Tahoe Real Estate Market Ends 2010 on High Note

LAKE TAHOE, Nev. (Jan. 4, 2011) – The Lake Tahoe real estate market ended the decade with strong sales and significant signs of improvement, according to a year-end report from Chase International. The report, which compares all sales and home prices from 2010 to those of 2009, indicated a 16 percent increase in units sold and a 20 percent jump in overall sales volume.

“This is a remarkable improvement from 2009,” said Susan Lowe, corporate broker and senior vice president for Chase International. “These numbers show the regional market stabilizing.”

Tahoe City showed the largest increase in sales with a 40 percent increase in total volume (dollars) and 17 percent rise in units sold. Incline Village saw a 27 percent jump in both units and volume. The median price of a home in Incline Village is $827,000, the highest in the basin, despite a ten percent drop from 2009. The median price of homes sold along Tahoe’s East Shore is $570,000, up five percent over 2009 and for South Shore, the median price remained steady compared to 2009 at $317,000. The overall median price of homes sold in Lake Tahoe is $541,000, down six percent, while the average price remained stable (with a one percent increase) at $897,173.

The National Association of Realtors notes that historically high housing affordability is boosting sales activity across the nation, indicating a gradual recovery into 2011.

“In addition to exceptional affordability conditions, steady improvements in the economy are helping bring buyers into the market,” said Lawrence Yun, chief economist for NAR. “But further gains are needed to reach normal levels of sales activity.”

The sales of condominiums around the lake are also up substantially with a 48 percent rise in sales volume and 46 percent jump in units sold.

Truckee condos were up 46 percent in both sales and volume. Home sales in Truckee remained relatively flat, with little movement in volume and a five percent increase in number of units sold. The average price of a home in Truckee is $627,093 (down four percent) and the median is $490,000 (down eight percent).

A complete breakdown of Chase International’s year-end sales report can be viewed by clicking the following links:

2010 Year End Stats Lake Tahoe
2010 Year End Stats Truckee
2010 Tahoe Donner Market Review Statistics

Truckee – Tahoe Home Sales Experience Big Increase During the First Quarter

There is no doubt people are buying their Truckee-Tahoe dream homes and values are solid. Yet, pricing is all over the board with inconsistent results by neighborhood. Our overall inventory of available homes for sale has been low. The banks reduced their REO property inventory and have focused on reducing short sales inventory. This is a trend we expect to continue.  Equity sellers and vacation home owners are awaiting signs that the market has stabilized while buyers are preparing for our summer inventory, which has traditionally increased. Buyers are responding to the market changes and purchasing available inventory. Take a look at our Truckee Real Estate recap below.

Prices:  Elder Group Tahoe Real Estate reported in March that we are “at the bottom” and prices have stabilized through Q1 2010 and we were right on target. Truckee prices declined 6% as compared to the 4^th quarter, 17% lower than one year ago and appear to be holding and in some areas, increasing in others.  Donner Lake and Glenshire are good examples with a 44% and 13% closed sale price increases, respectively. Donner Lake increased to $625,000 from $435,000, a significant 44% due to several luxury sales. 

Home Sales:  Overall, Truckee area home sales increased 34% from a year ago with Northstar and Glenshire (133%) providing large swings over historical results.  Northstar’s price points dropped 49% and moved to an incredible $800,000 versus its prior $1,565,000. Tahoe Donner remained stable with 38 homes sold – a 12% increase and a 10% price decline versus one year ago. Tahoe Donner’s single family homes closed at an average of $502,000 versus $557,500 and days on the market dropped 24% from 130 to 106 days. Throughout Truckee’s local neighborhoods, pricing dropped 24% from $586,500 to $447,250. 

Tahoe Real Estate:  The defined “Tahoe” market includes Alpine Meadows, North Shore, Squaw Valley, Tahoe City and the West Shore. Prices increased 9% in the fourth quarter to $550,797 from $503,379 yet are down 11% from a year ago.  The North Shore home sales increased 200% with 26 homes sold in Q1 versus one year ago with 12 and prices declined a modest 5%.  Prices were hit hard on the West Shore and declined 33% from $660,500 to $445,000. 

Bank Owned and Short Sale Property Inventories:  Varying slightly day-by-day, we continue to have approximately 150 properties listed as short sales or REO’s (bank owned) with 2/3 categorized as short sales and 1/3 categorized as REO’s.  Today, Truckee has 59 short sales or REO’s listed with 22% under contract.  In the North Shore, Tahoe City, Westshore areas, there are 16 active with 19% under contract.  We are trending back to conventional sales, which may well create price increases over the summer.

California Eliminates State Tax on Forgiven Debt For Primary Homes

As reported by CAR, distressed homeowners no longer have to pay California state income tax on debt forgiven in a short sale, foreclosure or loan modification. Enacted into law yesterday, Senate Bill 401 generally aligns California’s tax treatment of mortgage debt relief income with federal law.  For debt forgiven on a loan secured by a “qualified principal residence”, borrowers will now be exempt from both federal and state income tax consequences. The existing federal exemption is for indebtedness up to $2 million, whereas the new CA exemption is for indebtedness up to $800,000 and forgiven debt up to $500,000.

