Every Current Listing, Escrow, 2007 Sale for each Neighborhood... Plus Statistics! We’ve finished updating all South Lake Tahoe, CA neighborhoods. By clicking on any of the areas in our left sidebar, you will find all current listings, all current escrow, every 2007, plus all sales for 2006, 2005 and 2004. In the middle of each page, there is subhead that indicates the name of the neighborhood followed by “Statistics.” Also at the top-left of each page directly over each spreadsheet you will find “Get Statistics for listings you see here.” You will find a link to each of these that will lead you to a small pop-up window with all current relevant stats for each neighborhood. Please note: Click on your neighborhood in our left side bar and check each spreadsheet for reference. The inciden... 05/21/2007

Full Report Coming when completed. (LAKE TAHOE REAL ESTATE BLOG) We're updating all South Lake Tahoe, CA neighborhoods this weekend. When finished, we'll post a full report with all new neighborhood information. We'll be giving you all current listings, escrow and all 2007 sales to date in each neighborhood. You will also be getting statistics along with each information sheet, which will contain: Median Sold PriceAverage List PriceAverage Sold Price$ Difference List v. Sold% Difference List v. SoldAverage Days on Market (DOM)Average Price Sq FtAverage Size All of the information... all of the time! All of this is information is available 24/7 in the left sidebar of our blog. We have already completed the following neighborhoods, which are active now in the sidebar: Al TahoeBijouChristm... 05/19/2007

Chapter three: A Slight Change in the Plan, and We're Still Hopeful. (LAKE TAHOE REAL ESTATE BLOG, posted previously) This is the third installment of our developing story for Jean, a potential new area homeowner than contacted us through the recommendation of a friend and client about a month or so ago. Instead of coming in this weekend as previously scheduled to look at homes here at the Lake and in the Carson Valley, she’s been delayed until the end of April. It’s a good sign when someone is considerate to call when their plans change, which allows us to un-do appointments and schedules in a timely fashion. That always makes it easier to reschedule showing appointments for the later, especially for homes that are owner occupied. We got an email from Jean yesterday thanking us for the... 05/18/2007

Spies, Paris, Football and an unconscious nod to P.T. Barnham. (LAKE TAHOE REAL ESTATE BLOG, posted by my brother and partner) Here’s another story about our background. We hope you find it interesting. Before we talk about football and what that might have to do with our real estate practice, here’s how we got to France and what we were doing there. Our family lived in Paris from 1957 to 1960. Our father, a career army infantry officer, was then stationed at Orly Air Base, part of Orly Airport (Aeroport de Paris), where he was responsible for securing and transporting classified material coming out of the Pentagon and Washington, D.C. across Paris to S.H.A.P.E (Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe), which is where the allied command center had been since shortly after the end of W... 05/18/2007

(LAKE TAHOE REAL ESTATE BLOG) There is only one Lake Tahoe, and we feature some of the most desirable resort property in the United States, if not the world. From world-class ski resorts to casino gaming, outdoor recreation and breathtaking water sports, we are second to none. Our crystal clear Alpine lake is the highest of its size in the US and boasts 72 miles of spectacular shoreline. The Tahoe Basin is inside the rim of the mountains that surround Lake Tahoe. In the early 1970's, 21% of the basin was privately owned, but today private ownership has been reduced to 13%. In a government forestry service program, roughly 8% of basin property has been re-purchased to be permanently retired from private development, leaving 87% of the basin intact, unimproved and pristine... for future g... 05/18/2007

The beauty of Lake Tahoe has been well-known since its discovery in 1844. A major factor in that delightful aura is one of the world's most enjoyable climates. It's as though the weather gods have programmed the rain and sunshine, the snow and cold, to fit conveniently into the needs of those using the area. Few places on earth can claim a climate of such great variety and year-round enchantment as ours. Four sharply defined seasons bring continual variety and change. Sunshine is the major ingredient of the Tahoe seasons.In over 50 years of the weather in the Basin, 80 percent of the days have sunshine. The probability runs from a winter low of 75% sunshine to a summer high of over 93%. Any given year will provide approximately 240 cloudless days and anothe... 05/18/2007

