From Sacramento to Lake Tahoe, luxury home sales blossom

Luxury home sales are flying high again in the exclusive Lake Tahoe region and the Sacramento area.

Tahoe City-based Coldwell Banker Residential Brokerage said the number of single-family luxury home sales in the North Lake Tahoe/Truckee region soared more than 62 percent in the first quarter of the year compared with the same period a year ago. The figures were derived from Multiple Listing Service data of all single-family homes sold in the region with a sales price of more than $1 million during the most recent quarter.

Coldwell Banker said 52 single-family luxury homes sold during the January-to-March period, up from the 32 high-end sales during the first quarter of 2015.

In the opening quarter, Truckee communities had the most luxury sales with 38, followed by North Lake Tahoe with 10 and four in Olympic Valley and Alpine.

The biggest increase in sales in the first quarter was in the $1 million to $2,499,999 segment of the market, with 34 transactions, up about 80 percent from the 19 sales in that price range a year ago.

There were also 12 sales between $2.5 million and $4,999,999, up from seven a year ago, Coldwell Banker noted.

The median sale price of a single-family home in the North Lake Tahoe/Truckee market in this year’s first quarter was $1.47 million, which actually was down almost 36 percent from the same period a year ago, when the median stood at $2.29 million. Coldwell Banker said one reason for the drop was more sales in the “lower end” of the luxury market.

“Buyer demand continues to be quite strong, interest rates are still near historic lows, and there are still many quality properties to choose from throughout the region. Those factors continue to make this a very healthy market,” said Michael Lombardi, manager of Coldwell Banker Residential Brokerage in the Tahoe region.

The most expensive single-family home sale in the North Lake Tahoe/Truckee region was a 6,162-square-foot, six-bedroom home in Truckee in the Martis Camp development, which closed at $7.18 million.

In the four-county greater Sacramento region, luxury sales also are trending upward.

Sacramento’s Lyon Real Estate reported last week that 101 luxury home sales were logged throughout the area in this year’s first quarter, representing a 65 percent increase over the year-ago period. Lyon noted that the results “followed an unusually robust fourth quarter of 2015,” when 118 luxury homes closed escrow during what is historically a slow time of year.

Lyon’s “luxury home” figures, compiled by Sacramento-based TrendGraphix Inc., are based on homes with sale prices of $900,000 and more. The measured region takes in Sacramento, Placer, El Dorado and Yolo counties.

The average price of active luxury home listings in the Sacramento-region market was $1,507,000 for the first quarter, and closed sales averaged $1,212,000. Lyon said 87 percent of the quarterly luxury sales occurred in the $900,000 to $1.5 million price range. Homes that closed during the first quarter achieved 96 percent of original list price and were on the market an average of 99 days.

Pat Shea, president of Lyon, said “buyer demand for luxury homes is very real throughout the entire region. The volume and variety of choices, however, should encourage luxury sellers to price effectively and be certain their home is ready for prime-time viewing.”

Besides low interest rates and increased equity in the homes of buyers looking to move, Shea said the recently high volume of buyer traffic includes prospective buyers looking to move from the pricey Bay Area to buy more affordable homes in the Sacramento region.

Shea added: “The upper end is moving because everything else is moving.”

Rising prices across all home segments have been evident locally and statewide in recent weeks.

Lyon reported last week that the 3,124 open escrows in the Sacramento region in April were “the most for any one month in many years.” Shea said that relatively limited inventory and high buyer demand “are now creating upward pressure on all price points.”

Just last month, Irvine-based market researcher CoreLogic reported that the median price for resale homes in Sacramento County was $295,000, the highest since the fall of 2007, after which prices fell by nearly half over the next five years.

The median price is the point at which half the homes sold cost more and half cost less, so a greater number of high-priced homes sold can bump up the median.

In the Bay Area, CoreLogic said recorded home sales jumped 39.2 percent from February to March, and the median sale price was $643,200, up 5.5 percent from February. Within the Bay Area sector, CoreLogic said the median sale price for San Francisco homes that changed hands in March was $1.13 million, up 5.7 percent from March 2015.

In the Southern California market, CoreLogic said the median sales price climbed 2.4 percent from February to March, to $425,000.

This story was originally published May 12, 2016 at 8:39 PM with the headline "From Sacramento to Lake Tahoe, luxury home sales blossom."