Once the snow falls, people flock to the mountains to ski on our slopes, eat at our restaurants and buy our homes. During last year’s ski season, the Incline Village and Crystal Bay real estate market was booming and local Realtors continued to have strong sales numbers throughout the year. The walls of snow in the higher elevation neighborhoods made it difficult to find homes that were for sale without pulling out your GPS. It was almost impossible to make it from one home to another without getting lost or praying you could actually find the home underneath the pile of white fluff. This season we have so much snow we need a Garmin in case we get lost.
According to the Incline Village MLS, there were 74 home and freestanding condo sales during October 2021 to March 2022. So far, during October to the date of this writing, in the 2022-2023 winter we have seen 36 homes and freestanding condo sales, behind last years total. This could mean two things. The first is that people are rethinking moving from urban cities as remote work winds down and people are traveling closer to home. Another option is that last year’s winter gave Buyers a well needed reminder of how truly magical the mountains can be when we have above average snow levels and you have the best pow run of your life versus this year, the highways have been closed more days than typical and traveling in and out of the Sierra has been brutal this winter.
To the everyday or weekend skier trying to get to the mountain this year has been a chore and local traffic has made it less than appealing to drive around and look at homes, if you can even get to them. Now that the main holiday season is behind us, all we can do is pray for sun and impatiently watch the weather and news channels in hopes for a break in snowy forecast.
Summer buyers are also heavily influenced to buy and Sellers are convinced to sell based on their experiences and memories made in the area. Previous drought years can mean reduced water levels, limited boating activities, docks covering rocks, and no floating the Truckee River – all important elements of summer life here in Tahoe. We clearly won’t have that problem this year.
We still have a long spring season ahead of us and look forward to the next few months with optimism for the real estate market and the ski industry. There’s no doubt that the Incline Village and Crystal Bay Real Estate Market sales totals have slowed significantly so far this year but time will tell if that is related to the economy or due to the massive winter we’re experiencing. With continual tax issues in CA, remote workers being called back, inflation, minimal inventory of homes, high home values and an apocalyptic winter, we are looking forward to see how the market shakes out once the snow starts to melt and people plan for the summer ahead.
