Is Silence a Form of Deceit? If you're planning to buy a home this year, expect to see big changes in the way you engage with realtors. The anti-trust lawsuit against the NAR (National Association of Realtors) settled out of court recently, and part of the settlement agreement requires realtors to have buyers sign what's called a "Buyer Broker" agreement before showing them houses. In the past decade of working as a realtor, I only used a Buyer Broker agreement once, mainly because my first experience with that piece of paper left a horrible taste in my mouth. I first encountered that for ..read more

Lahontan Home Values Stay Strong Despite rising interest rates and a volatile economy, homes at the Lahontan Golf & Country Club held their value this year, finishing 2023 on par with the record prices we saw the year before. With just 13 homes changing hands all year (and one more set to close Dec 29), the volume of sales in Lahontan is just two-thirds of what it was last year. But the median sales price is holding steady at close to $4 million, bolstered in part by the sales of brand new homes fetching upwards of $1,100/square foot (SF). The Lahontan Tradition Lahontan is the o ..read more

Customize your finishes Why go through the cost and headache of building your own home, when you can buy Brand New, and customize your finishes to match your taste?  The photo below offers an idea of what can be ...  Prefer a Stone Hearth over Blue Rolled Steel? No problem.  Work with one of the region's top builders to customize finish materials and colors that match your palette. Dreaming of a Sonos surround sound system?  Let's talk 4-Bed 3.5-Bath Chef's Kitchen & Wine Bar 2-Car Garage w/Tesla Charger & Generac whole house generator Current finishes include: Wood ..read more

Winter Sales Down by Half Low inventory, high interest rates, and unprecedented snowfall left the Tahoe Truckee real estate market with a sluggish start to 2023. Throughout the region, the volume of sales was roughly half of what we had seen in the first quarter of last year. On the California side, including Truckee and the ski areas, only 98 homes changed hands in the first quarter of this year (compared to 182 the year before). Most Sales in Tahoe Donner As in past years, the majority of the sales were in Tahoe Donner. The median sales price there fell to $1.2 million (down from $1.3 millio ..read more

Home Values Double over a Decade It was an idea ahead of its time.  The year was 2004, and the idea was to create a new community near downtown Truckee to fill the niche between the more affordable (and higher elevation) homes of Tahoe Donner, and the more exclusive, gated community of Lahontan, where some of Tahoe's most celebrated architects were designing homes that felt like a page out of a Craftsman Bungalow on a scale approaching the Ahwahnee Hotel. The community was named for Joseph Gray, a Truckee founding "father" of sorts whose cabin still stands as an historic landmark downtown ..read more

The Waldorf Astoria is coming to Lake Tahoe And you'll never guess where ...  If you've ever driven past the old (crumbling) Tahoe Biltmore on your way to Incline Village and wondered why such a prime location features such a dilapidated building, you're not alone. Plans to redevelop the property have been in the works for more than a decade.  Trex co-founder Roger Wittenberg bought the property in 2007 through Boulder Bay LLC (namesake of the luxury townhomes you can see from the road at the east end of the property), and shepherded an earlier version of the redevelopment through th ..read more

Real Estate Sales Slow in Incline Village While many real estate markets around the Tahoe/Reno region have adjusted prices downward from the 2022 highs of the Covid era, Incline Village on Lake Tahoe's north shore continues to reach high on pricing, leading to a precipitous drop in sales volume from last year. Moving into March, we saw only a dozen homes change hands in Incline Village for a total sales volume of a little more than $18 million. That's just a third of the sales we saw by this time last year.   Waterfront Lake Tahoe Condos Sold in 2023 The Incline condo market fared a ..read more

Guide to Tahoe Truckee Ski Resorts So you've decided you don't want to wait in the long lines on I-80 for fresh powder this season ... how to choose the right ski resort for you? Here's a couple of questions to ask yourself: What vibe do you prefer?  Big Resort with restaurants, dining & shopping? Or are you more into nature, privacy & the solitude the mountains offer? How far do you want to drive? How much do you want to spend? The links above offer a quick guide to some of the area's more popular resorts, from the Mega-resort, largely intermediate mountains like Northstar, to ho ..read more

Real Estate in Tahoe City It's tough to talk in global terms about the real estate market in Tahoe City because the options for a Tahoe vacation home here range from some of Lake Tahoe's finest luxury properties to more affordable waterfront condo options, and everything in between (read more ... ) Tahoe City is located on the CA side of Lake Tahoe ..read more

The Waldorf Astoria is coming to Lake Tahoe And you'll never guess where ...  If you've ever driven past the old (crumbling) Tahoe Biltmore on your way to Incline Village and wondered why such a prime location features such a dilapidated building, you're not alone. Plans to redevelop the property have been in the works for more than a decade.  Trex co-founder Roger Wittenberg bought the property in 2007 through Boulder Bay LLC (namesake of the luxury townhomes you can see from the road at the east end of the property), and shepherded an earlier version of the redevelopment through th ..read more