Lake Tahoe Real Estate - Tahoe City

C.A.R. REPORTS MEDIAN HOME PRICE INCREASED 21.4 PERCENT IN OCTOBER The median price of an existing, single-family detached home in California during October 2004 was $460,370, a 21.4 percent increase over the revised $379,120 median for October 2003, C.A.R. reported on Tuesday. The October 2004 median price decreased 0.7 percent compared with a revised $463,620 median price in September. "While the median price of a home continued to charge ahead in October compared with a year ago, sales moderated to a more sustainable pace, typical for this time of year," said C.A.R. President Jim Hamilton. Closed escrow sales of existing, single-family detached homes in California totaled 639,570 in October at a seasonally adjusted annualized rate, according to information collected by C.A.R. from more than 90 local REALTOR® associations statewide. Statewide home resale activity increased 0.5 percent from the 636,690 sales pace recorded in October 2003. The statewide sales figure represents what the total number of homes sold during 2004 would be if sales maintained the October pace throughout the year. It is adjusted to account for seasonal factors that typically influence home sales. "The inventory of homes for sale also increased to nearly a four-month supply, compared with about a two-month supply a year ago," Hamilton said. "This is giving buyers a greater number of options when looking for a home, and also is reflected in the time it's taking to list and sell a home, which has increased to 37 days -- its highest level since July 1999."

HELP-WANTED ADVERTISING INDEX RISES ONE POINT The Conference Board today announced that the help-wanted advertising index increased one point to 37 in October from 36 one year ago. Because ad volume is historically sensitive to the labor market, the help-wanted advertising index gauges the current job supply. In the last three months, help-wanted advertising declined in six of the nine U.S. regions, with the steepest declines reported in the Mountain (-7.2 percent), East North Central (-5.9 percent), and South Atlantic (-5.3 percent) regions. "Despite the outsized job gain in October, the measure of labor demand going forward remains relatively flat, as does the number signing up for their unemployment checks," said Conference Board Economist Ken Goldstein. "Except for two outbursts of job growth (one in the spring and one in October) the lack of steady improvement in employment has weakened consumer confidence, especially with respect to where the labor market is going in the next six months."

SIX CALIFORNIA CITIES LISTED AMONG AMERICA'S 25 SAFEST The 11th annual Safest City Award recently named Newton, Mass. as America's Safest City. Six cities in the state of California -- more than any other state -- were listed in the top 25 of the safest city rankings. California's "safest" cities are Mission Viejo (#4), Lake Forest (#6), Thousand Oaks (#7), Irvine (#11), Simi Valley (#17) and Sunnyvale (#18). The Safest City Award is based on a city's rate for six basic crime categories: murder, rape, robbery, aggravated assault, burglary and motor vehicle theft. All cities with populations of 75,000 or more that reported crime data to the FBI for the six crime categories were included in the rankings. In this year's survey, 354 cities were considered for the award. The 2003 crime statistics also determined Camden, N.J. is the nation's most dangerous city. Camden is joined at the bottom of the crime rankings by Detroit, Mich., Atlanta, Ga., St. Louis, Mo. and Gary, Ind. Crime statistics for Chicago, Ill., Brockton, Mass., Newport News, Va. and Warren, Mich. were not available to be included in the rankings.

Information provided by - C.A.R. Newsline is published by the CALIFORNIA ASSOCIATION OF REALTORS®, a trade association representing more than 135,000 REALTORS® statewide.