These are a couple of photos my husband took from Martis Camp early yesterday morning.

Seriously though, here I am at Los Barriles at a RV park that has wifi and  the first thing all of the vacationers do when they get up in the morning is walk over to the hotspot with their laptops.  Who could ever have imagined how easy it would be to stay in touch, AND most importantly, how easy it would be to get addicted to this mode of communication.

Jennifer has been taking care of business while I have been gone, but I am easily keeping up with the inventory back in the Tahoe MLS each morning when I am able to go on line.  What a life!!!

On another note, the trip to Mexico so far has been wonderful.  We are now in in Guerreo Negro which means the “Black Warrior.”  My tour book tells me that it was the name of a ship that was wrecked at the mouth of Scammon’s Lagoon, I think it was in 1859 or so.  Scammon apparently was a fellow who found out that the grey whales migrated from Alaska every year to this spot to get pregnant.  The following year the ladies would return to Scammon’s to have their calf.  Anyways, he (Mr. Scammon) saw how profitable and plentiful the whale oil was here so the rest of the profiteers proceeded to practically denude the area of grey whales.  There are now laws in this country against this type of whaling.

Tomorrow we are going to go whale watching with our traveling companions.  We are really looking forward to this adventure.  Thus far no problems on the road other than just staying out of the way of the semi trucks and huge motorhomes.  I hope that this trip continues to be wonderful.

Here are the statistics from the Tahoe MLS. The solds from December 1 – 31, 2009:

Tahoe Donner: 9 homes, (1 REO’s, 1 SS), 4 condos (2 REO’s)

Northstar: 2 homes (1REO), 0 condos

Glenshire, Cambridge, Juniper Hill, Juniper Creek, The Meadows: 2 homes (2 REO’s)

Prosser Lake Area: 3 homes (1 REO)

Sierra Meadows, Ponderosa Palisades, Winter Creek: 6 homes (1 REO, 4 SS), 3 condos (2 REO)

Martiswoods, Ponderosa Ranchos: 1 home (trustee sale)

Olympic Heights: 0 homes

Lahontan: 2 residential propertiess

Timlick: 2 residential propertiess (2 SS)

Old Greenwood: 0 residential properties

Gray’s Crossing: 0 residential properties

Martis Camp: 0 residential properties

Truckee Proper: 1 residential properties

Donner Crest: 0 homes

Donner Lake: 1 home (1 REO), 0 condos

Donner Summit: 5 homes (1REO), 0 condos

West shore Lake Tahoe: 4 homes, 1 condo

Tahoe City: 0 homes, 2 condos

North shore Lake Tahoe: 3 homes (1SS), 0 Condos

Kings Beach & Tahoe Vista: 7 homes (6 REOs), 3 condos (1 REO)

Alpine & Squaw Valley: 1 home, 7 condos (5 REOs)

Shared Ownerships – entire region: 1 sale

Mobile Homes – entire region: 0 sales

Condos and Homes sold over $1M in Truckee and North Lake Tahoe: 8 (3SS)

Highest priced home or condo sold: Our highest price sale this month was a home located at 4330 North Lake Blvd. in Cedar Flat on the shores of Lake Tahoe. The sale price was $2,640,000, a bit off of the original price of $3,400,000. With over 100’ of shoreline including pier, boat lift and all the fixin’s of a proper lakefront estate this buyer pulled out his cash and closed the deal after just 87 days on the market.

Lowest priced home or condo sold: This bank owned condo sailed off of the market in just 10 days! Located on the 7th floor of the upscale Squaw Creek Resort in Olympic Valley, this studio unit listed and sold for $139,000. The thing is you can’t live here, just stay for a visit and be happy. You can’t get financing on these units so yes, this was another cash deal. It seems there are still some folks out there with a little cash in their pockets!

The list to sell ratio on the median was 95%. In other words, the homes sold within 95% of the list price. The median list price for this period was $429,000 median sale price was $410,000 down a bit from last month, but hey what do you expect?

Pat was a real role model for all of us citizens.  She was profoundly ethical and forever the representative of the people.  Always questioning to be sure that she was doing the best to represent her constituents.

Pat served in various capacities over the years here in Truckee but will best be remembered (at least by me) as a director on the Truckee Donner Public Utility District Board.  She also had a stint as a Supervisor with Nevada County from 1981 until 1985 and served on the Lahontan Regional Water Quality Control Board from 1982 – 1986.

My memories of Pat mostly involve her tenacious review of PUD technical reports at board meetings.   Others in the audience would squirm with disinterest and impatience because they were forced to sit and wait until she was entirely satisfied with the explanation so that she could render an educated decision.  She seemed to revel in holding the room “hostage” while she asked many questions that had only long, arduous and, I might add — boring answers.  The district employee giving the report would, of course comply and the rest of the room would sleep while Pat sought satisfactory answers.

I will also miss the real and human side of Pat Sutton.  Great sense of humor, friendly and welcoming — always a great ambassador of Truckee.

Goodbye Pat, I will miss seeing you occasionally in the post office or talking to you once in a while when you answered the phone at Robert Sutton Paving.  Another Icon leaves this earth a better place.

Truckee N. Lake Tahoe Condo sales 06-09

Here are the days on market and the amount of units sold comparison for the same years:

Truckee No. Lake Tahoe Condo Sales 06-09

Truckee NLTgraph SFR2009 –