Valleys become Tahoe alternative

Home prices are rising fast on the east shore of Lake Tahoe, and the ripples are being felt in the Washoe and Carson valleys of northern Nevada.

Luxury homes in the Washoe Valley just south of Reno and the Carson Valley of Douglas County are selling more quickly these days and prices are headed up.

The reason? Buyers priced out of Lake Tahoe or weary of winter snow look for more affordable properties nearby.

Home prices along Tahoe's east shore from Glenbrook to Stateline were up an average of 20 percent during the third quarter compared with a year earlier, says Chase International, a Lake Tahoebased real estate company.

This year, the firm says, the average price on the east shore was $920,066 compared with $736,794 a year earlier.

Sales volume of homes priced above $1 million was up 33 percent from a year ago.

Even sales of condominiums were up sharply along the east shore.

Chase says sales volume of condos in the area rose 29 percent and the average sales price of $355,445 was up 21 percent from a year earlier.

Steve Lincoln, president of the Sierra Nevada Board of Realtors, says the upshot has been a steady stream of buyers looking for properties in the valleys.

Some of those buyers, he is quick to add, can afford the ever-rising prices around Lake Tahoe, but simply can't find a home on the market that meets their needs.

No matter what brings them from the lake, those buyers are helping to fuel strong sales and higher prices in upper-end homes, Lincoln says.

Some home shoppers figure their dollars will go a lot further in the Washoe Valley or Douglas County.

"In the Washoe and Carson Valley, just a few miles away from the lake, a luxury home and desirable lifestyle, with expansive amounts of land, may be purchased at an exceptional value," says Shari Chase, chief executive officer of Chase International.

A few weeks ago, for instance, Chase International Vice President Susan Lowe was escorting potential buyers through a Washoe Valley home built in 1964 by uranium miner Charles Steen.

The home 16,000 square feet in the main residence, a 25-acre property at the base of the Sierra is listed at $7.5 million.

And Lowe says the property was drawing interest from potential buyers widening their search for Tahoe-area real estate.

The same phenomena, she said, has been a major drawing card at Montreux and other high-end southwest Reno residential neighborhoods close to Mount Rose Highway.

Also fueling the market for high-end homes in the Carson and Washoe valleys, Lincoln says, are homeowners around Lake Tahoe who are weary of dealing with winter snow and decide to move down the hill.

But he adds, "A lot of those people can afford to hire someone to shovel the snow."