Click here for Google Lake Tahoe Map

The West Shore of Lake Tahoe is between Tahoe City and Emerald Bay. Here you can experience the best of Lake Tahoe recreation and spectacular scenery. With options such as water skiing, snow skiing, hiking, biking, camping, fishing and rock climbing, everyone will find an activity to suit their lifestyle. Some of the more popular sites to see in the summertime when visiting or living on the West Shore are Sugar Pine Point State Park, Vikingsholm Castle in Emerald Bay, the Tahoe Maritime Museum, and Meeks Bay. Popular resorts for winter time activities along the West Shore are Homewood and Granlibakken.

Housing on the West Shore is just as varied as the activities, with properties ranging from your typical “Tahoe Cabin” to a luxurious condominium complex. Also found on the West Shore are many types of subdivisions, perfect for either the local resident or the second home owner who wants to become a part of the fascinating natural beauty of Lake Tahoe. Each development has different amenities, so having an agent familiar with the area is a necessity when looking to purchase a home here.

As you may know the development has been for sale for some time. This is still the situation and the present owners are hopeful to resolve this soon.

Regarding the existing homes, the Grizzly HOA is running normal activities like snow removal, property & building maintenance etc. The HOA is being managed by Associated Management in Reno. I have contact information should you wish to contact them.

Let me know if you want to go up and check out some homes or land.

As mentioned in my blog, several posts down, East West Partners has filed for Chapter 11. This has put excessive price pressure on the properties in Old Greenwood and Grays Crossing. There are some very good deals, with the associated risk, that are popping up. Shared ownership properties in Old Greenwood are selling for under $30k in some cases. Lots and homes in Grays Crossing are severely depressed from a year or two ago.

If you’re not completely risk adverse, let me know if you want to go check out some homes or land.

Qualified 2009 and 2010 first-time home buyers can get up to 10% of the home’s purchase price or a maximum of $8,000. In November 2009, legislation extended a tax credit of up to $6,500 (or up 10% of the home’s purchase price) to long-time residents of the same primary residence if they purchase a new main home. To qualify, eligible taxpayers must show that they lived in their previous homes for a five-consecutive-year period during the eight-year period ending on the closing date of the new home.

Important details to remember:

1) You don’t have to pay it back (as long as you stay in your qualified home for at least 36 months).

2) If you qualify for the credit, you can still apply it to this year’s taxes, even if you’ve already filed your returns, or save it for your 2010 returns.

3) This is a true tax credit, not a deduction. If you qualify for the full credit, there will be an actual dollar-for-dollar reduction of up to $8,000 (or up to $6,500 for qualified repeat buyers) on your tax bill now or in 2010.

4) New income qualification limits have been put in place that expanded the pool of qualified buyers.

5) If you purchased a qualified home or plan to after reading this article, you must have a contract in place by April 30, 2010 (with closing to take place by June 30, 2010), so don’t wait!

There are, of course, other details and qualification requirements and restrictions that you’ll need to consider. But don’t hesitate to give us a call if you have any questions. Also, if you happen to have your completed 2009 tax return handy, we’ll help you calculate how much money you can get if you purchase a home and qualify for the full credit.

Article written by:

Kimberly Wydra
Broker Associate #00981565
Delta Home Loans
Phone: 530-478-8383

TRUCKEE, Calif. — A spiraling economy and sluggish real estate market led East West Partners to file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy on Tuesday for some of its Lake Tahoe developments.

The filing primarily affects three local properties: Old Greenwood, Gray’s Crossing and the Northstar Highlands, along with Tahoe Mountain Club facilities (all under Northstar Mountain Properties), according to a release from Blake Riva, who reps Lake Tahoe properties as a senior partner with East West Partners.

“The current economic conditions are warranting this filing,” Riva said in a Tuesday phone interview. “We’ve recently gone through changes in financial partners and concluded this would be best.”

The new Ritz Carlton Highlands, Lake Tahoe, and the Hyatt Vacation Club won’t be affected by the bankruptcy filing, the release said, nor will Northstar-at-Tahoe, which is owned by Booth Creek Ski Holdings and CNL Lifestyle Properties.

“Our filing includes a short-term financing plan to operate our business as usual during the reorganization, and we’ll work diligently to put a long-term plan in place,” Riva said.

That short-term plan comes in the form of $10 million, Riva said.

Looking toward the long-term, Riva said East West Partners doesn’t plan to sell off property.

“We’re not envisioning liquidation,” he said.

The roundabout intersection on Highway 89 north, already delayed by financial troubles with the Gray’s Crossing development, shouldn’t be further delayed, Riva said.

“The developer has placed certain funds in escrow for the construction of the roundabout, and we have a bond in place, so one way or the other, the town will have adequate funding to complete the roundabout,” Riva said.

Truckee Town Manager Tony Lashbrook said the roundabout is the only outstanding improvement from East West’s development, so impacts from Tuesday’s announcement to the town shouldn’t be severe.

“It doesn’t bode well for our property tax growth, but other developments have gone through this; it’s not an unusual process,” Lashbrook said.

East West Partners specializes in real estate development and is developing resort properties in Vail, Beaver Creek and Summit County in Colorado; Lake Tahoe, Calif.; and Deer Valley, Utah, among other resort communities.

