Greetings Fellow Life Travelers:

            A week of festivities for Tahoe with the annual (usually) Lake Tahoe Concourse d’Elegance.  Pre-show dinner at Garwoods on Thursday, Show on Friday and Saturday, and then the Ladies Lunch and Men’s Grill on Sunday.  In addition, there was a beautiful family memorial for Buzz Gibb with an amazing eulogy presented by his eldest son.  Beautiful weather, and many of his friends there to celebrate his life.  Buzz and Joan Gibb purchased Thunderbird Yacht from the Harrah estate years ago, refurbished it and made it available for a number of our charity fund-raisers.  They gave it back to Thunderbird Lodge, from where it originated, where it resides today under the care of Thunderbird Preservation Society. Unfortunately, the lake level just dropped so it is berthed for the rest of the season and wasn’t able to be at Garwoods for the celebration or the boat show.  Let’s see what we might celebrate for this last week’s real estate activity.

• Residential Real Estate – week of 8/6 – 8/12

• Tahoe Sierra MLS – North/West Shores & Truckee.  New Listings – 40; Escrows – 22; Solds – 15
• Incline Village/Crystal Bay MLS.  New Listings – 9; Escrows – 3; Solds – 3
• East Shore, NV MLS.  New Listings – 3; Escrows – 5; Solds – 2
• Reno/Sparks MLS.  New Listings – 131; Escrows – 174; Solds – 93

Areas besides Tahoe Sierra showing a drop in new listings this week, typical for the nation as the flurry seems to have been in June and July. Escrows are up in 2 areas from last week, a bit down in the other two.  For Tahoe Sierra, 5 of the 15 closed were on or slightly over asking, the rest slightly below.

I know the media and many financial gurus are predicting gloom and doom, trying to sell savior stocks, but we’re not buying it!  Yes, we have inflation that looks like it might be coming down a bit, and there are also positive predictions by intelligent sources that do not think we’re sinking.  The real estate market is not going to crash; it’s returning to more balance, what we consider a ‘normal’ market.  Price reductions have waned, and prices are predicted to continue to go up but not with the velocity seen in the last two years.  Inventory is still about half of what it was in 2019, and there is a dearth of new homes and will be for some time. Yes, sales are way behind what they were this time last year, but the market is not dead!   Lake Tahoe will always be a beautiful, desirable place to live and play.

• Local/Real Estate/Luxe

• Scholarship for every student enrolled in the inaugural year in Lake Tahoe Community College’s New Forestry Program to be awarded by Tahoe Fund! 
• Multiple homes.  More people are buying next door homes to use as guest quarters and avoid a mega mansion going up next to them.
• “Coastal Grandma” trend is popularizing Nantucket and other beachy locales for summer vacations for 20- and 30-year olds. Influencers are having a dramatic impact on this trend, to the chagrin on some residents. 
• Condo owners in collapsed Surfside Tower, Florida, are getting hit with property tax bills this year after a year of forgiveness.  Depending on size of what existed, average is expected to be $5,785 per unit.  Property is valued at $41.3 million.  However, I would imagine any development would entail substantial infrastructure to secure its stability.
• Missing Truckee teenager.   You’ve probably read about Kiely Rodni’s disappearance.  Incredible amount of community support trying to find her, along with amazing search by agencies including the FBI.  I personally think the car must be in a garage somewhere as the search is intense.  Let’s hope she’s found safe by the time you read this.

• Entertainment

• Time for dinner.  (See below)
• Marmot singing.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sl_4I7vLLc4

• TidBits  (words from our departed friend, Buzz Gibb)

• “You can marry more money in 10 minutes than you can make in a lifetime.”  (He tried 3 times)
• For his sons, moons ago:  “If you drive and drink, don’t smoke.”
• “I am not going to your funeral since you won’t be coming to mine.”
• “Death cannot be all that bad because no one ever comes back.”

Thanks for reading….love all the nice kudos and support I get!  Be back next week!

Best wishes,

Trinkie