Lake Tahoe logged a spike in home sales in October, according to a report Wednesday by Tahoe Luxury Properties.
On the California side—which includes the shores and towns to the north and west of the lake—sales rose 49%, tallying 152 single-family home sales in October compared to 102 last year. There was also a 20% bump in pending sales, with 158 homes in contract last month.
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Sales were particularly concentrated along the California side of the Lake Tahoe Basin, which includes the north and west shores and two ski resorts, Alpine Meadows and Squaw Valley. Sales in the basin jumped 150% over last year, with 55 homes sold for a median price of $799,000.
There was a less dramatic increase on the Nevada side of the Lake Tahoe Basin, which logged 24 sales in October compared to 22 last year.
Tahoe’s most exclusive real estate is located on the waterfront, which also experienced an uptick in sales in October compared to a year ago. Four multi-million-dollar lakefront properties closed in October and five were in contract, compared to just two closings last year and two in contract.
The median price for a lakefront home (on either the California or Nevada side) was just under $4 million.
The first three quarters of 2017 saw an unexpected decrease in overall sales that led some to think the market was headed for a slowdown. October figures have helped assuage those fears.
"The strong October numbers signal the Tahoe real estate is not pulling back as some have suggested," said Bill Dietz, principal broker of Tahoe Luxury Properties, in the report. He said he expects strong sales to continue through the end of the year.
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In contrast to the overall decline in sales around Lake Tahoe during the first three quarters of this year, the market for luxurious homes right on the lakefront has flourished.
From January through September, 24 homes on the lake changed hands compared to 18 during the same period in 2016. The median sales price soared to $5.125 million, a 17% increase from the same period last year.
Real estate agents had predicted increased activity around the lakefront thanks to the end of a drought that plagued the Sierra Nevada for four years and brought the water line so low that some mansions abutted hundreds of feet of muddy shoreline.