Insider market info on the Tahoe/Truckee Real Estate Market

With supply overflowing in most of Truckee's micro-markets, this Fall promises to be a great time for home buyers looking for bargains. 

With cooler days, and fewer crowds, the Fall can be an excellent time for buyers looking to snatch up a vacation home before the snow flies. And, with a few exceptions, many of Truckee's higher end neighborhoods are strongly favoring buyers right now, with a year or more worth of supply in some areas.

"Supply" is a real estate term that refers to standing inventory. If 5 homes sell in a particular neighborhood over the course of the past year, and 5 are currently for sale, that equals a year's worth of supply. A balanced market, favoring neither buyers nor sellers, is considered to be 6 months of supply. So having…

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What happens now?

Home sales at Lake Tahoe are down 20 percent over last year at this time. But the median sales price inched up 2 percent, continuing a trend that has sustained upward pricing momentum since 2013, when overall home values began rebounding from recession-era pricing. 

While that might signal that the market is in for a correction, we’ve seen similar numbers at the lake in past years without a drop in value.  The mid-year numbers in 2014, for example, looked a lot like today. Sales were down 18 percent from the year before, but the median sales price was up 3 percent.  Prices might have been expected to cool, but on the contrary, the median sales price shot up 13 percent the following year, and 2016 was a banner year, with home values…

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Lahontan Home Sales up 41% over 2017

With interest rates up, and today’s stock market feeling like a roller coaster ride, the economy ended 2018 on wobbly knees. But that does not seem to have dampened enthusiasm for the Tahoe/Truckee real estate market, which closed out the year with a record $1.3 billion in sales.

Fewer homes sold than in 2017, but higher prices pushed the region’s overall volume up to a record high that’s almost three times the dollar volume that sold a decade ago, when the slide into the recession had just begun. Tahoe/Truckee single-family home sales were up last year almost $174 million over 2017.

New construction has certainly contributed to the gain. We have more homes now than we did a decade ago — that’s a fact.…

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Incline Village Burnt Cedar Beach

Condo or Single-Family Home?

So you want a condo in Tahoe? Or maybe a cabin of your own with a little yard, and elbow room, and no homeowner's fees. Condo or single-family home?  Close to half of my buyers flipped-flopped on this question last year, and buyers who are on the fence ask the same question: which one is better for me?  The answer depends on your goals.

Convenience vs. Constraints    

Most condos and townhomes are maintained by a homeowner's association, eliminating the need for costly exterior repairs, landscape maintenance and snow removal. The convenience of a turn-key vacation property in your favorite destination is a price worth paying for some.  If you work long hours at a stressful city job all week, the last thing you…

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During the many years I lived in Tahoe Donner, one of my favorite spots was the Euer Valley, a pristine stretch of the High Sierra long owned by the family that bears its name. For many years, access to the valley floor was limited to the winter months, when the Tahoe Donner homeowner's association leased it for their cross country ski operations (38 miles of beautiful - and groomed - terrain).  The Euers ran cattle in the valley during the summer, and bikes or joggers were not allowed. That changed in 2011, when Tahoe Donner purchased almost 500 acres of the valley for year-round use. And a good thing is about to get even better ...

 Tahoe Donner is adding another 640 acres to this open space paradise with the purchase of Crabtree Canyon and the…

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