Great broadcast on CNBC, view it here!

 Lift Status:

Squaw: OPEN!

Lifts: Red Dog and Squaw Creek

(photo taken Dec 9th on the top of Squaw Creek)

Northstar-At-Tahoe: OPEN!

Lifts: Backside Express, Comstock Express, Vista Express, Arrow Express, Tahoe Zephyr Express, The Big Easy, Ursa Major, Little Dipper, Pegasus, Big Springs Express, Highlands Gondola   

Alpine Meadows: OPEN!

Lifts: Meadow Chair, Roundhouse 

Sugar Bowl: December 17th

(snow making in progress)

Homewood: December 18th

(snow making in progress)

Winter Wonderland:

Ski season is off to a great start with the help of mother nature and man-made efforts. Here are five more off-the-slope activities that are just more fun in Tahoe!

1. Ice Skating: With ice skating rinks at Squaw Valley, Northstar, and Truckee grab the family and some hot chocolate and go skate with the sierras as a backdrop!

2. Exploring the Backcountry: Take the snowshoes and explore some of our favorite hiking trails in the winter setting. Spectacular hiking at higher elevations!

3. Holiday Festivities at the Resorts: There is no shortage of events this time of year, from Caroler Concerts, to Ugly Christmas Sweater parties, being in the mountains makes any Holiday party that much better!

4. Eat, Drink, and be Merry~ Tahoe Style: From gourmet to casual, any holiday treat tastes better at 6500′!

5. Shopping: Santa just declared Tahoe as the top holiday shopping destination of 2011!

After a few month slump, two upper crust properties just went into contract in the North Lake Tahoe area.

5526 North Lake.  Asking price was $10.5M.  1.3 acre parcel on Flick Point in Agate Bay.  Scheduled to close at the end of January. Click image for more info.

8458 Valhalla Dr in Martis Camp.  Asking price was $9.395M.   Martis Camp is the high-end DMB/Highlands Group golf course development that is tied in to the Northstar ski area.  Martis Camp has started to play in the field of upper value lakefront and is getting a lot of attention. Click image for more info.

I predict the upper end will continue to see strong action through the first quarter of 2012.

A blistering wind out of the east today created an opportunity for brave souls to surf the lake…Some truly spectacular scenery!

Pumpkin Mousse Tart

Chocolate Almond Crust:

• 3/4 cup blanched whole almonds, toasted lightly
• 20 thin chocolate wafer cookies
• 1/2 stick (1/4 cup) unsalted butter, softened
• 1/3 cup sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon almond extract
• 1/4 teaspoon salt

Mousse filling:

• 1/2 cup half-and-half
• 1 (15-ounce) can pumpkin puree
• 1 cup light brown sugar, lightly packed
• 3/4 teaspoon kosher salt
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 3 extra-large egg yolks
• 1 package (2 teaspoons) unflavored gelatin
• 1 ripe banana, finely mashed
• 1 teaspoon grated orange zest
• 1/2 cup cold heavy cream
• 2 tablespoons sugar

For the decoration:

• 1 cup (1/2 pint) cold heavy cream
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 350° F.

In a food processor, pulse almonds until ground. Add chocolate wafer cookies and grind fine. Add butter, sugar, almond extract, and salt and pulse until combined well. Transfer mixture to a 9-inch springform pan and press evenly onto bottom and 1 inch up side. Bake crust in middle of oven 10 minutes and transfer to a rack to cool. Crust may be made 3 days ahead and kept, covered, at room temperature.

For the filling, heat the half-and-half, pumpkin, brown sugar, salt, cinnamon, and nutmeg in a heat-proof bowl set over a pan of simmering water until hot, about 5 minutes. Whisk the egg yolks in another bowl, stir some of the hot pumpkin into the egg yolks to heat them, then pour the egg-pumpkin mixture back into the double boiler and stir well. Heat the mixture over the simmering water for another 4 to 5 minutes, until it begins to thicken, stirring constantly. You don’t want the eggs to scramble. Remove from the heat.

Dissolve the gelatin in 1/4 cup cold water. Add the dissolved gelatin, banana, and orange zest to the pumpkin mixture and mix well. Set aside to cool.

Whip the heavy cream in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with a whisk attachment until soft peaks form. Add the sugar and continue to whisk until you have firm peaks. Carefully fold the whipped cream into the pumpkin mixture and pour it into the cooled tart shell. Chill for 2 hours or overnight.

For the decoration, whip the heavy cream in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the whisk attachment until soft peaks form. Add the sugar and vanilla and continue to whisk until you have firm peaks. Pipe or spoon the whipped cream decoratively on the tart. Serve chilled.

One of the primary benchmarks real estate analysts use to evaluate a particular market is the median home price.  Often the current median home price will be compared to a period in the past – compared against the prior month, quarter, year, etc.  This is an extremely valuable tool to determine the health and direction of the market.  But beware, the benchmark of median home price is often misunderstood.

First let’s understand what is meant by median.  Median is defined as the middle number in a sorted list of numbers.   For example, if there were 41 homes to sell, you order the sales according to sales price -  least to most.  The home that is 21st on the list is the median home price.   There are 20 homes to sell at a lower price, and 20 homes to sell at a higher price.  If there is an even number of total sales, the middle two numbers are averaged to get the median.  Got it?  Great.

The median is used in real estate to hedge against wide variations in purchase price that may skew the average (aka ‘mean.’)  This is particularly important in Lake Tahoe where during one month we may have one $12M lakefront sale amongst 20 other sales $350K – $1M.   The $12M sale would push the average sale to an inflated value, not showing the true market characteristics.   The median price is used to show a better middle ground for the overall market.

Now it is true that the median home price in Lake Tahoe, like most areas in the US, has seen a precipitous decline in recent years.  But does that mean a homeowner in Tahoe has seen their property depreciate at the same rate as the median home price decline?  Does this mean the overall market has depreciated at the same rate as the median home price?  No to both questions.  The reason is three fold.

First, what has happened in Tahoe has happened in many areas.  Because of a weaker economy, an uncertain future, and a difficult lending environment (to name a few of our recent problems,) buyers have gravitated to lower price points.  Buyers comfortable in a $1.5M price point, may elect to purchase a property for $800K, even though they can afford something more expensive.  $800K is their new comfort zone even though they have the cash on hand, income and creditworthiness to buy at $1.5M.  This results in an overall lower median price.

Second, much of the distressed inventory, bank-owned properties, and short sales are to be found in lower price points.  Because there is perceived value in these distressed sales, there is a lot of activity in this segment of the market, translating to large sales volume at low price points and an overall lower median price in the market.  The low-price distressed sales is also the segment of the market where we are seeing the greatest investor activity, a huge player in today’s market.  Investor activity contributes to high-volume, low price point transactions translating to a lower median price overall.

Third, there are micro markets in Lake Tahoe, as with most regions.  No surprise, some segments of the Tahoe market have performed better than others.  The Martis Camp community is one example of an area of strength in the market.  This suggests one can not apply the median home decline across the board.

Because there is a greater volume of sales in lower price points, the median home has declined in our area.  While median price is a useful tool to help guide an analysis of the real estate market, it does not directly translate to an overall depreciation of the market to that level.

Bill Dietz | Principal Broker | Tahoe Luxury Properties, Inc

Please feel free to comment below, or email me directly at billd@tluxp.com