With the region’s golf courses nearly all closed and the days drawing noticeably shorter, our attention is quickly shifted towards ski season. With but a month until the traditional opening in Tahoe, it is easy and exciting to find enthusiasm for the winter to come. With the memory of last winter’s deluge of snow still fresh (given that it extended into June) and an overwhelming amount of new and tantalizing news from local ski resorts, we appear set up for another banner season.

 Various media outlets are picking up the story, frequently touted in this space, of all the investment being made in the North Lake Tahoe region. The Sacramento Bee recently ran a story asking why, if the economy is as bad as it appears to be, is so much institutional money flowing into the region. http://tinyurl.com/3bnxuxc.   The article goes on to answer the question as follows: “The investments – more than $56 million at Squaw Valley,Northstar, Heavenly and Kirkwood – are geared to transform Tahoe's mountain resorts into year-round destinations rivaling anything to be found in competitor states Colorado and Utah.”

 Northstar specifically continues to receive excellent press including being named the #4 Family Resort by Forbes Magazine as well as #7 for Grooming and #2 for Terrain Parks in Ski Magazine’s recently reduced polls.

 From a real estate perspective, we've begun to see the shift away from lake and golf properties back towards ski properties in anticipation of the season to come. Some of these buyers are motivated by the short term need to lock down holiday plans while others are clearly buying into the long term potential for the region as well as ideal buying conditions. At the same time, we are seeing supply wane a bit, both via absorption and by sellers pursuing ski lease and other longer term rental options.

 On a more global level, there are a few news items in recent weeks that have lent a bit of optimism to the real estate sector. Today’s announcement by the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) to broaden the scope of the Home Affordable Refinance Program (HARP) by removing the current 125 percent loan-to-value cap for fixed-rate mortgages backed by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.  Other program enhancements include, among other things, reducing certain fees, eliminating the need for a new property appraisal if the FHFA has a reliable automated valuation model (AVM) estimate, and extending HARP until the end of 2013. 

 

While this program won’t have an immediate impact on our market given that the majority of financing in the region involves some type of jumbo or otherwise non-confirming loan, it could certainly lend confidence to the overall sector.