One thing my research is telling me is that mountain town real estate just keeps getting more expensive. There are a few affordable mountain towns to buy a home: here in South Lake Tahoe, Sandpoint, ID or Whitefish MT. The desire to live in these places isn’t going away as many people dream is to retire or live part-time in an ideal resort location.
In my market, South Lake Tahoe is still considered to be an affordable mountain town.
The median sales price according to Zillow in South Lake Tahoe is $475,000. Zillow isn’t perfect but this number is close to the truth so I’ll use it (I’m a Realtor and have actual stats). According to Zillow here are some other resort markets and their current (Nov. 2019) median sales price.
- Vail,CO $914,600
- Breckenridge,CO $914,900-they actually do more skier visits than Vail too
- Keystone,CO $542,000
- Park City,UT $840,000
- Truckee, CA $619,500-South Lake is much more affordable than North Lake Tahoe and Truckee
- Whitefish,MT $369,000
- Sandpoint, ID $315,000-I used to live here so I added it
Of course there are many others but I’ll just use this list as a reference.
Where are the affordable mountain towns?
If I was a young ski bum starting all over again I would consider settling in a less expensive resort town however after I graduated college the west coast was calling me and I’m still here. Here I live in South Lake Tahoe- on the CA side. My husband and I worked very hard to be able to pull this off and to this day it is still an affordable mountain town to buy a home. We bought our home 5 years ago when prives were even much lower. In this article I’m only referring to the CA side as the NV side of South Lake Tahoe is another game. On the NV side home prices are much higher and there is always way less inventory especially under $1 Million.
Affordable Mountain Towns to Buy a Home
There was a great article written yesterday in our local paper titled “Is the starter home dead in South Lake Tahoe” written on Nov. 16th in the tahoedailytribune.com
It talks about how locals should buy houses as we have affordable options here in South Lake Tahoe. It really is true and there are great financing options for little to no down payment. Of course it is a big step for many and also out of reach for many but at least folks could talk to a lender to see what their options can be.
In reality South Lake Tahoe is an affordable mountain town to buy a home.
As a local Realtor in this market I am amazed that one can still buy a house under $350,000. This makes us an affordable mountain town-not a cheap place to live but affordable. This home near the new Whole Foods is selling for $370,000 and has been totally remodeled.
I would recommend building equity and then upgrading as time goes on but sometimes small is better, less expense on utilities and less time cleaning and more time playing. South Lake Tahoe is a great place to live and probably will become less affordable as time goes on. Please contact me if I can help you find a home, Jennifer Fortune 530-318-9286 or jfortune@chaseinternational.com or take a search at realestateonlaketahoe.com
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