Greetings Fellow Life Travelers:
Truckee had an exciting anticipated event last Sunday…the short arrival of Big Boy, Union Pacific’s only working steam engine that was restored in time for the 150-year celebration of the Transcontinental railroad. Expected at 3:00 pm for a 30-min stop, it finally slowly drove through at 6:30 and no stop. The crowds awaiting at 2:30 when I found a parking place were almost as good as July 4ths’ Parade…such fun to see the turnout. At 2:45, we heard it would be 3:30. At 3:15, we were told 5:00. So, my friend and I went to Moody’s for food and drink, then ambled down to the station to find out it would be 5:30. Then we hear it was stuck in a shed above Donner Lake for some reason and all notices of a stop in Truckee cancelled. We left at 6, and then I heard from my neighbor that it rolled thru slowly at 6:30. So, the videos in Entertainment (below) show the train coming through Truckee from both sides of the track. Now let’s see what tracked in real estate this week.
Residential Real Estate – week 7/12 – 7/19
- Tahoe Sierra MLS – North/West Shores & Truckee. New Listings – 31; Escrows – 36; Solds – 20
- Incline Village/Crystal Bay MLS. New Listings – 7; Escrows – 10; Solds – 12
- East Shore, NV MLS. New Listings – 9; Escrows – 5; Solds – 3
- Reno/Sparks MLS. New Listings – 130; Escrows – 165; Solds – 137
More buying action, typical for this time of year. Reno had an escrow listed at $8.475 Million in Montreux.
Lakefronts: 3 new actives on the N/W Shores for 23, 9 on the North Shore, 14 on the West Shore. One escrow listed at $16.950 Million on the West Shore. Incline/Crystal Bay steady at 5 Active with 1 in escrow; East Shore no change with 9 Active plus a Beachfront Condo listed at $8.975 Million. South Lake Tahoe steady at 4 Active.
Local/Real Estate/Luxe
- Conundrum! A Travel boom, aided by the strong US Dollar, is fueling American home purchases abroad. US Home Sales to foreign buyers fall to 15-year low as prices soar. Mansion Global
- Toccata’s Hot Opera Nights at Bartley Ranch, Reno. Fabulous performance! Get tix! https://tinyurl.com/47kjb284
- Japanese homebuilders are turning to the US as shrinking population is impacting sales on home front. In 2023, 30,000 homes were built by three companies in Texas and Florida. Manion Global
- Restaurants are the hot item in commercial real estate. Since the pandemic, more and more people are eating out, and prices are up, making restaurant investments attractive. Mansion Global
- Job stability. Per the WSJ, Americans aren’t job-hopping the way they were during the pandemic. Now, more are satisfied with the jobs they hold, happy with the stability they provide. Let’s hope that keeps up!
- Good news for libraries! Attendance is up in summer months, reflecting the positive integration of technology enhancing the user experience. Big move underway to create a new library in Truckee!
- New controversial project: Proposed sawmill and wood-processing facility near Truckee. Timber LLC is aiming to build an environmentally-designed integrated wood products facility to manufacture graded lumber, firewood, biomass heat, and eventually mass timber products. This project’s goal is to address the need for local wood product infrastructure in the North Tahoe/Truckee region, where the closest sawmill is 70 miles away. The facility will process locally harvested logs, hopefully reducing transportation emissions and keeping economic benefits local. Many locals are against it, citing increased traffic and noise. Comment period open.
Entertainment
- Big Boy #1 Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=92XO751P1gs
- Big Boy #2 Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ERM4Nx7Jfko
TidBits
- When your children are teenagers, it’s important to have a dog so that someone in the house is happy to see you. Nora Ephron
- Hollywood Squares: Q: According to doctors, can spending the night in a sleeping bag do anything good for you? A: I’ll say, my den mother bought be a corvette! Paul Lynde
- The best thing one can do when it’s raining is to let it rain. Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
- Sometimes you win, sometimes you learn. John Maxwell
- I tried starting my day without coffee. My court day is pending.
- Volkswagen should bring back the beetle as an electric car and call it the Lightning Bug.
- Family: A unit composed not only of children, but of men, women, an occasional animal, and the common cold. Ogden Nash
- Nothing in life is fun for the whole family. There are no massage parlors with ice cream and free jewelry. Jerry Seinfeld
- There is no downside to everyone doing well. Put yourself first. When you thrive, the people around you do too. Matthew Ferry
- Ideas are like rabbits. You get a couple and learn how to handle them, and pretty soon you have a dozen. John Steinbeck
- He said, “Books or me”. Sometimes I remember him when I‘m buying new books.
- The task of the modern educator is not to cut down jungles but to irrigate deserts. C.S. Lewis
- Read the vowels in Celine Dion out loud.
- I am well aware I’m not everyone’s cup of tea. I’d rather be someone’s shot of tequila anyway! Maxine
- In the joyous dance of the sun/ We find laughter and moments of fun. With friends by our side/ And adventures wide-eyed/ Life’s tapestry gleams when begun. ChatGPT
- Well-behaved women seldom make history. Laurel Thatcher Ulrich
Well, maybe it’s back to the old Martini days. Now it’s off to a fun lawn party with a Brazilian theme, one of the Knights of the Vine events. We had some thunder, lightning and rain this last week, and now it’s warming up a bit again, so stay cool and I’ll see you next time!
Best wishes,
Trinkie