South Lake Tahoe Real Estate Review for April 2009

For the second month in a row the South Lake Tahoe real estate market has shown signs of improvement regardingbuyer activity. There were 43 new single family homes that went into escrow on the South Lake Tahoe mls, up from 38 in March, and up from 22 in February. Out of the 43 new escrows, 15 were short sales and 18 were bank owned foreclosures, bringing the percentage of distress sale escrows to 65%. Many of the bank owned properties that went into escrow had multiple offers on them.

The statistics for the new escrows are as follows:

Pending April Single Family Homes in South Lake Tahoe

• There were 43 new single family homes that went into escrow in April, up from 38 in March.
• The median list price for the homes was $349,900 (up 15% from $297,900 in March).
• The average price per square foot was $246
• The median days on the market was 129
• 15 of the new escrows were short sales
• 13 of the new escrows were bank owned foreclosures

There seems to be a bit of a frenzy over the bank owned foreclosure listings in South Lake Tahoe. There are 25 foreclosures on the South Lake Tahoe mls, and only 9 of them are still available. Yesterday there was a new foreclosure listing located at 1782 Southern Pines, there are already 4 offers in on this property and threats of more coming in.

If you compare the bank owned foreclosures that went into escrow to the non-foreclosure escrows there are some noticeable differences. The average square footage of the foreclosures and the non-foreclosures was very close, 1676 square feet for the foreclosures and 1619 for the non-foreclosures. The average price per square foot for the foreclosures was $206 per square foot, which was 22% less than than the non-foreclosures which had an average price per square foot of $263. The median list price for the bank owned foreclosures was $299,000, which was 18% less than than the non-foreclosure homes which had a median list price of $364,000.

The short sale homes that went into escrow were similar to the non-short sale or non-foreclosure homes. The average price per square foot for the short sales was $246, only 6% less than the non-distress sale escrows. The median list price for the short sale homes was $379,900, actually 4% higher than the non-distress sale escrows.

The amount of homes that were reported as sold on the South Lake Tahoe mls in April was 25, which was the same number of homes that sold in March. Although the number of homes that sold was the same, there was a dramatic drop in the median and average old prices. A large part of the change in the price can be attributed to the fact that the median square footage of the sold homes was much smaller in April. The median size sold home was 2,012 in March and was 1,565 in April.

Sold Houses in South Lake Tahoe in April

• There were 25 homes in South Lake Tahoe that sold in April
• 7 of the sold homes were bank owned foreclosures
• 2 of the sold homes were short sales
• The median sales price was $291,000 (25% less than $388,000 in March)
• The average sales price was $334,696 (27% less than $457,160 in March)
• The average price per square foot for the sold homes was $210 (5% less than $222 in March)
• The median days on the market was 111

The 7 foreclosures in South Lake Tahoe had an average price per square foot of $197, a median sales price of $270,000, an average sales price of $247,914, and a median days on the market of 86. Although there are only 9 single family foreclosures that are still available on the South Lake Tahoe mls, there should be more coming onto the market. There are still a fair amount of notices of default being filed, and this should more foreclosure listings in the future. The key to purchasing one of the new foreclosure listings will be to have your pre-approval letter ready  and to keep following my South Lake Tahoe real estate blog post on foreclosure listings in South Lake Tahoe.

For more information regarding South Lake Tahoe real estate, contact Brent and Jill Johnson today!