“Qualified principal residence” indebtedness is defined as debt incurred in acquiring, construction or substantially improving a principal residence.  It includes both first and second trust deeds. It also includes a refinance loan to the extent the funds were used to pay off a previous loan that would have qualified. 

The tax breaks apply to debts discharged from 2009 through 2012.  Californians who have already filed their 2009 tax returns may claim the exemption by filing a Form 540X amendment.

Taxpayers who do not qualify for the above exemptions (e.g., second home or rental property) may nevertheless be except under other provisions. Most notably, taxpayers who are bankrupt are exempt from debt relief income tax.  Also, taxpayers who are insolvent are exempt from debt relief income tax to the extent their current liabilities exceed current assets.

For more information about mortgage forgiveness tax consequences, go to California Franchise Tax Board’s Mortgage Forgiveness Debt Relief Extended webpage and the Internal Revenue Service’s Mortgage Forgiveness Debt Relief Act and Debt Cancellation webpage.  The full text of Senate Bill’s 401 is available online.

Thinking of Buying In Truckee – Tahoe? Mortgage Rates at New Lows, Thanks To Our European Friends

Each month since the end of last year we have heard nothing but good news for the struggling U.S. housing market. What economic event aided to retain our low mortgage interest rates this time you ask?  Well all the accolades go to the European debt crisis, specifically Greece, Spain and Portugal.  But hey let’s not single them out. With the easy entry policy into the European Union and Euro Dollar other countries may just follow suit.  So what does this mean to you, the U.S. home consumer – mortgage rates are at historic lows.

The current average rate for a 30 year fixed loan is 4.87%, according to Bankrate.com. That’s the lowest rate for a 30 year loan since Bankrate started keeping track 25 years ago. One could not find a better time in our generation to buy or refinance a home especially with home prices rolled back to the beginning of the millennium. 

So how did the European crisis directly impact how we got to these low rates? Unsteady investors are concerned about their investment so they moved heavily into to the safety of U.S. Treasury’s.  That in turn forced down the yield and influences a variety of consumer interest rates, especially mortgages. The decline is also good news for homeowners looking to refinance, particularly those who owe more on their mortgage than their house is worth. We have a large window of refinancing, call it even a door way sized opportunity.  There is also the government’s Home Affordability Refinance Program (HARP) that provides homeowners the ability to refinance into a low rate mortgage, even with a depressed property value.  This program has been extended to qualified homeowners through June 2011.

Let’s not take a good thing for granted though.  These moments in market time do not last forever.  Move swiftly to purchase or refinance today.  How long we have you ask?  The summer can easily cover your window of opportunity, but the market could stabilize in the next month to put a small increase in rates, perhaps upwards of 5.5% on 30 year fixed confirming loans by end of June.  It is also a natural market response to the buying season for real estate. 

Here are more reasonable reasons to the market:

1.  The European Union will deliver market stabilizing news with an action plan to calm the markets on a timed basis in the months to come.
2. BP Oil – want some low priced crude?  Grab a boat and a bucket and you can just scoop it up for free.  The Feds won’t let BP get away with much more time whether BP fixes it or the government does. Either way the leak will eventually be capped.
3. Existing Home Sales for April beat expectations by rising 7.6% after a pop of 7% in March. The annual rate increased to 5.77 million units, topping expectations. The median price of a home rose 4% to $173,100. It all sounds good, right? Well first of all, investors are a bit wary of the housing data.  So the negative is the “inventory” increased to an 8.4 months supply. That’s the bad news. The good news is that we are at least eating into that inventory we all know exists out there. The banks are finally getting a bit smarter in handling their inventory and also directing and accepting more short sales than in recent past. 
4. Unemployment is another long term beast of the market that from reporting to reporting period causes momentary shifts in our mortgage rates.
5. The Feds still have toe holds on the market from corporate stocks, corporate loans stimulus programs. Sooner or later Wall Street will want to see divesture. And let’s not even go to the budget…nothing like printing money.
6. Hey how about another war with the North and South Korea. The countries decided to do some real saber rattling just to keep our world markets on their toes. When we see improvement expect a war or at least some serious jawing over who gets to have the bath tub rights. This is very serious as the North Koreans military went to combat alert.

Believe it or not the bright spot in all this wild news that has kindly kept our rates low is that our nation’s people are feeling better.  Yes, consumer confidence is a bright. The Conference Board’s consumer confidence index rose for the third straight month, climbing to 63.3 in May from 57.7 last month.

So the market is playing out national slow recovery against the world as it turns more negative.  The plan is to invest in the good news nationally or what might happen later this year in the world that affects world economic recovery or recession. That is why we have low rates today.  Investors in the market are nervous about the world and they want some ROI safety until the world economic drama plays into the second half of the year.

