Lake Tahoe, Nevada, has homes in nearly every price range, and local realtors say this is a great place to invest.

Realtors Dave and Shellie Fischer say, "The Lake Tahoe Market is a great place for you to invest. It is a very strong market. Lake Tahoe is one of the Top Ten places to buy a second home. Over 75 percent of Lake Tahoe properties are purchased for vacation homes, vacation retreats, investment properties and retirement homes. Lake Tahoe is a very unique place with year round activities. The casinos offer lots of entertainment with gaming, night clubs, concerts and shows."

They continue, "The winters are beautiful with lots of winter activities; skiing, snowboarding, snowmobiling, snow shoeing, ice skating, sledding and snow camping. There are 9 ski resorts around Lake Tahoe to choose from. Some resorts have breathtaking views of Lake Tahoe. The summers are spectacular. With beautiful blue skies, it's never too hot and cool at night. You can go boating, sailing, water-skiing, wake boarding, parasailing, fishing, golfing, hiking, mountain biking, camping, kayaking and scuba diving. And Lake Tahoe is not far from the Bay Area and only a few hours to Sacramento."

"As of October 13th it's a buyers market. Home prices start at $169,000, with the median price at $550,000. There are currently 23 condos available on the market, with prices starting at $185,000."

Realtor Pam Lusby continues, "The value of real estate around Lake Tahoe continues to rise. A comparison of third quarter figures from 2004 to 2005 shows that the average home price around the lake has jumped 16 percent, pushing the average price of a single-family home to just over $1 million ($1,007,010) for the first time. Homes over a million continue to lead the market with a 60 percent increase in units sold. But don't let those numbers scare you, there's still plenty of real estate available that costs less than a million dollars."

She adds, "The number of homes sold here on the East Shore has dropped, however, this area continues to have the highest average home price at $1.27 million (an increase of 11 percent). The number of homes sold costing less than a million continues to decrease due to inventory, but they continue to outsell homes over $1 million. South Shore remains the most affordable area around the lake with an average price of $572,387 (up 32 percent). Because of that, they also had the largest number of sales in homes under a million. With these rising prices, South Shore also saw the biggest increase in homes sold over a million -- 39, which is up 255 percent. The East Shore saw a decrease of 8 percent in the over a million dollar bracket. However, the East Shore's average and median prices have continued to climb. There was an 11 percent increase in the sales dollar volume around the lake; however, due to increasing prices, the number of homes sold was down by 8 percent."

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Published: October 24, 2005

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