Q1 2017 presented many challenges including road closures, power outages, and other events created by prolific winter snowfall. Regardless, 2017 turned out to be an historic year for real estate activity.

In contrast the 2018 landscape presented an entirely different set of challenges. 60% of the YTD snowfall fell in the latter part of the ski season, with 19+feet of accumulation in Miracle March alone.

With $289M in total sales volume all indicators peg the Q1 2018 momentum to continue into Q2 and beyond. The correlation between snowfall and Tahoe-Truckee real estate market activity appears to be debunked.

194 single family homes transacted in Q1 2018, with 67% of activity under $1M. Conversely, the luxury real estate market – defined as homes over $1M – represents 60% of the historically low active inventory. 29% of current homes are offered over $2M.

The resort communities – Martis Camp, Lahontan, Northstar, Schaffer’s Mill, Old Greenwood and Gray’s Crossing – transacted with an average sales price of $2.4M, up 62% from PY.  Despite 12 fewer trades, sales volume increased 43%.

Martis Camp had an explosive first quarter. With just 4 additional transactions from PY, sales volume nearly doubled to $52M. Old Greenwood a community with the potential for just 99 single-family homes had 2 trades for $2.2M and $2.4M, respectively. These represent the first $2M+ sales since 2012. Northstar’s Mountainside community saw 4 trades of $2M+, including two single-family homes at $3.2M and $4.7M.

The absorption rate, defined as the ratio at which available homes are sold in a given period, has steadily increased over the past five years. Traditionally discretionary nature of Tahoe real estate lends to a longer sales cycle and subsequently higher Average DOM than a primary home market. Average days on market have dropped year over year across Tahoe going back to 149 days in 2015 to a meager 82 days in Q1 2018.

Q1 2018 was the busiest respective quarter in Tahoe history, considering property trades and sales volume. The winding down of ski season signals the start to the “busy real estate season.” Hampered by limited inventory it will be interesting to monitor area trends moving forward.

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