Back in the old, pre-financial market meltdown days, mortgages used to be among those products that benefited from these kinds of flight-to-quality moves. Today’s new securities, of course, have market and interest rate risks, but are built from mortgages comprised of much better borrower stock than those of a couple of years ago. This being the case, and with risks associated with investing in mortgages at the beginning of what should be a long decline, they may be become more attractive to investors seeking to park some cash. If so, that’s good news for housing market moving forward. We’ll see.

Until then, what does this mean to you – you’re kidding right – go buy a house and enjoy the deal of a generation. Of course if you already have a home, then go refinance your property and sake a few thousand a year.  That could be vacation money.  Greece I heard is real cheep this year.

For further information on how you can take advantage this market opportunity regarding home financing please contact Desmond Elder at Pacific Mortgage Consultants, Inc. by e-mail e-mail or phone 530-582-4238.

Market Report: 1st Quarter 2010

Three key topics are covered in Elder Group Tahoe Real Estate’s Q1-2010 Market Report:  Pricing, Short Sales and bank owned (REO) and short sale properties.  Read on!

Buying in Truckee – Prices Have Reached the Bottom
Client Buyers continually ask me about inventory supplies and pricing, waiting for the “perfect” moment to buy in Truckee.  My response?  “It’s time.”  Prices have stabilized and appear to be on the brink of a rise in certain markets segments.  I recently met with a local and veteran Appraiser who spent many years leading appraisal groups for a major bank and Tahoe area lender.  His sophisticated corporate algorithm programs indicate that Truckee is no longer a declining market.

Two of our Elder Group’s recent listings (mind-February and early March) went into contract in less than a week and set new highs in their respective Tahoe Donner class for the 1,300 – 1,700 and 2,250 – 2,700 square foot markets.  The analytics show me the Truckee market has stabilized with signs of increasing prices.  The “feel” of the market and today’s buyers demonstrate it’s changing.  Low financing rates and nice product inventory gives Buyers options that align and make purchasing sense – particularly in Tahoe Donner and other resort neighborhoods such as Old Greenwood, Northstar, Lahontan and Donner Lake.

As outlined on my Market Reports, Truckee’s single family home sales over the last 26 weeks averaged $486,021. This is a 12.7% decrease from $556,604 for the prior 90 day period. New inventory has actually INCREASED in price from $541,269 and is up 10% to $595,666.  The last 6 months has shown a dramatic swing in Tahoe Donner.  The prior 12 week average was down $55,812 – 9.6% – over the prior 90 day period.  However, new listings are UP 14.0% which equates to an increase of $80,694.  This anchor market is often indicative of the health of the overall Truckee market and prices are indeed moving upward.  Condo pricing has dropped a modest 8% over the prior 24 weeks with new listing climbing in price by an average of a whopping 18%!

Combining Nevada and Placer counties, under contract homes are up by 27%.  Inventory is solid with nice product from which to choose and on the climb by 21.6% over the prior 24 weeks.

So, the statistics tell us the real “numbers”. The Buyers tell me the “feel” of the market. It’s indeed changing.  The time to buy is truly NOW! Please contact me at Tahoe@AlisonElder.com. It’s my pleasure to find your family the Tahoe retreat you’ve been dreaming about!

Please contact Alison Elder, Elder Group Tahoe Real Estate for more information about Truckee-Tahoe real estate and market information.

Today’s Biggest Challenges – Short Sales!
The biggest challenge in today’s marketplace? Short sales.  That is, the Seller owes more on the property than it is worth and requires Bank involvement.  Many of these properties are on the brink of foreclosure, have Sellers who are in a deficiency judgment arena with the lender (Bank) that prefers to have their note paid in full and wants as much for the property as possible – and in many instances, more than it’s worth due to the loan amounts.  It’s tough on the Sellers, really hard on the Buyers and many times the Realtors are caught in a no-win situation with unclear information, timelines and a 50%/50% chance at securing the property.  Thus, if you are a Buyer considering a short sale, realize that even the best of circumstances, the road may be tenuous. Definitely have a Plan B within a certain time frame, choose a Realtor who has their Distressed Property certification and be very patient.  It may – or may not – pay off, unfortunately.

 

REO and Short Sale Truckee- Tahoe Inventory Status –

Fewer Single Family Homes Available
As you may know, there are two types of Bank related sales. The first is REO or “bank owned property”.  The second is termed a “short sale”, which means the seller owes the bank more than the property is worth in today’s market.

Here’s an overview of the Truckee-Tahoe market. Bank related property inventory reduced from December, 2009 and January, 2010.  In February, single family REO home inventory decreased by 6 homes and represented <20 homes or 17% of the bank related market.  Since 2/1/10, 83% (96 homes) were Short Sale situations; 59 of these homes were in Bank negotiations.

In the condo market, REO properties represented 28% of our Truckee-Tahoe bank related inventory market with 72% (38 count) with 30% in contingent status.  As you can see, our market has been gently hit with these types of sales although the media has led us to believe that we will see many more in all market places.  It could be a very interesting summer season!