Bye Bye Duane Hall :(

Duane Hall, Truckee Town Planner, is serving his last 4 days at that post.  I dropped off some documents to Duane today and asked if he would pose for a final picture.  This is the result.

Duane has worked for the Town of Truckee for about 15 years.  He started when the town offices were located in a small building on Donner Pass Road, across the street from the “factory outlet mall.”  Since then Duane has moved twice, once to a corner of the Truckee Donner PUD office and finally to the Town Hall located out near the airport.  Duane began his career as a town planner and rose through the years to the eminent office that he holds now (at least for 3 more days).

I have worked with Duane in various capacities over the years both as a volunteer on the Affordable Housing Working Group and as a representative of a client who had private dealings with the planning department.  I can say that Duane has always been a most professional and level headed person.  He exudes confidence and his voice and demeanor are such that he puts everyone at ease.  Duane is one of those people who “flies below the radar,” he “works behind the scenes” and consequently does not get much acclaim for his actions.  So I thought I would take this opportunity to make sure his name and face go down in the history of the universe, according to the internet.  I hope that this post finds its way back to him so that he can see how much we all have appreciated him.

Duane  is about to embark on another phase of his live’s journey — that of being free and adventurous.  He will be taking some time off to explore the world — anywhere he wants to go.  What a great opportunity.  He does so knowing that his experience and his resume will bring him home to work whenever he is ready.

Thanks Duane for all the great work!!!

Duane’s workplace for 10 years +/-

2 old men at Mitch’s Party

Whoa look at these 2 guys. Aren’t they handsome. Looks like a couple of dagos at a bocce ball tournament. Don’t you wish you were here? Happy birthday Mitch Clarin!

Market Stats for North Lake Tahoe-Truckee December 2009

Sales are up from last month – 107 single family residences (including condos) sold in December.  20 of these were bank owned (REO), 15 were short sales (SS), making distressed properties 37% of total sales.   Tahoe Donner continues to be the most active of the areas with 35 home sales, days on the market there are down to an average of 99.  As of today, there are only 76 homes for sale in Tahoe Donner and if you look at what sold last month (35), assuming sales continue at this pace, we have only a 2 month supply of inventory.  Typically sellers don’t list til late March, early April so lack of inventory here may create a sense of urgency among buyers.  We’ll see!!   Here are the statistics from the Tahoe MLS.  The solds from December 1 – 31, 2009:

Tahoe Donner: 35 homes, (7 REOs, 3 SS), 2 condos (1SS)

Northstar: 2 homes (1SS), 2 condos

Glenshire, Cambridge, Juniper Hill, Juniper Creek, The Meadows: 13 homes (4 REOs, 3 SS)

Prosser Lake Area: 1 home

Sierra Meadows, Ponderosa Palisades, Winter Creek: 4 homes (2 REO, 1SS), 2 condos (1 REO)

Martiswoods, Ponderosa Ranchos: 0 residential properties

Olympic Heights: 0 residential properties

Lahontan: 0 residential properties

Timlick: 0 residential properties

Old Greenwood: 0 residential properties

Gray’s Crossing: 0 residential properties

Martis Camp: 0 residential properties

Truckee Proper: 1 home (The Richardson House Bed and Breakfast)

Donner Crest: 0 residential properties

Donner Lake: 4 homes (1 SS)

Donner Summit: 5 homes (1REO)

West shore Lake Tahoe: 8 homes (2 REOs, 2SS)

Tahoe City: 5 homes (1SS)

North shore Lake Tahoe: 7 homes (3 REOs, 1SS), 1 Condo (1SS)

Kings Beach & Tahoe Vista: 8 homes (2 REOs, 2 SS), 3 condos (2 REOs), 1 Condo

Alpine & Squaw Valley: 2 homes, 7 condos (5 REOs)

Shared Ownerships – entire region: 3 sales

Mobile Homes – entire region: 1 sales

Condos and Homes sold over $1M in Truckee and North Lake Tahoe: 6 (1SS)

Highest priced home or condo sold:  Our highest price sale this month was a home located at 20 Edgecliff Ct. in Dollar Point, at Lake Tahoe.  The sale price was $1,650,000, a bit off of the original price of $1,950,000.  2512 square feet with outstanding lake views this home was only on the market 101 days.

Lowest priced home or condo sold:  Talk about a little corner vacation home.  $98,000 cash bought a little lodgette condo in Tahoe Donner.  Only 104 days on the market.

The list to sell ratio on the median was 97%.  In other words, the homes sold within 97% of the list price.  The median list price for this period was $512,000 median sale price was $498,500, both these figures are up over this time last month.

One of the things I noticed just before December 25, 2009 was the lack of homes to show potential buyers in the price range under $500,000.  These lower end properties ARE beginning to fly off the market.  Get them while they are HOT!

Virtual RE BarCamp Today January 4, 2010

I am listening to Jay Thompson — Phoenix Real Estate Guy — speaking to me and another 200 or so people through my computer describing to me what it takes to write good content on their blog.  This is part of the second Virtual Real Estate BarCamp, which was set up by Jim Cronin at the Real Estate Tomato — a company that puts together websites for Real Estate Agents.  It is an all day event where presenters put on 45 minute classes on web and tech related subjects sharing their knowledge freely.  There is one on using Facebook Pages, one on Advanced Facebook uses, Twitter in 2010, even one on what you need to know when you purchase your next laptop.  A lot of valuable information and all of it is FREE!

Yes, the  world keeps spinning faster and faster but thanks to the magic of the internet, here I am, 40 years after graduating from college and still able to keep up with the world around me (well sort of).  I can’t tell you how lucky I feel to have been put on this earth at this particular point in time.   How much would I have missed the internet and all of the people I have met virtually through social media sites like Facebook, Twitter and Linked In.

I urge all of you, if you are NOT involved in the social media, get there or you are truly missing out.  I’m just sayin . . .

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