Made in Tahoe Festival

The Made in Tahoe Festival is full of the happy outdoor, adventure, creative vibe that the Tahoe lifestyle embraces. This two day event takes place in The Village at Squaw Valley and is free for all to enjoy.

There are 3 stages that will host local entertainment throughout the day. From 11am – 7pm on Saturday and 11am – 5pm on Sunday local bands, singers, theatrical and dance performances will fill the Village with lively energy. The Truckee Dance Factory will perform at 1pm each day with their captivating performances that encourage the audience to get moving.

Jewelry, furniture, clothing, artwork, bath & body products, skis, bikes and services will all be represented as part of the more than 100 vendors that will be participating in this year’s event. Pottery from Alanna Hughes Pottery is one of my favorites or Hawk & Field jewelry and lotions. Another local favorite all around is Truckee Love where you can show your support for the area with a shirt, hat or souvenir. You will find a large selection of one of a kind products all in one place.

Getting hungry yet? Local food vendors will be on hand with tasty treats like dessert or savery crepes from Crepe Hearts, beer from Alibi Ale Works, pizza and sushi from Starkey’s food truck and more. There are also the food choices at Squaw Valley like Fireside Pizza or Mountain Nectar.
 

At the base of Squaw looking up at the majestic peaks above, it’s the ideal place to be celebrating Tahoe mountain life and culture.

Katie Tyler

Realtor®

BRE 01442453

c 530 277 1012 

Springtime in Tahoe

Springtime in Tahoe

The spring season in Tahoe this year is going to be especially long. It’s time to find the thrill in doing multiple activities in one day!
  

Morning activities start with something on the snow like snowshoeing, nordic skiing or downhill riding at Squaw Valley extending the seemingly endless winter. A great place to explore via snowshoe or Nordic ski right now is Mount Rose Meadows. Located off Mount Rose Highway (HWY 431) between Incline Village and Mount Rose Ski Resort. This area offers a wide open meadow with rolling terrain with room to explore in any direction. For a mellow adventure, stay in the flat meadow. For more of a challenge head to the edge of the meadow and up the rolling hills into the thick pine trees. As you rise to the top of the mountain, a great Lake Tahoe view will reward your hard climb.

Mid-day, its time for lunch. If you are heading off the snow at Mount Rose, head down into Incline Village to T’s Mosquite Rotisserie where you can find delicious tacos and the meat is cooked right in front of you in the wood-fired rotisserie. Another option is on the other side of Incline Village at the bottom of the Tunnel Creek trail. Tunnel Creek Café offers a casual atmosphere full of people beginning or finishing their adventure of hiking, running, biking or beaching. It’s a happy place to be. They offer a selections of salads, sandwiches and beer for a mid-day meal or snack.
   

Afternoon activities are easy to find at the lake. Relax on the white sand beach of Sand Harbor located just south of Incline Village or keep the body moving and go out for a paddle board or kayak across the crystal waters of Lake Tahoe. Waterman’s Landing located in Carnelian Bay is a great spot for paddle board, kayak or canoe rentals (note that they are only open on weekends till after Memorial Day).
 

Night time in spring can bring very cold evenings. It’s best to pick the inside choice when you go out to eat, even though when you first walk in the outside looks appealing. Eating in Tahoe during this “shoulder” season is quite pleasant. Reservations are now always necessary and the service and food is top tier. If you are still over on the Lake from the days adventures, try Christy Hill in Tahoe City. This is a very intimate dinning room and usually hard to get reservations. The food is always outstanding. If you are back in Truckee for the evening, try downtown’s newest restaurant, Old Town Tap. Their menu caters to shared plates. Start with the little gems salad and finish with the bacon and eggs pizza.

You really can have it all in one day in one place. The trees are budding, the daffodils are starting to pop up and the snow is in perfect corn condition. So, what are you waiting for? Summer or winter? Come to Tahoe now and you can have both!

Katie Tyler

Realtor®

BRE 01442453

c 530 277 1012 

Restaurant Review

Tacos Jalisco

This week we will celebrate Cinco De Mayo. Cinco de Mayo is a source of pride for the Mexican Americans and a celebration of their culture and heritage. This day in 1862 the Mexican army took an unlikely victory over the French in the Battle of Puebla and has been celebrated in California since 1863. What better way to celebrate than with mexican cuisine. There are a few mercian restaurants to choose from in Truckee but my favorite is Taco’s Jalisco. See you there, this week and especially on Friday, May 5th!
Tacos Jalisco started out as a food truck in 1994, before food trucks were popular and common place. The name Jalisco came from the state in Mexico where owner, Rigoberto ‘Rigo’ Uribe learned the taqueria business before moving to Truckee and meeting his wife, Maria. Less than a year later, they opened a brick and mortar shop in Truckee. Tucked away in the 7-Eleven center in central Truckee, this quickly became a local’s favorite with a line reaching the front door almost any time of open hours. In 2012, the business grew with a second location in the Village at Northstar. Now, the food truck can also be seen back on the streets and posted up at the Truckee River Winery on selected nights in the summer. Jalisco is more than a local favorite, it’s now a place where visitors love to stop every time they are in town. In 2016, Tacos Jalisco won first place for Best Mexican Restaurant in the "Sierra Sun’s Best Of"contest for North Lake Tahoe & Truckee.
  

