Congratulations, you have reached The South Lake Tahoe Real Estate website where “You Can Search Like a Realtor”and find the home, condo, cabin, or vacant land that you are looking for. If you just have a question, or need advice or consulting, our knowledgeable realtors are available seven days a week to help you. Feel free to contact Paradise Real Estate in South Lake Tahoe. We can answer common questions regarding bank owned properties vs. foreclosures, or how to buy a foreclosure, and explain what and how a short sale works and if a short sale is right for you. Our team Paradise will help you with easy to follow steps on buying a foreclosed home. We also have a blog about the Lake Tahoe real estate market that is updated weekly and includes statistics for new listings and recent sales.

Please explore our web site and use our search tool to find Lake Tahoe foreclosures (bank owned) and short sale homes. You can search all active MLS listings for real estate in Lake Tahoe, California and Nevada. You can also sign up for our Get California Listings Via Email, and our Get Nevada Listings Via Email, so when a new listing is posted on the MLS in your favorite neighborhood, at the price range you selected, you’re immediately notified. This is a very powerful tool that will help you stay on top and ahead of the current market.

This report is created by Dan Spano broker of Paradise Real Estate located in the Stateline area of South Lake Tahoe Ca. This is the beginning of a series of blogs posting the current sales statistics for the South Lake Tahoe Ca. and Nevada areas. This post is focusing strictly on the South Lake Tahoe Ca. side only and does not include West, North, or Nev. portion of Lake Tahoe. There will be future reports on those areas also.

As of today, March 11th 2010 @ 7:30 am:

Current active single family residential and condo listings for all of South Lake Tahoe, Ca; 291. The listing price starts at $126,000 and tops out at $12,900,000.

Homes sold from Jan 1st 2010 to March 11th 2010 are: 80. Of the 80 homes sold, 47 or 59%, are foreclosure (bank owned or short sales). The sold price started at $67,000 for a condo and the top sales price was $1,225,000 for a Tahoe Keys home sold by Jana Nelson from Paradise Real Estate.  You should notice that there are a lot of great opportunities for buyers for both bank owned/short sales as well as sellers that are competitive with the bank owned and short sales properties.

If you would like to search for current homes for sale please use this easy search tool for South Lake Tahoe Ca. and Nv real estate. There is also an option to get instant email notifications of brand new listings as they get posted by real estate agents in the South Lake Tahoe area.

Jana Nelson from Paradise Real Estate in South Lake Tahoe talks about the differences between buying a bank owned property and buying a privatley listed property. Jana has been in the Real Estate industry for 15 years.

If you are looking for a bank owned property in the South Lake Tahoe Area, CA or NV, contact Jana Nelson at 1-800-996-2001.

 IRS issues new guidelines on obtaining home buyer tax credits

KEEP THIS IN MIND

• The federal tax credit for home buyers was extended and expanded late last year. Qualified first-time buyers may be eligible to receive a tax credit of up to $8,000 on homes purchased before April 30, 2010. Repeat buyers may be eligible for a tax credit of up to $6,500. Visit http://www.irs.gov/newsroom/article/0,,id=187935,00.html for more information about the federal tax credit for home buyers, including eligibility requirements.

• To receive the tax credit, home buyers must comply with the IRS’s documentation requirements, including a fully executed IRS Form 5405. On the form, which is available on the IRS’s Web site, taxpayers provide information supporting their claim of eligibility, such as income and home purchase date.

• The IRS also requires home buyers to submit a copy of the closing or settlement statement that proves the transaction took place. The IRS previously said that the statement should show “all parties’ names and signatures, property address, sales price, and date of purchase.” However, since closing or settlement statements vary by state, and in some cases the form does not include both the seller’s and buyer’s signatures, the IRS has revised this requirement. As long as the closing or settlement statement conforms to prevailing local practices, the IRS will accept it.

• One stipulation for repeat buyers is they must provide documentation they lived in their former property for a consecutive five years out of the previous eight years. Accepted documentation may include property tax records, hazard insurance records, or copies of annual mortgage interest statements filed with their federal taxes.

To read the full story, please click here:

http://www.latimes.com/classified/realestate/news/la-fi-harney21-2010feb21,0,1254506.story

Larry Sabo, who works for Paradise Real Estate in South Lake Tahoe, has been a real estate agent for well over 15 years. Below Larry compares the South Lake Tahoe market for the last 3 years by month;

“It looks like we hit the bottom in pricing around April 09 and we’ve been kind of bouncing along the bottom for a while with a recent trend upwards, but note the sales volume below showing a very dramatic increase in sold units!”

This dramatic increase in units sold is due to the large amount of bank owned and foreclosed properties selling. If you are interested in getting the most up to date foreclosure/bank owned list in South Lake Tahoe, contact Larry Sabo with Paradise Real Estate.

California’s home inventory shrinks to 5-year low

California’s Unsold Inventory Index (UII), a closely watched index indicating the number of months needed to deplete the supply of homes on the market at the current sales rate, declined to 3.8 months in December, the lowest level in five years, according to the CALIFORNIA ASSOCIATION OF REALTORS® (C.A.R.). By comparison, the UII for existing, single-family homes stood at 5.6 months in December 2008.

KEEP THIS IN MIND

• • Some economists believe that California’s housing inventory is artificially low because many discretionary sellers—homeowners who do not have to sell their homes—are waiting on the sidelines until home prices rise. Others believe there are more foreclosures to come, as unemployment in the state continues to rise. However, C.A.R. predicts that foreclosures will remain flat in 2010 compared with 2009, as lenders are listing properties for sale at a more metered pace.

• • California’s housing market has shown signs of stabilization since early last year. Sales of existing, single-family homes bottomed out in August 2007, and the median home price reached its trough in February 2009.

• • In December, the median price of an existing, single-family home rose to $306,820, an 8.4 percent rise year-over-year, the second consecutive year-over-year increase, and the 10^th straight month-over-month increase, according to C.A.R.’s December sales and price report.

• • With affordability near-historic highs, low interest rates, and home buyer tax credits, many properties in California are receiving multiple offers and sparking bidding wars. Home buyers who find themselves in bidding wars should work closely with their REALTOR® to ensure they are crafting realistic offers that are more likely to be accepted by the seller.

South Lake Tahoe, Ca. listing report as of 1-29-2010

Local Broker Dan Spano of Paradise Real Estate reports current statistics for residential homes and condos in South Lake Tahoe. This report does not include the Nevada side of the South Lake Tahoe area. As of today there are 438 active listings. Of the 438 there are 86 listings pending (in escrow) status. Of the 86 listings in escrow there are 37 that are short sale.

A few more statistics are the median days on the market 128/146. The minimum list price was $81,000 and the maximum list price was $12,900,000.

This report shows that there is activity in the South Lake Tahoe Real Estate market and for those interested in searching for properties available today you can go to: http://www.idxcentral.com/sltbor/idxsearch.cfm?idxid=dspano  This is a very valuable search tool and includes an option for Short Sales and Bank Owned properties. Please note that even though the bank owned properties are priced to move quickly there are private sellers that are willing to compete with the bank owned properties and lower their listing prices below what the banks are willing to list at.

Dan Spano, President/Broker of Paradise Real Estate