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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Incline Village Real Estate March 2023 Market Watch

Real Estate Sales Slow in Incline Village

While many real estate markets around the Tahoe/Reno region have adjusted prices downward from the 2022 highs of the Covid era, Incline Village on Lake Tahoe's north shore continues to reach high on pricing, leading to a precipitous drop in sales volume from last year.

Moving into March, we saw only a dozen homes change hands in Incline Village for a total sales volume of a little more than $18 million. That's just a third of the sales we saw by this time last year.  

Waterfront Lake Tahoe Condos Sold in 2023

The Incline condo market fared a little better, thanks in part to two lakefront condos that sold for hefty price tags:

• A beautifully remodeled Stillwater Cove condo listed at $4.250M had an…

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Waldorf Astoria Coming to Lake Tahoe

The Waldorf Astoria is coming to Lake Tahoe

And you'll never guess where ... 

If you've ever driven past the old (crumbling) Tahoe Biltmore on your way to Incline Village and wondered why such a prime location features such a dilapidated building, you're not alone. Plans to redevelop the property have been in the works for more than a decade. 

Trex co-founder Roger Wittenberg bought the property in 2007 through Boulder Bay LLC (namesake of the luxury townhomes you can see from the road at the east end of the property), and shepherded an earlier version of the redevelopment through the Tahoe Regional Planning Committee's regulatory process.

Then, in the fall of last year, California developer Ebbie Khan Nakhjavani acquired the property with a…

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How to Find the Perfect House in Incline Village

Your Guide to Incline Village Real Estate

If you are considering purchasing a home at Lake Tahoe, and would like to look at Incline Village, here are a couple of things to consider:

1.  Sticker Shock

Thanks to Nevada's favorable taxes (no state income tax, no inheritance tax, and favorable treatment for many businesses, including single-member LLCs), the Nevada side Lake Tahoe tends to draw wealthy buyers who are looking for a tax haven.  Think: Well-heeled retirees, venture capitalists, entrepreneurs, and founding CEOs (makes for interesting happy hour conversations at Lone Eagle Grille's lakefront bar). Big money has kept the cost of Incline Village homes higher than those on the California side of the Lake. You will get more house for the…

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Tahoe Real Estate Market Favors Buyers this Fall

Looking for a Deal in Tahoe?

What $6 million buys at Lake Tahoe (a small 1950s cabin with a priceless view).

Buyers are back in the driver’s seat in the Tahoe Truckee real estate market.

With more homes to choose from, and fewer buyers leaping at new listings, sharp pricing became key for sellers this summer.  Homes that were strategically underpriced continued to receive multiple offers, but roughly half the homes in any given market lowered their asking prices to make a deal.

In a new twist on the summer market, high-end buyers gravitated away from Lake Tahoe and toward Martis Camp.  The tony gated community at the base of Northstar’s Lookout Mountain saw 11 homes change hands this past summer (more than half of them at or over asking),…

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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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Incline Village NYT Top 10 Pick for Best Places to Live

If you're a foodie who like mountains & snow, and appreciates diversity ... Or someone who likes snowy winters with mountains, plus great restaurants close by, the New York Times says Incline Village, Nevada should be on your Top 10 places to live.

Those are the results of the NYT's new interactive "Where You Should Live" quiz.  Not totally on spot because most folks considering Incline Village are not also looking at upstate New York, Anchorage, or Connecticut, which are also recommended "best spots" if you start adding criteria like 'jobs' or 'health care' into mix.

Nonetheless, it's sort of a fun app if you're curious to see where the algorithm would have you move.

That said, if you are considering a move or a vacation home in Incline…

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Will the Tahoe Truckee Real Estate Market Cool this Fall?

As we move into Fall, I keep hearing one question from my clients: Is the real estate market cooling down yet?

On the heels of last year’s pandemic shutdowns, the value of Tahoe/Truckee real estate skyrocketed. The volume of sales tripled in some markets, and the median sales price rose for the first time ever to more than $1 million in most of our markets.

What goes up must come down. That’s what my clients keep telling me.

But that’s not what the data shows … at least not so far.

We are not seeing the sort of panic buying we did amid the Covid shutdowns last year. Anecdotally, there are definitely fewer buyers in town than we saw earlier this summer. Schools are back to live learning in many of our Bay Area feeder markets, parents are…

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Lake Tahoe Real Estate: A Millionaire's Playground?

Lake Tahoe real estate is suddenly becoming a commodity available mostly to those who can afford to spend more than $1 million. Luxury sales tripled at the Lake in the first six months of this year, and the median sales price climbed to an unprecedented $1M, a 44 percent jump from the year before.

But most surprising is that for the first time ever, many areas of Lake Tahoe and Truckee saw more homes selling for over $1 million, than under. Last year at this time, for example, luxury sales represented just one-third of the overall sales at the Lake. And this year so far, homes priced over $1 million outpaced more affordable properties.

From January to June this year, 383 homes closed at Lake Tahoe for $1 million or more. That's more than…

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