Tacos Jalisco’s signature dish is called the Armadillo. This dish takes a little longer than other dishes to prepare but the wait it well worth it. The dish arrives at your table in a hot lava rock bowl full of cactus, shrimp, pork and beef, literally sizzling in a tomato and chili sauce. Served with rice, beans and tortillas to be assembled as you like. Your tastebuds will love the texture, taste and spice.

You really can’t go wrong when ordering because everything is packed with flavor. Want to add some fire? There are 2 house made salsas to pick from. The red, pretty hot and tasty and the yellow, VERY hot and spicy for a very authentic kick! My go-to is the el pastor taco, a small street taco packed with meat served on 2 tortillas and topped with onion and cilantro. I usually order 2 or 3 and sometimes mix it up with various other meat, fish or veggie selections. I also like to add a Jarritos soda or a Pacifico beer in the bottle for fun.


Cheers!


Happy Cinco de Mayo!

Landscaping After the 2017 Winter

Landscaping After the 2017 Winter

The snow is slowly melting out here in Tahoe. In some places the grass is peeking through but in other places, snowbanks still tower over head. As the sun shines, it’s time to start thinking about your garden and yard. What does it look like? What kind of maintenance will it need to bounce back from the crushing weight of this winter's snow?

For a professional opinion, I spoke with Brian Connors, owner of Peak Landscaping. Brian has been in the business for 22 years in the Truckee area. Homeowners often rave to me about their experience with Brian and the finished product that you get when working with Peak Landscape exceeds expectations.

Brian had some good insight to share with me on how landscaping can start to recover from the harsh winter. Below is our conversation.
 

Q: How has the snow impacted landscaping in general?

A: Mother nature really put our mountain landscapes to the test this record breaking winter. We have discovered many deciduous trees and shrubs such as Aspen, Maple, crabapple and dogwood have been damaged by snow load and snow storage. Broken branching is very common and a number of trees fell over or were snapped off to the point where they are unsalvageable. Large trees such as pines, fir and cedar were also affected most properties now have broken branches that have broken off but are hung up in the tree. This poses the obvious falling risk along with the wounded tree being more susceptible to bug infestation and disease. There is also a rather large amount of lawn damage from voles and other rodents. On the structural side of things… a number of fences were blown over or damaged by snow load/removal along with endless damage to decks and railing.

Q: What is it going to take to get our landscaping back this year?

A: Spring clean ups will be more intense and the off haul of debris will be more than normal. Some sites will have damage from snow removal pushing earth into the landscape areas or heavy accumulations of road sand. Pruning deciduous trees and shrubs for strength/shape will be a must. Lawns will require additional attention as well. Our typical Spring program includes, thatching, aeration, topdressing, fertilizing and reseeding as needed.


Q: What is your number one recommendation for taking care of your home landscaping this year?

A: Prune deciduous trees and shrubs for strength/shape


Q: What can a home owner expect for the cost of replacement trees/shrubs this year?

A: This is site specific and really depends on past maintenance habits. The landscapes hit the worst were the under maintained/neglected landscapes. I can see some clients with mature landscapes spending $1,000’s to bring things back to par.
 

Q: Have you started landscaping projects in Tahoe yet? When should homeowners start scheduling your services?

A: We started running damage control on trees, etc about a month ago and have been easing into clean up’s the past few weeks as the snow melts. I’m hoping we can start on construction projects around the first of May. With all of the tree damage this winter we decided to purchased a new wood chipper + truck combo and are ramping up for our biggest season ever. I have a feeling all Truckee / Tahoe contractors will be very busy this summer and recommend scheduling services as soon as possible.

Katie Tyler

Realtor®

BRE 01442453

c 530 277 1012 

Tahoe Resort Golf Course Openings

Tahoe Resort Golf Course Openings

Spring is in the air, is golf on your mind? The grounds teams around the area are working hard to get the courses ready for play. Everything from blowing snow off the course to clearing tree debris. This winter has left behind a lot of challenges for the Tahoe golf teams.

To get an idea of what goes into getting the course ready after winter, I spoke with Travis Alley, Director of golf at Tahoe Mountain Club. Alley’s team started the process of getting the course ready to open in the middle of March by actually snowplowing the course. The team would have to plow the cart path in order to get to the greens. This means plowing layers of 5-10 feet of snow to get to the greens. Usually they are battling 2-3 foot snow pack, this year it was more like 10-15 feet.  

