The low supply of housing inventory is giving some economist reason to believe we are in for much bigger price gains this year. As of January 31st, there were 111 active single family homes on the market in South Lake Tahoe. We haven't seen numbers that low since the Spring of 2005. That's less than a 3 month supply of housing inventory. This means that buyers are dominating the market while there are relatively few sellers.
The tightening in supply is not expected to continue, however. I expect to see a rise in the number of willing sellers, which means inventory will hit a bottom soon.
28% of the single family homes sold over the last 90 days were bank owned properties or short sales. At the beginning of 2012 distressed sales accounted for over half of our local sales.
Some economists are saying we have an artificial increase in housing values but only time will tell if they are right or wrong. The year long decline in the number of distressed sales as well as housing inventory has stabilized our local market values.
As of January 31st the median sales price for a single family residential home (per the South Tahoe Association of Realtors) had declined 0.4% from $250,000 a year ago to our current $249,000. We hit bottom in August 2012 at $234,000.
Statistics for some of our area neighborhoods: Gardner Mountain area has declined 0.2% in value from a year ago. Montgomery Estates is down 12.5% while Y Area values are up 35.9% from a year ago. For those living in Tahoe Keys, market values have increased 6.7%. Contact Robert Stiles for more local information.
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