Nancy Fennell, CEO of Dickson Realty and Daniel Jacuzzi, President/CEO of the Select Group, jointly announced the transfer of Dickson Realty's Lake Tahoe offices to the Select Group. Dickson Realty is retaining its Reno/Sparks and Truckee, Calif., office locations. The South Lake Tahoe, Zephyr Cove, Tahoe Keys, Incline Village and King's Beach offices of Dickson Realty are involved in the merger and became Coldwell Banker offices effective last week.

"Our country is in a severe economic contraction and most businesses are contracting accordingly. We at Dickson are no exception," said Nancy Fennell, CEO of Dickson. "The Lake Tahoe residential market sales activity is off almost 50% from 2005 and we had to take a hard look at whether Dickson could maintain the level of presence and devotion in this environment that we desire for the markets we serve. It was a difficult decision, but we have chosen to refocus our efforts on our Reno and Sparks core markets.

I had an interesting conversation with one of my clients today about the Incline Village real estate market and how our local conditions are very different than what's going on in middle America. This gentleman has been reading all the big news articles about prices dropping 30% in some major markets and the even larger (44%) drop in Las Vegas.

I don't believe in trying to impart any direction to the local prices here when we've only had 8 houses close escrow this year and 8 more presently in escrow. But, it's encouraging to note that the median price of these 16 transactions is around $1.3 mil., up a healthy 10% from 2008.

The only point we can really take from the recent Incline Village and Crystal Bay sales data is that quality properties and lake view homes are in more demand than fixer uppers or the rare foreclosure. 8 of the 16 properties that have closed or are in escrow are in the $1.8 mil. range or higher.

I've been saying for over a year that the strongest part of our market is the mid to high end in single family homes and the
data continues to support this.

Don Kanare is a local real estate agent with Lakeshore Realty and writes about the local real estate market. The Incline Village Board of Realtors MLS is the source for all statistical data in this column.

Today's rapidly changing economic landscape can present daunting challenges to those who find themselves pondering how to best move forward in the current real estate market.

Chase International has organized a free community forum Untangling the Truth and Providing Options in Today's Real Estate Market, providing an opportunity for the public to get their questions answered by knowledgeable real estate industry professionals.  The event is slated for Saturday, March 7 from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at the Chase International Incline Village office, located at 917 Tahoe Blvd. in Incline Village. Individuals interested in attending are asked to RSVP by calling 775-831-7300.

"Congress has passed new legislative bills that will absolutely provide benefits to those refinancing or purchasing real estate," explains Ron Farrell with Wells Fargo, who will be on hand offering advice at the March 7 forum.  "We can help people take advantage of new loan programs and tax credits by shedding light on the most up-to-date information."

Even though we live in a community with only about 8,000 properties, our local real estate market is much more complex than one might generally think.  We have several different subdivisions and elevations that span from approximately 6230 feet all the way up to 7800 feet.  With the great variety of architecture, views and settings, rarely will you find two homes that are exactly alike.

The other big factor that is really a wild card in the Incline Village real estate market, is that the vast majority of purchases made here are discretionary, as opposed to most urban and suburban markets where people are buying and selling because they have to and not because they want to.  This one factor makes a huge difference in how prices react in the marketplace and also the level of sales activity that occurs in any given year.

So what does allthis mean when trying to analyze whether prices are going up or down and by how much?  You can't make a blanket statement that the median price for houses or condos went up or down by a certain percentage in 2008 and try to apply that statistic across the board in our local market.  It just doesn't work.  What you have to do is dig a little deeper and take a look at the attributes of each property and determine what the level of demand is for properties in that category.  Some of the property categories include Lakeview, golf course frontage, walk to the beach, proximity to a school bus route and so on.

You could even take two identical houses in Incline Village and put one in the Ponderosa subdivision and another one up on Apollo and more than likely the house in Ponderosa will sell much quicker and for a much higher price, all other things being equal.  There is just that much greater demand and people are willing to pay a premium to be closer to the beach and have easier access to the center of town.

As a result, homes with the same number of bedrooms and baths and a similar square footage could be moving in opposite directions pricewise at this point in time.  I have been encouraging my buyers to purchase lower elevation properties, or if they wish to be at a higher elevation, to make sure that it has a nice lake or mountain view, if they are concerned  about protecting their long-term investment.

When looking at the condo market, there are some parts of town that ran up way too quickly and are now backing off in a healthy retreat with prices returning to the 2003 or 2004 level.  Condos in this classification tend to be high density, without garages and without any type of a view or amenities.  Condos in general peaked pricewise in 2007.  With only 64 sales in 2008, we saw volume in units decrease nearly 40% from 2007 and shrink nearly 70% from the big sales year of  2005.  With the current inventory of around 145 units, it is likely that condo sales will be slow, prices will remain flat to slightly down and prices for the lesser quality properties will continue to decline in 2009.

Every now and then we see a property listed on the Incline Village MLSthat is priced significantly under fair market value.  On those rare occasions, the property tends to get multiple showings and one or more offers within 30 days or less.  The feeding frenzy of 2004 and 2005 is long gone, but savvy buyers will want to pull the trigger when they see one of these great investment opportunities. Now if you're wondering about average days on market, that's an even more complicated and convoluted subject.

Don Kanare is a local real estate agent with Lakeshore Realty and writes about the local real estate market. The Incline Village Board of Realtors MLS is the source for all statistical data in this column.