Truckee-Tahoe’s real estate market is on FIRE! Interested in the latest financial and sales statistic information from Tahoe Quarterly‘s Chaco Mohler and his “Tahoe Talk” column? Our own Alison Elder, Elder Group Tahoe Real Estate, proudly affiliated with Chase International, shares her views with Tahoe Quarterly magazine’s Editor. Read on for great insights and statistics from the article…
The Tahoe real estate market in 2011 was a story of the “haves” and the “not-sure-what-they-haves.” There were hints of a recovery, led by high-end homes and condos, but then only in certain locations. In most communities, the ongoing foreclosure malaise continued to push prices downward. Yet even in some of those spots, evidence of stability appeared. Positive signs include:
- Brisk sales of lakefronts on Tahoe’s East Shore – roughly Stateline to Glenbrook – resulting in a 26 percent growth in the sales volume over 2010.
- Condo prices rebounding in some communities
- Here and there, inventories tightening
Lake Tahoe’s Nevada East Shore saw $109.4 million worth of sales of single-family homes in 2011. The people buying those houses (likely the infamous “one percenters”) fueled most robust growth of any sub region of Tahoe, according to figures provided by Chase International Real Estate.
“Activity has really picked up on the higher end,” says Sue Lowe, senior vice present at Chase.
Martis Camp, the new high-end community near Truckee, has sold 138 lots in the last two years, a number of them for north of $1 million. In 2011, construction began on 48 new homes in the development, and six already-completed Martis Camp projects were winners of this issue’s Mountain Home Awards.
Low inventory and the sale of the distressed condominiums in Olympic Valley have stabilized the condo market there, says Larry Lawrence of Lawrence Realty. Condo sales increased slight in the valley in 2011, with a record sale of a two-story penthouse for $3.8 million.
In other sectors of real estate, however, prices continue to respond to the ongoing flow of distressed properties on to the market. Incline Village/Crystal Bay, Nevada, saw its median home price slip 6 percent in 2011. At the start of 2012, foreclosures accounted for about a third of the real estate inventory in Incline, says Chris Plastiras, owner/broker at Lakeshore Realty. Despite this, Incline’s condo prices increased slightly during 2011.
Only one Incline lakefront sold over the past year, helping push the median sales price of the community’s single-family homes down 9 percent, to $750,000. Why did East Shore lakefronts have a great year while only one sold in Incline?
“The average price for a lakefront home on the east Shore was just over $3 million in 2011,” Plastiras says. “You can’t find a lakefront home in Incline for as little as $3 million.”
In South Lake Tahoe, the great real estate recession threw a deep shadow over single-family homes rose slightly, median prices fell off 16 percent to $265,000. Here again, condo sales were a brighter spot, with the median price jumping 14 percent.
“Condos are working well for people,” says Alison Elder, with Truckee-based Elder Group Real Estate. “It’s the ease of ownership, combined with a soft market creating discounts on condos with “wow” factors, like stellar locations or great lake views.”
In Truckee, where statistics include Northstar and Martis Valley, single family home sales rose slightly, but median prices dropped 10 percent.
Despite this, Elder says overall, “We’re experiencing a more normalized real estate market. But until the international markets stabilize, we’re going to continue to see short sales and bank-owned properties on the market.”
Shrinking inventories, where they occurred during 2011, were among the most hopefully signs of recovery. In Tahoe Donner, the leading indicator for the Truckee home market, inventory shrank at the start of 2012 to only 84 units of the 6,000-plus parcels into the development, according to Elder. Lack of inventory won’t immediately start driving prices back up, due to the number of distressed properties and amount of information available to buyers, she say, “but the market won’t’ stay this way forever.”
According to Lowe, inventory figures are also dropping along the East Shore and in South Lake Tahoe, and that should push prices up there, too. “It’s only going to be a matter of time until that happens,” she says. “But I think it’s clear we’ve stabilized.”
2012 started with some good news in the overall U.S. economy, so maybe this will finally be the year when all the sectors of Tahoe’s real estate market begin to share in the recovery. Or are there still too many variables in play?
“We’re at an interesting tipping point,” Elder says. “Borrowed money is nearly free, prices have gone down significantly, and so that’s fueling buyers. The balance between falling prices and phenomenal interest rates is only going to continue for so long. It’s looking like the right time to get into a second home.”
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