Lake Tahoe Real Estate Figures for July 2012

Perhaps we're starting to sound like a broken record since each month's Lake Tahoe real estate sales figures continue to outshine the figures from the month before.

Closed Home Sales Rise
Once again, closed sales figures for the year ending July, 2012 saw an increase over the same period the year before. Between August 2011 and July of 2012 there were 730 home sales in South Lake Tahoe. The same period the year before had 651 sales, resulting in an increase of 12.1 percent. We can break that down a little further into the types of homes that sold. There were 5.2 percent more foreclosed homes sold in the recent period, 21 percent more short sale home sales and 13.9 percent more traditional sale homes were sold.

I predict a reduction in sales of South Lake Tahoe foreclosures and short sales since there are fewer homes for sale in those categories. We've already seen this over the last month. There was a 29.4 percent decrease in foreclosed homes sold in July 2011 when compared to July 2012.

Number of Homes on the Market Declines
The number of homes for sale in South Lake Tahoe continues a decline. In July of 2011 there were 689 homes for sale in the area. In July of 2012, there was a 45 percent decrease with only 379 homes for sale! When taking the whole last year's figures into consideration there was a 20.4 percent decrease in homes for sale when compared to the year before.

We can break this figure up into the 3 main categories as well. There was a 79.2 percent decrease in foreclosures for sale in July 2012 and a 77.1 percent decrease in short sales on the market. Traditional homes on the market round up the decreases with a fall of 36.9 percent.

South Lake Tahoe Home Prices
Homeowners are looking forward to the day that their home values will start increasing. They fell again for July 2012 but it appears that actual selling price of homes are starting to level off. There was a significant increase by 30.7% in median home prices in the foreclosure category when compared to July of 2011. You can see the leveling off of home prices with traditional sale home prices only dropping $200 since June of 2012.

South Lake Tahoe has a mixture of neighborhoods that skew the results and distort the home sales statistics. When you have homes for sale in the Tahoe Keys and homes for sale in Bijou put into the same categories, you'll see why the home sales statistics are a little confusing. After reviewing the home sales statistics I noticed that the upper end homes actually sold for 6.7 percent more in July 2012 than in 2011. South Lake Tahoe real estate professionals have broken down the price range categories as follows: $650,00 and above, $435,000 to $649,999, $299,888 to $434,999 and $299,887 and below. Three of these price groups actually had an increase in sales prices. The lowest end was the only decrease, and it saw a 10.6 percent drop.

This graph shows the median sales prices of homes sold in South Lake Tahoe for July 2010, 2011 and 2012. The four price groups mentioned above are shown here:

Real Estate in South Lake Tahoe
What does all of this mean? It means things are looking up! There are fewer foreclosures and short sales on the market so people with traditional sale homes on the market should see increasing interest in their homes. I've told buyers that they shouldn't limit their search to just foreclosures. Why? 1) Because there just aren't many choices, and 2) They'd be missing out on some very competitively priced traditional homes for sale.

If you're looking for Tahoe homes for sale now is a very good time to search if you haven't already begun. Sign up for instant email notification or subscribe to my blog to get the most current information regarding South Lake Tahoe Real Estate.