South Lake Tahoe Real Estate Blog (530-318-5665)

It has been a couple of months since I ran the numbers for the market activity in South Lake Tahoe, so I included the past three month’s activity in my calculations.  

354 Active Listings, of those listings 66 are either REO or Short Sale listings comprising 19% of the total.   As usual, these calculations are made on sales activity of single family homes in the City – County areas of the South Tahoe Area Realtors MLS data.

186 Sold listings in the past three months with distressed properties making up 37% of those homes closed.      55 – 30% REO Listings         14 – 7% Short Sale Listings

 Pending listings are made up of 75% of either REO or Short Sales.

The trend in which distressed properties are a minority of the inventory and a majority of those homes that are selling seems to have shifted down a bit.  I will venture to say that “real sellers” have realized that their homes will sell if priced competitively and buyers would rather deal with a “real seller” rather than a bank and certainly rather than a short sale, which is anything but “short’.  It is all about the well priced property.  Let’s see what happens in the next month with the pending listings being comprised of 75% distressed properties. We’ll see how many of the short sale buyers get tired of the wait and snatch up a well priced home that not a distress sale. More Later.

Quick note to you all about the upcoming fun stuff at the South Lake Tahoe.   Oktoberfest at Camp Richardson Resort is always great family fun, especially if you can “Chicken Dance”.  Another really fun thing is the Kokanee Salmon Festival including the Kokanee Trail Runs,  Kid’s Fun Run, 5k, 10k and Half Marathon.  All this takes place the first weekend in October.  Come on up and I’ll see you there.

I wanted to share this photo of the wildflower bloom this year which is one of the best I have seen.  It was such a late melt that we are still looking forward to the higher elevations , where the snow is not yet melted, to contuinue to provide these magnificent vistas for a month or so.  The wildflower hiking is everywhere, but you can get this same bloom in the Winnemucca, Showers and Dardanelles Lakes which all have great trail access.  Enjoy!!

Sales in South Lake Tahoe have increased over the past couple of months.  We were consistently closing 30 escrows a month but have recently jumped up to 129 sales (single family homes only) in the past month. 

444 Active Listings  of those listings 65 are either REO or Short Sale listings comprising 14.6% of the total.   As usual, these calculations are made on sales activity of single family homes in the City – County areas of the South Tahoe Area Realtors MLS data.

129 Sold listings in the past month with distressed properties making up 44% of those homes closed.

33 – 25% REO Listings         25 – 19% Short Sale Listings

90 Pending listings at present with over 55% of those properties are either REO or Short Sale.

The trend continues for distressed properties to be a minority of the inventory and a majority of those homes that are selling.   That continues to tell me that well priced properties will sell in this climate of low consumer confidence and low interest rates.

Sometimes we get a Spring that sputters its way in from Winter.  This is one of those years.  It has been a long cold season with early snows in the first part of October.  We ran  in 5 inches of snow at the Kokanee Trail Runs and did the Chicken Dance in the snow at Camp Richardson’s Oktoberfest.  The worst part was that the early snows kept us off the mountain biking , hiking, running trails until the thaw.  We are all ready for Spring to really get here and stay.   The folks in the photo are enjoying a day of warmer weather while  fishing in Sawmill Pond.  AAhhh Tahoe.

I was invited to go to Nicaragua on a Medical/Dental Mission trip by a longtime Tahoe friend and I said “Yes”. Way back when, I was a dental assistant and they needed one on this trip. We had no dental instruments or supplies built up in reserve as this was a first mission of this type for my friend who generally does construction projects in Central American countries. I made a few phone calls and was amazed at the generosity of all my old dental contacts so we had more than enough to do the job.

We went to a very poor area in the north western part of Nicaragua called San Ramon and Bonete #7 (which is a word similar to borough) to serve the people, some of them had walked 6 hours to get there. I was told it would be hot, but it was HOT. The work was hard in hard in dirty, smelly places. We were able to provide basic medical services and the Tahoe dentist and I helped approximately two hundred people with pain relief (extractions) over four and a half days of clinics. It was a stretch for everyone and nerves were frayed at the end but I just had to think that I would be cool, comfy (with enough food to eat) at home soon but the Nicaraguans would still be right where we left them. I hope I don’t forget them and their conditions as I see how rich we are here. I am glad I had something to give to these people who gave me so much more than they know.