 Part Two in our actual story following a prospective Buyer. (LAKE TAHOE REAL ESTATE BLOG) Jean has has responded to our first email we sent to her. As you may remember from our first post of the "Jean Chronicles", this included the first links of potential homes for her to consider. We also included the names and phone contacts of vacation rental companies here in South Lake Tahoe to help her with a suitable place to stay when she comes to look at homes sometime around the end of this month.So here's where we are now: Jean says she likes the first home, but it might be a bit small, and she says the last 4 or 5 look like something we would like to take a look at. She also said she would be contacting the rental company for lodging and that she is planning on being here at the end of the... 05/18/2007

Pricing a House Right: It’s the Same information for both Buyers and Sellers. The single most important factor to consider when buying or selling a house is price: how much is the house is worth? A Seller should not overprice a house because the home may loose interest and appeal if it stays on the market too long. If that happens, the house could actually sell for less than what it would have if it was initially priced right. Nationally, after a home has been on the market for three weeks, demand and interest wane. Here in our South Lake Tahoe market, we think that time period might be a little longer, but certainly no more than 60 days. This is because it takes longer to sell a house in this market than it used to; the average time it currently takes to sell a house in South Lake Taho... 05/18/2007

Market Statistics and Conditions, here’s “All of the information... all of the time!” (LAKE TAHOE REAL ESTATE BLOG) One of the primary goals we have for our Lake Tahoe Real Estate Blog is to provide all of the real estate information all of the time as a service to the public. We think having access to the real numbers 24/7 will help all area Owners and potential Buyers better understand and appreciate our current real estate market condition. By having this information, both Sellers and Buyers can make informed decisions based on market reality, not on unrealistic wishes, hope or assumption. As such, and wouldn’t it be nice if everyone did, the result of making informed decisions based on market reality would make for a better and more productive real estate market for us all.Market wi... 05/18/2007

(LAKE TAHOE REAL ESTATE BLOG, originally posted March 11, 2007) Jean has has responded to our first email we sent to her. As you may remember from our first post of the "Jean Chronicles", this included the first links of potential homes for her to consider. We also included the names and phone contacts of vacation rental companies here in South Lake Tahoe to help her with a suitable place to stay when she comes to look at homes sometime around the end of this month.So here's where we are now: Jean says she likes the first home, but it might be a bit small, and she says the last 4 or 5 look like something we would like to take a look at. She also said she would be contacting the rental company for lodging and that she is planning on being here at the end of the month to look. From this i... 05/11/2007

Sometimes Service is not a matter of choice. (LAKE TAHOE REAL ESTATE BLOG) We had certain ideas about the winter weather before we moved to Lake Tahoe. The Lake is at 6,300 feet above sea level, yet for some reason it's far more temperate in the winter than we first thought. Usually, we wear sweaters and rather light jackets, and rarely do I ever wear a heavy coat. It does from time to time, however, get cold, though it rarely lasts for more than a few days. Twice this year, it has been one of those times. The first "spell" was before Christmas. A front came in out of Canada and it got down to about zero overnight for a weekend. The daytime highs were in the 20's. About three years ago, a gentleman who lives in the Bay area called us to help him evaluate his vacation townhome in the ski... 05/11/2007

Being helpful is our Muse. Starting a blog should provoke the thought, "what do I have to say?" We've certainly considered that, sometimes laughably, sometimes obsessively, and then, of course, as with anything my brother and I have written or created before, out of the beginning excitement and flurry of an idea comes a time of calm and patience. It is almost always out of that settlement that comes the real thought, the one idea that gives a project it's meaning, it's muse. It's not what we have to say that's relevant; it's do we have anything to share that you might find important or helpful? That's the better thought that came to us in considering this blog, it's you that matters. We came out of Los Angeles via Austin, both years ago. Our background was music, and movies, and marketi... 05/11/2007

