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.

We got a doozey last night. Probably 2 new feet at my house in Prosser. We awoke to a power outage. Boy those tile floors are cold without the electric heat blanket. All back to normal now. Let
it snow!!!

A KW Christmas!, originally uploaded by kappymann.

Well here is our tree at Keller Williams in downtown Truckee, CA. Tis the season to appreciate all our co-workers and their spouses. Thanks Steve and Rich and especially Ruth for finding this
precious tree!

This is the scene off our back deck this morning. Pretty but cold out there. Saturday dawns and I bet hwy 80 is packed with ski enthusiasts. Welcome to all visitors!

Jennifer and I and Roxy the dog took 20 minutes this afternoon to get some fresh air. 75 degrees, blue sky and this is the view from above Truckee. Again I ask myself: how did I get so lucky to sell
real estate in the High Sierra?

Sunday morning, one of the best times ever to ride your bike.

As seen in Reno airprt

So, I am sitting here on a beautiful autumn day, in the office negotiating 2 contracts on one listing – we should all be so lucky!!  Must have priced the house correctly, huh?  (One smart Realtor!)  Only 5 days on the market.  So the question comes to my mind:  Are things beginning to turn around in the Real Estate Market in Truckee and North Lake Tahoe?  While I am waiting for the machinations of e-mail, phone calls, scanning, etc. I decided to run the stats.  These statistics were taken from the sold listings between the beginning of January each year until the end of September each respective year (this year we are not quite at the end – expect a few more closings).   This is what I found:

YEAR               Qty Sold               Vol Sold                 Average Sale            Active Inventory

2009                553               $ 363,649,877                $657,595                    2823

2008                546                  488,204,884                 894,148                     2872

2007                635                  561,638,896                 884,471                     2815

2006                720                  683,205,789                 948,897                     2234

2005                988                  756,058,456                 765,656                     1541

2004               1151                 702,935,829                 610,717                     1656

(These stats are courtesy of the Tahoe Sierra Multiple Listing Service and include all single family residences (homes, condos and mobile homes) EXCEPT those located in Sierra or Plumas County.)

This is just a tiny bit of an indicator but it looks to me that inventory peaked in 2008 and sales have increased (unit wise) in 2009.  I don’t want to make any projections but this looks like overall the beginning of a healthier market.  Inventory is coming down, consequently there are fewer choices for buyers, giving them a sense of urgency.   Unfortunately (or fortunately depending on which side you are coming at it from) we cannot say as much for the average sale price.  You can see that there has been a dramatic decrease since 2005 and that the average is returning to the 2004 level.

Well, I got the paperwork ready for the counter offers so I guess I will move on to the next business of the day our Client Appreciation Party!  Gotta go and cook!!  Sorry that this is kind of a mess but the word press thing is giving me grief today — next time it will be better!!

Amazing huh?