Tahoe Donner Homes – Single Family Home Sales – Mar’ 2012
The following Figure shows Tahoe Donner Single Family Home activity from Jan 2008 through Mar 2012.
The data is obtained from the Tahoe MLS published data. Note, this data is for single family homes only – contact me for data on Tahoe Donner Condos, Lot Sales or data for other Truckee or Lake Tahoe areas.
Tahoe Donner is a great area to study for market activity since it is has over 5000 homes and therefore presents a large database for meaningful statistical analysis. Home prices vary from roughly $300K to over $1.5M and ages range from brand new to over 30 years old.

Tahoe Donner Single Family Home Closings – Jan ’08 to Mar ‘12
Tahoe Donner Homes – Mar ‘12 Closings
Single Family home closings in Mar ‘12 were 27 homes compared to 14 last month and 19 the month before. Note that sales in Tahoe Donner are extremely seasonal and year to year comparisons are significant to get a valid picture of typical sales activity. Note that Jan through Mar ‘12 was stronger than the same period for the last 4 years – a good sign.
Regarding other activity, there are 5 pending, 26 contingent and 8 active contingent short sales with offers in the works. We can expect an increased level of closings for the rest of the year. From a seasonality point of view Jan is typically the slowest month of the year with some recovery starting in Mar. Keep in mind the difference between closings and when the contract is signed can be 4-8 weeks for open and close of escrow for standard sales and longer for short sales and REOs.
Tahoe Donner Homes – Inventory
The number of Single Family listings was 63 listings at the end of Mar, down from 66 in Feb and 130 in Jan. When you consider we have approximately 5000 single family homes in Tahoe Donner, inventory continues to be very low – only1.3% of the homes in TD. This is the lowest level of inventory for the last 4 years of my recorded data – obviously a positive sign for the continued good health of the Tahoe Donner Home Market.
Tahoe Donner Homes – Days on Market (DOM)
Average Days on market (DOM) was 99 days, which decreased from 149 days last month. The inventory is seasonal and if you look at the first graph you can see that inventory will go up by 50% or so in the next several months as the ski leases run out and owners fix up their homes and get them on the market.

Tahoe Donner Single Family Home Median and Average Home Price – Jan ’08 to Mar ‘12
Tahoe Donner Homes – Average and Median Prices
Average price was $523K and the median price was $530K. This is a recovery due to less lower priced homes selling in Mar. Last month, one could say that prices are falling but looking at the sales data what is really happening is that the sales of properties priced at less than $300K have dramatically increased from less than 10% of the homes sold to 29% in one month. See the following graph. The average and median is now back on track at around $500K which has been fairly consistent over the last few years.
Average Price per Sq Ft
I have in the past given an average price per sq ft. For various reasons this doesn’t make sense to do. After some analysis I find that it varies all over the map and a buyer or seller should look at this value for the various price bands defined in the following graph as well if the sales are standard, short sales or REO’s. Contact me for details if you are interested in this.
Sold Price vs. Last Listed Price
Average sold to last list price tends to be 94 to 96% of last listed price. So, when you are buying or selling keep this average number in mind.

Tahoe Donner Number of Single Family Homes Sold vs. Sale Price Category – Jan ’10 to Mar ‘12
The above graph shows sales by price range.
Less than $300K – 4 of 27 or 15% – very high in Feb and Mar
$300K to $500K – 8 of 27 or 30% – strong recovery from last month
$500K to $700K – 10 of 27 or 37% – dramatic increase over Feb and really helping average prices.
$700K to $900K – 3 of 27 or 11% – could be better
$900K to $1.2M – 2 of 27 or 7% – signs of life!
$1.2M to $1.5M – 0 of 27
So, what’s the net-net of this picture for home prices in Tahoe Donner? Firstly, the low end home sales are very active – especially in Mar with 65% of sales being for homes less than $500K. I also looked at change in price per sq ft for the various price bands. The low end bands and the very high end bands (very little data) show some reduction over the last year or so but the home prices per sq ft for homes in the $500K to $1.2M bands is fairly flat over the last year. See my blog at http://truckeehome411.com/blog/ for a post about Tahoe Donner distressed sales analysis to see that the low end sales are where the distressed home activity is significant.
Cash buyers are still out in force – 31% of the 27 sales were all cash deals – investors are active. The remaining sales used conventional financing.
I hope this data, presented in this form was useful to you. MLS data is available and I encourage the buyer or seller to study the data and arrive at their own conclusions before making a buy or sell decision. Contact me if you would like to discuss these results or see additional data.

Gary LaBelle Truckeehome411.com TruckeeRealEstate@gmail.com


















Tahoe Donner April ’10 Home Sales
Tahoe Donner April ’10 Home Sales