First and foremost, I hope you’re well and keeping safe. Hopefully, soon enough will all be enjoying the amazing mountain activities here in Tahoe.
Not unexpectedly, the real estate activity has slowed drastically. Although there has been, and will always be, a baseline demand for Tahoe-Truckee real estate. Since real estate has been deemed essential, in the last ten days; there were 13 new escrows, 41 closings, and 45 new listings. Our region usually has 150+/- new listings per month as a statistic.
In March, 91 transactions closed at an average price of $1,073,285 and 21% higher than the average in the same month last year. It’s important to note those transactions were agreed to 30+ days prior. Curiously, this confirms that strong market conditions were sufficient to overcome what had been a mild winter. It’s too early to predict how COVID-19 will impact the local real estate market long term, but using various analytics available to us, we are seeing a massive surge in online real estate activity as would-be consumers use tools including virtual tours to preview Tahoe real estate. Understanding that some of this is idle curiosity, it remains a positive indicator of future demand.
Our scenic and ‘drive to’ market for many visitors and second home owners could put Tahoe in a position to rebound faster than many other second home destination areas. Those in a position to acquire a second home may find Tahoe an ideal choice; one that can lead to frequent visits and enjoyed on a moment’s notice. It is also likely that consumers will find that they are able to sustain productivity while working from a second home within the region.
In an historical context, this period will be a curious void in productivity once we shake out the real loss of capital and return to a normalized market. In the near term, expect a relative slowdown in productivity. While this will undoubtedly impact longer range data, we are hopeful that the second half of 2020 will bear stronger resemblance to recent years, and return to somewhat of an equilibrium.