It is important for the crews to get down to the greens fast to prevent freeze thaw (the process of thawing in the day and freezing over night) vs. the deep freeze over the winter months that actually preserves the greens. Once the green is uncovered, a tarp is laid out over the green creating a sort of greenhouse effect that stimulates growth. Growing grass this way takes about 4 weeks before the course can open. As for the fairways and the rest of the grounds, it’s just a waiting game until the snow melts.
  

Old Greenwood is in good shape. At Gray’s Crossing, they are using a type of black mulch to sprinkle on the snow that attracts the sun and speeds up the melting process. In the meantime there is plenty to do with massive amounts of tree branches and other debris to clear. 

   Old Greenwood is scheduled to open May 19, 2017, one of the first openings in the area.
We area all excited and ready to hit some golf balls. Below are the scheduled dates for Truckee resort golf courses to open.

Old Greenwood: 5/19/17

Gray’s Crossing: 6/2/17

Martis Camp: 5/25/17

Northstar: 5/26/17

Lahontan: 5/19/16

Tahoe Donner: Mid-June

Katie Tyler

Realtor®

BRE 01442453

c 530 277 1012 

Northstar

Northstar

It all started with the new Village in 2006 at the base of Northstar mountain with 213 condos built over 137,019 sf of retail. At the center, a 9,000 sf ice skating rink in the winter that doubles as roller skating and a concert area in the summer. Later, The Ritz-Carlton, Lake Tahoe opened in 2009 offering the only AAA Five Diamond mountain resort experience in California.
  

The accommodations and high end luxury real estate available to purchase or rent are not the only improvements happening in the last 10 years. On mountain offerings at Northstar have soared to new heights with activities that will make every ski day a unique experience.

There are many perks you can find that don’t cost extra money but will definitely add extra enjoyment. Open the mountain early with Northstar's ski patrol. Sign up and be there by 7:30am for first tracks. At 2pm every day, celebrate another epic day and join Northstar with a champagne toast on the top of the mountain. At the end of the day head down to the Village for complimentary smores around the ice rink. Most days there will also be live music on the Village stage all afternoon.
   

Other options are available to make the day as easy as possible. The Platinum Experience offers options like skipping the lift line, valet parking or exclusive private lessons. The Burton Academy provides a customized experience for each border with the new terrain-based teaching methodology. For an extra special night after skiing sign up for one of The Mountain Table Dinners where a locally sourced dinner is complemented by a winery and set on top of the mountain in Zephyr Lodge. Floor to ceiling windows set the stage for an unforgettable meal.


Click here for an article in The Sacramento Bee reflecting on a Northstar experience.


Though ski season is coming to a close here at Northstar, ski passes for next year are on sale. Northstar continually proves to be the best in the region with all around amenities, services, activities and accommodations.


Click here for a look ahead at Northstar’s Mountain Master Plan for future improvements.

Katie Tyler

Realtor®

BRE 01442453

c 530 277 1012 

2017 Tahoe-Truckee Market Update: Q1

2017 Tahoe-Truckee Market Update

1st Quarter

Real estate in the Truckee-Tahoe region continues to exude optimism with posting a very strong opening quarter to 2017 despite challenges from road closures, power outages and other events created by prolific winter snowfall.

Results from Q1 were remarkably similar to those of the same period in 2016; a year that would become arguably the best ever for property in this region. Median price leapt 14% year over year while total sales trailed by 7% indicative of tight inventory. Year-to-date sales volume totaled nearly $250,000,000 foretelling a 5^th consecutive $1 billion year. 

Luxury sales followed a predictable course as ski resort properties experienced the immediate dividends of near historic snowfall. The Village at Northstar doubled the number of transactions during Q1, 2016 and has nearly equaled the total for the preceding 12 months in just the first quarter of this year. Northstar Mountainside saw explosive growth as its Stellar Townhomes have sold through nearly all available residences with momentum building around other slopeside properties.

Martis Camp sold the last of its 671 developer homesites completed among the more remarkable runs of luxury sales throughout the country in recent times. An additional 9 homes have transacted in Martis Camp during Q1 at an average price of $3,864,642.  

A seasonal outlier during this period was the sale of two lakefront sales on Tahoe’s West Shore. At $13,975,000 and $15,000,000 these represent two of the top ten sales ever recorded on the California side and, but for a $17,500,000 sale in September, 2016, the highest individual transactions since 2014.  In addition to the rare 8-digit pricing of these transaction, completed such transactions, for which land value is paramount, amidst head-height walls of snow is extraordinary. Despite the pendulum having swung dramatically toward newer, amenitized communities in recent years, lakefront property remains the pinnacle of Tahoe homeownership.

Katie Tyler

Realtor®

BRE 01442453

c 530 277 1012