Welcome to Tahoe Connection where you can find up-to-date information about local events and the real estate market in the Tahoe/Truckee area. To search for current listings in the area click here. Contact your local agent for information on the best agents in the Lake Tahoe and Truckee area!

Great New Listing in Tahoma!

Property Details: 3 bedrooms/2 bathrooms/3 car garage/1326 sq. ft./.1433 acres

Property Description: Beautiful, updated Tahoe home, will make a great place for kids and adults to play. This home has 3 bedrooms + Loft, 2 bath and has been recently remodeled. Vaulted ceilings and skylight provide a nice open and well-lit environment or move out to the backyard where you can entertain on one of the two redwood decks. The property backs to Conservancy Forest land, creating a private and peaceful setting.

Click on the link for more details about this Tahoma Home for Sale.

Kings Beach New Listing!

Property Details: 4 bedrooms/3 bathrooms/3 car garage/2850 sq. ft./.9 acres

Property Description: This home boasts high ceilings, great light and a private setting. It is everything you could want, and more, in either a vacation home or full-time residency! Sitting on almost one full acre, this property has a creek running along the backside, making an ideal setting for sitting out on one of three decks with friends and family. With 4 bedrooms, 3 bathrooms and a large 3-car garage, you can be sure there is plenty of space for entertaining guests and to store all of your toys.

Click on the link for more details about this Kings Beach Home for Sale.

Great New Listing in Carnelian Bay!

Property Details: 3 bedrooms/2 bathrooms/2 car garage/1200 sq. ft.

Property Description: This home sits on a great lot with fantastic sun exposure. Covered front deck makes a great area to BBQ and enjoy the beautiful surroundings year-around. Settle in and make this your primary residence or use it as a weekend getaway, either way, you will be sure to create some fun memories here.

Click on the link for more details about this Carnelian Bay Home for Sale.

Good news for real estate in California! The housing market is improving! This chart below shows the growth in housing permits in different areas around California. Bakersfield, CA has seen a 12.1% increase, Redding, CA has seen a 21% increase, and Santa Rosa, CA has seen a 13.8% increase. It’s great to see so many positive things happening in the real estate markets throughout the state!

Lake Tahoe real estate is continuing to see positive trends in sales! The Wall Street Journal recently published an article talking about second home markets that have seen an influx in recent activity. Lake Tahoe is among the 2nd home markets discussed.

The Wall Street Journal article is entitled Empires of the Sun and was published on April 4, 2013 by Lauren Schuker Blum, Matthew Dolan and Candace Jackson. Click on the link to read entire article.

Here is the excerpt that talks about Lake Tahoe Real Estate:

Silicon Valley Reboots at Tahoe

The hottest new tech-industry accessory? A house in Tahoe.Venture capitalist Steven Stull recently paid $11.875 million for a 10,000-square-foot waterfront estate on Lake Tahoe in Incline Village, Nev. David Duffield, co-founder of Workday, paid $25.5 million for another Incline Village estate, according to public records. It was the largest sale on the Sierra Nevada lake since 2008, says listing broker Kerry Donovan.

Brokers in towns surrounding the large freshwater lake, which spans the border of California and Nevada, say sales have picked up dramatically in the last six months, as spillover from the Bay Area’s exuberant housing market has finally reached the area. The Nevada side of the lake has gotten an additional boost since California passed Proposition 30, hiking income taxes on the wealthy and increasing the appeal of owning on the zero-income-tax Nevada side.

 

 

Brokers say sales are surging on both sides of the lake. “December was the strongest December we’ve ever seen in the business,” says Susan Lowe, the corporate broker for Chase International, pointing to data that stretch back to 1990. According to the agency, the first quarter of 2013 saw $246.4 million home and condo sales in the area, up more than 70% from the first quarter of 2012.

Jim Telling, a partner at East West Partners, which developed the Village at Northstar, says the company has seen a 72% increase in the number of home sales since 2011. Average prices rose to $869,000 from $531,000, spurred by a large number of $1 million-plus sales.

Kate Wormington, a 17-year Apple veteran who left in 2010 to raise money for an education nonprofit, and her husband, Dan, a current Apple employee, recently snapped up a fully furnished, four-bedroom home that was listed for $2.1 million. The ski-in/ski-out property is at Constellation Residences at Northstar, a Vail-operated ski resort in Truckee, Calif., that was recently overhauled to include boutiques, a skating rink and a Ritz-Carlton. Ms. Wormington, a mother of two, says she liked the area’s friendly vibe as well as its amenities, such as ski valets and a chef-run s’mores bar. “It is amazing to me how many people you run into,” she says, adding that they frequently see friends from the tech world and their hometown of San Carlos on weekends. “It feels like home.”

