What’s the easiest way to try the upgrade? I strongly recommend that you buy a new hard drive and install Win 7 on the new fresh drive. Hard drives are relatively inexpensive – you should be able to get a 1000 GB 3.5″ (SATA or PATA) drive for less than $100. Also, 2.5″ Notebook drives are not as inexpensive but you should be able to pick up a $120-250 GB dive for less than $100. They are relatively easy to install in your computer. Win 7 has a lot of drivers and I didn’t have to add any drivers for my DELL Desktop and Notebook – I just put in the Win 7 disk and ran it. Win 7 “found” all my components that needed drivers and installed them.

The reason I like the new drive approach is that you can plug the old drive back in or access it via some other means if you encounter a problem – a problem in the case usually means you need some data from the old drive. A possible loss of data is just not worth trying to write the new Win 7 over the existing drive and data. What do I mean by access the drive via other means? One, you may have an open slot in your desktop that you can put the new and old drive into. Second, there are low cost USB to Drive cables available where you can access the old drive info via a USB port. Third, you can simply swap out the “new” Win 7 drive with the old drive and load your date onto a disk or some other storage device like a USB Memory stick.

What about the programs? There are a few basic types of programs you run – one being the type where you access the program on the net, Winforms or Paragon for example. In this case, make sure you copy the web address of the program – Paragon for example is http://tsierra.fnismls.com/Paragon/Login.aspx? So, type this in to your browser window and when it comes up right click on the screen and look for “add shortcut” and right click on that and you now have Paragon back on your desktop. Another type is the “purchased” programs like Microsoft Office – you need to “reload” these programs if you still have the original disks or buy a new copy of the program. Then another type is things like printer drivers etc, which need to be re-installed. Another minor issue is that Microsoft will try to “convert” you to Bing!, their search engine or some MSDN stuff. Just type in “Google” to get the Google screen when Internet Explorer comes up, go to “Tools”, then internet Options, select “Use Current” and close and Google should then come up as your default search engine.

Drop me a note if you have any questions. Gary at TruckeeRealEstate@gmail.com

There is obviously some possibility that the contingent sales may not close – due to the contingency not being met. Let me know if you would like to see any of these properties that are not yet closed.

Note that the sell price is given next to the last listed price so you can see what the buyers are offering. Also, the days on market is listed and you can see that some properties move very fast.

Call me at 530-448-1100  or email   TruckeeRealEstate@gmail.com if you have any questions about this data.

Figure 1. Tahoe Donner Single Family Home Sales

Results for September, 2009

September was a great month for Tahoe Donner. Inventory continues to be low and sales are increasing for several months. 

Inventory is well behaved at 153 homes on the market. When you consider we have over 5100 homes in Tahoe Donner this is approximately 3% of the homes in TD. This is positive since inventory is remaining low and not putting pressure on sales prices.

Average Days on market (DOM) remains low at 85 days. This is a very positive indicator and shows homes are moving quickly.

Single family home sales were 27 homes, up dramatically from 17 last month. There are also a large number of pending and contingent sales so Oct should be very strong also.   

Figure 2. Tahoe Donner Single Family Home Median and Average Home Price

One important change that started in Jan of ’09 is that Average and Median prices had a significant downturn – see Figure 2.  However, one can see that the average and median prices continued to climb since Jul of ‘09. This a good trend and could be construed as a sign that the Tahoe Donner single family home market is healthy.

Figure 3. 2007, 2008 and 2009 Year to Date Sales Data

So, what’s the future hold?  Hard to say but it is clear that building activity for spec homes is significantly down from the previous year.  Our local market in Tahoe Donner is served by a number of smaller contractors that have reacted quickly to the market conditions by not building more new homes and inflating inventory.

