Preload Spinner

Tahoe Update

BACK
February 5, 2023

Tahoe Update

Greetings Fellow Life Travelers:

On Tuesday a large, healthy-looking Coyote appeared in the yard out my office door, sending Dancer into a frenzy.  By the time I realized what it was, it took me too long to grab my phone and photo before it dashed off.  It returned for another pass two days later but, again, I missed it.  Cloudy since so we’ll see if it returns when the sun comes out.  Dancer camps at the glass door checking for action.  A couple of weeks ago it was a squirrel teasing her, driving her crazy.  So now let’s what action our market had this past week.

  • Residential Real Estate – week 1/28 – 2/3 
  • Tahoe Sierra MLS – North/West Shores & Truckee.  New Listings – 14; Escrows – 6; Solds – 14
  • Incline Village/Crystal Bay MLS.  New Listings – 1; Escrows – 2; Solds – 2
  • East Shore, NV MLS.  New Listings – 5; Escrows – 3; Solds – 1
  • Reno/Sparks MLS.  New Listings – 92; Escrows – 135; Solds – 74

For Tahoe Sierra, sale to list price was 93% this week.  Nice sale in Palisades Tahoe (SV) originally listed at $7.9M, reduced to $7.5M and sold for $6.85M.  Lahontan had a good sale at $5.575M.  The East Shore had a nice escrow for property listed January 2 at $12.9M.  

Good signs continue to feed the real estate market.  Interest rates are more attractive, inventory is increasing somewhat, and prices are settling but not tanking by a long shot.  Predictions say we’ll continue to see migration from high tax states and cities to less expensive locales as many continue to work remotely.  Also, the upper luxury market should continue to do well.  

  • Local/Real Estate/Luxe
  • Overall, pending sales increased in December for the first time since May 2022.  Recent drop in interest rates helping fuel activity.
  • Keoki Gallery:  Artist Reception February 18, 5 – 9, with Special Guest US Ski Team Downhiller, Travis Ganong
  • Mountain Lion Aviation and Tahoe Fund:  The only private aviation charter company in Lake Tahoe is joining forces with the Tahoe Fund to help lower and sequester carbon emissions by donating money for every hour flown to environmental improvement projects in the Tahoe Basin.
  • Bruce Wolfe, the renowned artist who created the beautiful Lake Tahoe Music Festival posters, passed away in December at 81.  He was known for his fabulous sculptures, one of which is Tony Bennet in front of the Fairmont Hotel in San Francisco.
  • Richard Steadman, MD, passed at 85 in Vail. His recognition in orthopedics started at South Lake Tahoe after which he moved his clinic to Vail.  Not only have locals been his patients, he helped many of our well-known competitive skiers over the years.  
  • Last weekend NS celebrated 50 years as a resort.  I remember when NS was in its embryo stages, meeting some of the leadership that put it together numerous times at festive River Ranch, popular gathering spot for us locals in the late 60s, early 70s.
  • Taxes. When America’s richest woman Marjorie Merriweather Post built a 54-room penthouse atop a new Fifth Avenue luxury tower in 1925, the top federal tax rate was just 25%. In 1940, the federal tax rate on income over $200,000 started at 66% and by 1944 during World War 2, the top tax rate on all income over $200,000 (about $3.4 million in today’s dollars) had jumped to 94%! No one wanted this huge place in this new high-tax era, and it was left vacant all through the 1940s. In the 1950s, with the US’s top tax rate still above 90%, the palace penthouse was broken up into 6 separate units. From Maura Short’s newsletter
  • Single women are outpacing single men in home ownership in all but two states – North and South Dakota.
  • 2023 Housing Market looking up:  lower mortgage rates, stabilizing home prices and more listings. Realtor.com
  • The first GMC Hummer EV SUV sold for $500K at Barrett-Jackson Auction in January.
  • Have we learned Nothing from 1720?  https://tinyurl.com/5dux3m7r
  • Entertainment
  • TidBits
    • Child:  First you want me to walk and talk.  Then you want me to sit still and be quiet.
  • With the rise of self-driving vehicles, it’s only a matter of time before there’s a country song where the guy’s truck leaves him.
  • Interviewer: “Why do you want this job?”  Candidate: “I’ve always been passionate about being able to afford food.
  • For Book Lovers.  (see below)
  • Only in America….do banks leave vault doors open and then chain the pen to the counters.
  • Ever wonder….why Noah didn’t swat those two mosquitoes? Or why sheep don’t shrink when it rains?  Or if con is the opposite of pro, is Congress the opposite of progress?  (Sorry, had to do that one.)
  • “Don’t let aging get you down.  It’s too hard to get back up.”  John Wagner
  • “I was thinking about how people seem to read the bible a lot more as they get older, and then it dawned on me – they’re cramming for their final exam.:  George Carlin
  • I’m 59 and people call me middle-aged.   How many 118-year-old men do you know?”  Barry Cryer
  • Life does not consist mainly – or even largely – of facts and happenings. It consists mainly of the
    storm of thoughts that is forever blowing through one’s head. Mark Twain
  • Even duct tape can’t fix stupid, but it sure does muffle the sound.
  • Evening news is where they begin with ‘Good Evening”, and then proceed to tell you why it isn’t.
  • If at first you don’t succeed, then skydiving definitely isn’t for you. Steven Wright

We’re still having snow, and it looks like we’ll have six more weeks of winter, so enjoy skiing for some time!  Have a good week, and see you next time.

Best wishes, 

Trinkie