 

The change in the area’s fortunes has been swift and dramatic. Though the housing market in the Bay Area has been one of the strongest in the country, Lake Tahoe long struggled to recover from the downturn, with homes frequently sitting on the market for many months and selling well below asking price.

Despite the recent boom, prices still have yet to recover to their predownturn heights. Ms. Lowe says pricing generally dropped about 35% from the peak and is coming back slowly.

Martis Camp, a golf and ski community in Truckee that began construction in 2006, has sold 52 lots and homes since the start of January, says Brian Hull, director of sales, up from 27 at this point last year. Prices for lots range from the mid-$600,000s to $2 million and 108 homes have been completed so far. Mr. Hull says the influx of younger families from the tech industry has resulted in a number of contemporary-style mountain homes with glass-filled architecture.

“Silicon Valley is at the cutting edge of changing the way we live with tech,” he says. “They’re really doing that with interesting homes from a design standpoint.”

Ms. Donovan, a broker with Chase International in Incline Village, the Nevada town where Oracle ORCL +1.03% billionaire Larry Ellison has assembled a 7.6-acre lakefront compound, says Proposition 30 has had a positive impact on sales on the Nevada side. Though several high-profile sales have gone to tech-industry people, she says, the typical buyer is a wealthy baby boomer in finance or other industry from Northern or Southern California looking to relocate. “People are thinking, ‘OK, I’d better just do it now,’ ” she says.

The Lake Tahoe high end real estate market is seeing more and more activity lately. Lake Tahoe real estate in general is picking up as well.

Check out this luxury property just listed on Lake Tahoe’s east shore in Glenbrook. The home is listed for $28.5 million and is situated on a 2.62 acre property. The main house is 9,242 sq. ft. and is accompanied by 2 smaller guest homes.

Click on the link for more details and to see photos inside this new luxury Lake Tahoe home for sale!

According to this recent article from Luxury Home Marketing, there has been an increase in high end home sales this year. The article states home sales over $1 million have risen to the highest level since 2007. There were 26,993 home sales over $1 million in 2012. This number was up 26.9% from the 21,267 home sales in 2011. The number of home sales over $5 million is also at an all-time high. It is also interesting to note that 44% of California home sales over $1 million were all cash!

The article is entitled California’s High-end Home Buyers Create Luxury Boom and was posted by Julie Alcaro from Luxury Home Marketing on March 28, 2013. Click on the link to view entire article.

California’s High-end Home Buyers Create Luxury Boom

Posted by Julie Alcaro on March 28, 2013

Consistent with other recent signs of recovery in the luxury market, the number of California homes which sold for a million dollars or more last year rose to its highest level since 2007. A total of 26,993 homes changed hands for $1 million-plus last year, up 26.9 percent from 21,267 in 2011. It was the most sold since 42,502 homes crossed the million-dollar threshold in 2007.  At the same time, the number of transactions for more than $5 million rose to an all-time high.  Statistics are from San Diego based DataQuick, a real estate reporting company.

Last year’s 26.9 percent year-over-year sales gain in the million dollar and above market outpaced the state’s residential market as a whole. Sales across all price ranges totaled 447,573, up 8.2 percent from 413,479 in 2011. Clearly, the luxury market is leading other price points in terms of sales.

See the chart below which breaks out high end sales by price.  Note that we prefer calling closed sales “Real Buyers” and we define a real buyer as someone who not only contracted to buy the home, they showed up at closing and walked away owning it.

 

Great New Listing in Glenshire!

Property Details: 4 bedrooms/3 bathrooms/2 car garage/2016 sq. ft./1.1 acres

Property Description: Perfect Glenshire home, filled with natural sun light, for a vacation getaway or an everyday residence. Enjoy the beautiful views of the mountain peaks and
Glenshire Pond while sitting out on the spacious front deck, or from the comfortable living room in the winter months. This gorgeous home sits on over an acre, which includes a fenced horse corral and stable in the back. Bring all of your toys, there is plenty of room for storage in this 4 bedroom, 3 bathroom house.

Click on the link for more details about this Glenshire Home for Sale.

Great New Price! Reduced $30K!

Property Details: 4 bedrooms/4 bathrooms/2 car garage/2503 sq. ft./20 acres

Property Description: Escape the hustle and bustle of modern life at Monkey Chip Pines, a quiet retreat situated on 20 acres! Relax on the back deck or enjoy hiking, swimming, fishing, or boating within minutes during the summer. In the winter, enjoy cross country skiing around the pond or trekking off through the trees towards Martis Lake. In addition, Squaw Valley and Northstar are just minutes away! When the house reaches “maximum occupancy,” move across the way to the guest quarters over the garage for some quiet time.

Click on the link for more details on this Home for Sale in Juniper Hills.

Take a look at the history of California home prices over the past 42 years. Good news for home owners and investors in California real estate!