There is a new may of thinking about foreclosure for the American homeowner,  especially the homeowner who is not in financial distress and is able to pay the mortgage payment.  These homeowners are viewing their homes as bad investments and are choosing to walk away rather than pay for years on a property that may never be worth what they owe.  Take a look at this video from the Today Show where homeowners who are doing just that, and notice the shift from the “guilty feelings” that generally go along with such a decision.  http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/26184891/vp/36661157#36661157

I am not advocating a position either way on a “Strategic Foreclosure”, but rather, just wanted to make note of this amazing paradigm shift and what it may mean in this economic crisis.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                     Sold Stats for March 2010

•  37 Total Sold Listings in March                  
•  14 REO (37.8%% of total March sales)
•   7 Short Sales (18.9% of total March sales
•   Distressed Properties Comprising 37.8% of total homes sold in March

Active Listings Stats

• 306 Single Family Properties Currently Listed (Not in Escrow)
•   19   REO (.063% of total)
•   35  Short Sales (11.44% of total)
•  Distressed Properties Comprising 17.65% of Market Total

Pending Listing Stats (Homes in Escrow)

•  110 Currently in Escrow  
•    20 REO (18%)
•    53 Short Sales (48%)
•   REO & Short Sales Comprising 66.3% of the Total Homes in Escrow

Average Number of Days on Market (DOM) From Listing to Close of Escrow

•  96 DOM for REO Sales
• 204 DOM for Short Sales
• 232 DOM for Non Distressed Properties

These numbers still show that homes that are a better value are selling quickly, as any of you who have attempted to get an offer accepted on any of these well priced homes can attest. 

The Average sales price for March was $407,790 which is up slightly from February, whose average sales price was $401,652.  Does that mean the end is near, I think not with the number of notices of defaults and notices of sales still out there.  What it does means is that there is still plenty of opportunity for people who are in a position to purchase these homes.  With the threat of increasing interest rates, things could heat up in the buying arena.  Stay tuned for more updates.

Year to date in South Lake Tahoe there have been 42 single family homes that have closed escrow.  I continue to see the number of bank owned and short sale properties making up over 50% of the market.  Especially surprising numbers since that type of listing is just 19% of the properties that are for sale.

Sold Stats for 2010

• 42 Sold Listings in 2010                    
• 15 REOs
•   9 Short Sales
•   Comprising 57% of total homes sold

Active Listings Stats

• 307 Single Family Properties Currently Listed (Not in Escrow)
•   24   REOs
•   34  Short Sales
• Comprising 19% of Market Total

Pending Listing Stats (Homes in Escrow)

• 87 Listings Currently in Escrow
• 20 REOs
• 45 Short Sales
• Comprising nearly 75% of the Total Homes in Escrow

These numbers are amazing to me because they show that the distressed properties are selling and other listings are not.  I would caution any seller who attempts to navigate these turbulent times of home selling to price their home boldly, perhaps even a bit under the current market value to play the same game as the banks.  This strategy can create a “feeding frenzy” and savvy sellers could end up with multiple offers which can go over the listed price.  Otherwise you may be looking at a listing that can languish on the market without activity for months while the value continues to decline.  If you need to sell a property now,  price courageously and get the listing on as many websites as possible with an agent who has access to an extensive National Distribution Network on the Internet.

Radon is an odorless, colorless, radioactive case that arises from the decay of naturally occurring minerals in the soil. The gas is linked to 21,000 lung cancer deaths a year, second only to cigarette smoking, according to the EPA.  A report from the California Geological Survey in June 2009 estimated that 23,400 people in the Lake Tahoe area live in buildings where radon is likely to equal or exceed the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s recommended action level of 4 picocuries per liter.  The report was based on geological data, as well as results from a survey of 443 homes in South Lake Tahoe between 2006 and 2007.

According to the survey, about 40 percent of homes in the Lake Tahoe area are at or above the EPA’s recommended action level, while approximately 55 percent of homes in the El Dorado County portion of the basin who participated in the survey are at or above the recommended action level.

Winter is a good time to test a home for radon, Huber said.

“It’s the best time to test because your house is closed up,” she said.

I had a recent conversation with Ginger Huber who is in charge of Environmental Health in El Dorado County, and she wanted me to make sure and let you know that she is almost out of the “free” testing kits, but you can get them from the State of California for a nominal fee.  I found this article in a past issue of the Tahoe Daily Tribune and thought you might find the information on radon gas helpful.