner Summit, the ski areas and all the neighborhoods around the Lake on the California side, the median sales price rose almost 40 percent over what it had been the year before to $1,175,000

Have an extra few million laying around? How about a home in Incline Village or Truckee's Martis Valley?

Offered at $4,450,000, this Mountain Modern 4 bd/4.5 ba is currently the best priced "Contemporary" home for sale in…

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Coronavirus and the Gray's Crossing Real Estate Market

Buyer Opportunities at Gray's Crossing

Gray’s Crossing, a newer golf course community of some 450 homes near downtown Truckee, saw 4 homes sell in the first quarter of 2020, a nice rebound from the first three months of 2019, when there were no sales. All of this year’s sales are homes that had gone into contract by late February or earlier, well before Tahoe and the rest of California was shuttered.

The community really hit its stride in 2020 with the median sales price rising to $1,695,000, and 43 home sales (a record number of sales never before seen in Gray's). One went under contract on March 14, the day before Tahoe’s ski resorts were shut down. The other – a stunning new home on the golf course at $1.9 million - had an accepted offer on…

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