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Lahontan continues to impress with its understated beauty and privacy as well as this quiet sense of connectedness and community. Lahontan has become a welcomed place for investment building as well as families looking to build a custom home, with 256 completed homes and 21 under construction (out of 509 total homesites). Although sales volume is down since last year, average home values are up 21%. For the first half of 2017, there were 5 home sales compared to 12 in 2016, however the average sales price is up at $2,567,000 compared to last year at $2,026,854. As for homesite sales, we’ve seen 7 sales year to date with an average price of $238,928 whereas last year’s first half we saw 21 sales with a nominal 1% change in the average sales price at $236,420.

75% of those homes under construction are spec builders with a range in size from 3,500-4,300 square feet which is slightly smaller than the historical average home size of 4,400 square feet. Builders are looking for $750-$800 per foot for new construction whereas existing 2002-2007 homes are trading within the low to mid-$500’s per foot. It seems that consumers are willing to pay this 30% premium as 3 out of the 5 recent sales are newer homes.

As for homesites, consumers are finding it more difficult to procure land that has optimal building qualities such as views and preferred orientation (ex: south facing exposure) and are willing to pay a premium for off-market opportunities. Out of the 509 homesites, at least 60 are privacy lots, defined as those owners that acquired land surrounding their homes for privacy. We don’t expect to see any of these come to market any time soon, however with the limited availability of premium land, these privacy lots may come in high demand.

It will be interesting to see what the impact of a busy summer will bring as far as sales volume since there remains high interest in the community. Since the fall season is historically the busiest time for transactions, we should expect to see a better performance in the coming months.