Steven Holt, director of public relations for the Ritz Carlton Highlands, said that while the hotel is owned by East West, it isn’t affected by the Chapter 11 filing.

“The Ritz is not included in the filing, so it doesn’t impact our operations or business — we’re business as usual,” Holt said. “We’re having an amazing opening season.”

Kirstin Cattell, spokeswoman for Northstar-at-Tahoe, said the ski resort won’t be impacted.

“We won’t be affected, our operations won’t be affected and our guests won’t feel a thing,” Cattell said.

According to court documents filed early Tuesday in U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware, the company said it had $256 million in assets as of Dec. 31, 2009, according to a Tuesday story on Reuters. Excluding $189.4 million in contingent guarantee liabilities and bond obligations, it had $61 million in debt.

No Colorado impact

East West Partners founder Harry Frampton said the bankruptcy filing won’t affect operations in the rest of the company. In Colorado, East West is involved in the Westin Riverfront Resort & Spa project in Avon, still has interests in Eagle Ranch, and is doing projects in Breckenridge and Denver. In addition to Lake Tahoe, the company is also involved in a project in Deer Valley, Utah.

“We have 15 to 20 projects going right now, and this was 100 percent isolated from the other projects,” Frampton said. “We’ve always tried to finance projects separately, so if we have a problem with one, it doesn’t affect the others.”

Riva said East West Partners doesn’t plan to sell off the property, and Frampton said the company intends to complete the projects.

Frampton said the Lake Tahoe development was hit by a double whammy. First, the Nevada real estate market is one of the hardest-hit in the country. Second, East West lost its lender on the project.

Frampton said East West for years did real estate investment financing with Crescent, a real estate investment trust. That company was bought a couple of years ago by Morgan Stanley, which walked away from its Crescent investments several months ago.

Frampton said taking the Lake Tahoe project into bankruptcy was essential in order for the company to “clean up” financing and other problems. And, he said, the project will receive a $40 million cash infusion from Barclay’s Capital, which originally financed Morgan Stanley’s purchase of Crescent.

“That’s a real endorsement of the project,” Frampton said. “There are very few projects or companies that get $40 million in this environment.

“We’re actually going to have a toast to that tonight,” Frampton said Tuesday.

— Scott N. Miller of the Vail Daily contributed to this report.

Figure 1. Tahoe Donner Single Family Home Sales

Single Family home sales continue to outpace last year’s sales.  Inventory (# of listings) is at a multi-year low. The very strong sales in Sept-Dec reduced the number of available homes for sale and the remaining inventory has really been picked over. Low inventory and strong demand will obviously help to put some upward bias on home pricing.

Inventory is low at 82 homes on the market, down from 83 last month. When you consider we have over 5100 homes in Tahoe Donner this is approximately 1.6 % of the homes in TD.  Based on historical data we could expect the inventory to climb as we get into the summer and fall selling season.

Average Days on market (DOM) decreased significantly to 39 days – another multi-year low. I think this is due to the inventory of homes falling and some of the slow moving listings finally selling due to the increased demand.

Single family home sales were 10 homes, down from 34 last month. I think a very strong factor here is due to seasonality – Jan tends to be a slow month based on historical data. Also, low inventory is also a significant factor. Based on seasonality data for the last couple years we can expect to see home sales rising, assuming we have enough inventory to sell. I would expect to see the home builders start to come out of hibernation due to the low inventory. A consequence of this is that demand for buildable lots should show an increase soon.

Figure 2. Tahoe Donner Single Family Home Median and Average Home Price

One important change that started in Jan of ’09 is that Average and Median prices had a significant downturn – see Figure 2.  However, one can see that the average and median prices have grown since Jul of ‘09. This is a good trend and could be construed as a sign that the Tahoe Donner single family home market is healthy. Interesting that Jan ’10 also had a significant decrease in Average and median prices – I’ll have to look at the 10 sales and see if this can be explained.

One factor that affects this price curve is that we have a dearth of high end new home construction activity in Tahoe Donner. This will tend to keep SF home pricing a bit lower until we get some additional high end construction activity.

I hope this data, presented in this form was useful to you. For an instant update, or a discussion about condos/townhomes, please call me and I’ll be pleased to provide you with the most recent data available. 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 see the “raw” data. I also have sold price vs. listed price data – this is very helpful if you are considering selling or buying a home – call me for a copy of this data.

Gary LaBelle, Realtor

www.truckeehome411.com

TruckeeRealEstate@Gmail.com

(530) 448-1100

DRE #01495906

Old Greenwood has Shared Ownership Homes for sale at great prices. You can buy 3-4 bedroom units with several weeks usage for $30k up to $100K. Price depends on the “reserved” week you buy as well as the size of the home as well as the owners target sell price. These are large units where you buy a deeded share.

Here is a search that you should look at for a list of available shared ownership properties. Contact Gary at 530-448-1100 or TruckeeRealestate@gmail.com for an appointment to view one or more of these homes.

http://www.idxcentral.com/idxsearch.cfm?idxid=glabelle&pg=results&ptype=Share%20Ownership&kwsearch=old%20greenwood&rows=10