Other factors that have affected the local market are lending agency repossessions and short sales. Repossessed properties can be “distressed” and therefore are quite often sold at a discount to the “accepted” fair market price. In some cases, an alternative to repossession is a short sale where the lending agency will allow the homeowner to sell the property at a price below that of the owners loan balance and “forgive” the difference.  Such activity, if more continuing in the future, could adversely affect the average price of homes sold.

I hope this data, presented in this form was useful to you. For an instant update, or a discussion about condos/townhomes, please call me and I’ll be pleased to provide you with the most recent data available.

MLS data is available and I encourage the buyer or seller to study the data and arrive at their own conclusions before making a buy or sell decision. Contact me if you would like to see the “raw” data.

Subject: Tahoe Donner Sales History for Single Family Homes

Date: August 10, 2009

Tahoe Donner is a relatively large community in Truckee with approximately 5100 completed homes. So, statistically it is a good area to choose from to ascertain Truckee market activity and pricing trends. 

This data covers 2007 and 2008 and 2009 through August ‘09. The data contained herein is obtained from the Tahoe Sierra MLS. This data is believed to be accurate but must be verified prior to submitting a purchase offer.  Caution should be used when interpreting the data as there are many market factors influencing pricing that may or may not be relevant or obvious to the reader. 

Call me if you have any questions about the data and graphs!

Please contact me if you would like more information about market activity for certain price ranges, Tahoe Donner Condominiums, or similar data for other Truckee/Tahoe housing communities

Good luck in selling or buying your home in Tahoe Donner or the other Tahoe/Truckee communities – please let me know if I can provide excellent service to you!

Gary LaBelle, Realtor

 (530) 448-1100, TruckeeRealEstate@gmail.com 

www.truckeehome411.com

Referrals greatly appreciated 

The following Figure shows Tahoe Donner Single Family Home activity from Jan 2005 through August 2009.

Figure 1. Tahoe Donner Single Family Home Sales

Results for August, 2009

August was another good month for Tahoe Donner. Inventory is continues to be low and sales track with previous months. 

Inventory is well behaved at 164 homes on the market. When you consider we have over 5100 homes in Tahoe Donner this is approximately 3% of the homes in TD. This is positive since inventory is remaining low and not putting extreme competitive pressure on sales prices.

Average Days on market (DOM) dropped considerably done to 67 from 103 in July and low historically. This is a very positive indicator and shows homes are moving quickly.

Single family home sales were 17 homes, down from 21 last month. This is a bit misleading since there are a considerable number of homes in escrow at this time. September and October should be very strong months for sales.

 Figure 2. Tahoe Donner Single Family Home Median and Average Home Price

One important change that started in Jan of ’09 is that Average and Median prices had a significant downturn – see Figure 2.  However, one can see that the average and median prices continued to climb since Jan ’09. This is generally a good trend and could be construed as a sign that the Tahoe Donner single family home market is healthy.

Figure 3. 2007, 2008 and 2009 Year to Date Sales Data

Figure 3 shows how the increase in DOM for August looks from a historical perspective. The 67 days looks very good from a historical perspective.

So, what’s the future hold?  Hard to say but it is clear that building activity for spec homes is significantly down from the previous year.  Our local market in Tahoe Donner is served by a number of smaller contractors that have reacted quickly to the market conditions by not building more new homes and inflating inventory.

Other factors that have affected the local market are lending agency repossessions and short sales. Repossessed properties can be “distressed” and therefore are quite often sold at a discount to the “accepted” fair market price. In some cases, an alternative to repossession is a short sale where the lending agency will allow the homeowner to sell the property at a price below that of the owners loan balance and “forgive” the difference.  Such activity, if more continuing in the future, could adversely affect the average price of homes sold.

I hope this data, presented in this form was useful to you. For an instant update, or a discussion about condos/townhomes, please call me and I’ll be pleased to provide you with the most recent data available.

MLS data is available and I encourage the buyer or seller to study the data and arrive at their own conclusions before making a buy or sell decision. Contact me if you would like to see the “raw” data.