Realty firm closes $20 million deal

In the midst of a credit crunch and national real estate downturn, a Tahoe City realty company is making history with the largest sale recorded by the Tahoe Sierra Board of Realtors.

Prudential California Realty in Tahoe City recently sold a $20 million lakefront property on Tahoe’s west shore, said Alan Heoney, associate broker and partner.

“This is one of the last great lakefront estates on the West Shore,” Heoney said.

According to a Chase International first quarter report, sales on multi-million dollar homes were off by 39 percent from this time last year in Tahoe City.

But Heoney said Tahoe’s lakefront market continues to prove resilient amid a real estate slump.

“The lakefront market in Tahoe is very provincial. There’s no new subdivisions and no new development so there’s an artificial constraint,” Heoney said.

The house was built in the early 1900s and sits on seven acres of meadows, aspen groves and trails, and encompasses over 650 feet of shoreline, Heoney said.

The house went on the market approximately two years ago, but Prudential Realty has since brought in a team to examine and enhance the land capability to allow the buyer more latitude in terms of design, Heoney said.

While Chase International reported that every market around Lake Tahoe has experienced at least a 40 percent decline in the sale of over $1 million homes, Heoney said he has sold three high-end lakefront properties so far in 2008.

“Most transactions are done with cash and rarely include a loan, which speaks to the caliber of our buyers,” Heoney said. “Often times our buyers know the properties as well as we do.”

The Truckee-Tahoe housing market may indicate a mixed bag for the first quarter of 2008, but Chase is forecasting positive homes sales for 2009.

“With predictions of a better market place ahead, combined with insulation from the foreclosure and short sale issues faced in many areas, the real estate meter may well reset in a positive manner as Lake Tahoe and the surrounding area enters the last half of 2008,” said Chief Executive Officer Shari Chase in the report.