First half home sales fall at Tahoe

Sales volume of single-family homes at Lake Tahoe fell 8 percent during the first half compared with year-earlier figures, says the realty firm Chase International.

The company says condo sales were off 37 percent when measured by sales volume.

Incline Village ran counter to the trend as first-half sales volume of $137.8 million was up 28 percent, and the number of homes sold 89 was up by 20 percent.

The hardest hit area was Tahoe City, where the number of units sold declined by 34 percent and sales volumes were down 39 percent form the first half of 2007, Chase International says.

The average price of a single-family home at the lake was $1.33 million in the first half of this year compared with $1.4 million a year earlier. Condos averaged $539,349 this year, down 21 percent from the first half of 2006.