Going out on a Limb with a Buyer by sharing the process with You. (LAKE TAHOE REAL ESTATE BLOG, originally posted March 9th) One of our first transactions some years ago was with “Tony” from Minnesota. He was a walk-in with his wife “Lisa,” perhaps the “numbers” person in the family. Both were exceptionally friendly and we liked them immediately. They were also focused, which always makes things easier for us to be helpful quicker. Our initial interview with Tony and Lisa took about 30 minutes. What emerged out of the things they told us boiled down to this: they wanted a townhome in the ski community at the top of Heavenly Mountain. They had a specific price range, and other than “something nice with at least three bedrooms in South Lake Tahoe”, they had little other precise criteria. ... 05/11/2007

The Difference between a Successful Seller and a Professional Seller. (LAKE TAHOE REAL ESTATE BLOG) By far, the worst selling mistake a seller can make is putting the wrong price tag on a home. In most every case in our South Lake Tahoe real estate market, this fundamental selling mistake appears as overpricing, not underpricing a home. The Successful Seller: The Successful Seller prices their home to sell from the get-go. They are motivated to sell and price their home consistent with current market reality. As a result, their home sells... in all market conditions, up, down or otherwise. There were 439 Successful Sellers in our retreating real estate market in South Lake Tahoe last year; 413 in the last 365 days. In most every instance, and particularly for those who owned their home ... 05/11/2007

Last Six months indicate market stabilization... and a Good Time to Buy. (LAKE TAHOE REAL ESTATE BLOG) We started tracking the relationship of the number of homes currently in escrow compared to the number of homes currently listed for our first real estate seminar last November 1st. Though we have looked at this number over years past, we didn’t really track it over time for a couple of reasons. The first reason is percent escrow is not a number that one normally looks at, or considers particularly relevant in an up market, one that is characterized by rapidly escalating value driven by extraordinary demand. Our real estate market in South Lake Tahoe in 2004 and the first half of 2005 was one of those. The second reason why percent escrow is not normally part of our market indicators’ ... 05/11/2007

There is a way... but it takes vision and will. (LAKE TAHOE REAL ESTATE BLOG) One of the more difficult things to track about a real estate market is current activity. By that, we mean the number of market wide showings that are happening right now, or the number of people in town looking at homes here in South Lake Tahoe. There is simply no data that gives us this information. While seemingly showing the latest market activity, the number of closed sales in the last 30 days does not give us an indication of current activity. Because the average time of escrow is about 60 days, the most recent sales tells us something about buying activity about 60 days ago. But it gives us nothing about the number of people in town looking for homes now, nor the number of people who were looking at hom... 05/11/2007

National News does not always indicate our local market conditions -- Now is a Good Time to Buy. (LAKE TAHOE REAL ESTATE BLOG) Starting with an article entitled “Sales of Existing Homes Plunge 8.4% in March”, there has been widespread news this past week about the national housing market. We thought it would be helpful to compare the facts in the article to our South Lake Tahoe, CA and Stateline, NV real estate market. National real estate trends and conditions are not necessarily consistent with those of second-home, resort markets. Sometimes forces are widely different, sometimes strikingly identical. Generally though, one will find both similarities and differences when comparing reports of national conditions to our Lake Tahoe real estate market. That is certainly true in the case o... 05/11/2007

Our Market is basically Flat -- Now is a very Good Time to Buy. (LAKE TAHOE REAL ESTATE BLOG) Starting with an article entitled “Sales of Existing Homes Plunge 8.4% in March”, there has been widespread news this past week about the national housing market. We thought it would be helpful to compare the facts in the article to our South Lake Tahoe, CA and Stateline, NV real estate market. National real estate trends and conditions are not necessarily consistent with those of second-home, resort markets. Sometimes forces are widely different, sometimes strikingly identical. Generally though, one will find both similarities and differences when comparing reports of national conditions to our Lake Tahoe real estate market. That is certainly true in the case of this article.