Lake Tahoe Market

A few comments, suggestions, and ideas…

Lots of news coming out our neighbor to the South with the continued Softwood Lumber dispute, the new NAFTA 2.0 agreement and the drama surrounding the Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh. One thing that the Americans can never be accused of is being boring! On that note, I thought it would be interesting to take a more mellow approach and look at a couple of key markets in California to see how the residential and light commercial construction sector is doing.

Lake Tahoe; Lake Tahoe is a resort market that straddles the states of California and Nevada high up in the Sierra Nevada mountains. It is home to world class skiing, golfing, boating and other resort activities. Best of all, it’s a short 2.5-hour drive from the population centers of San Francisco and Silicon Valley. It is home to a booming economy in the high-end residential and vacation home sector. In speaking with builders in this market, they continue to be extremely busy as they have been so for the last 3 to 4 years. Many are waiting for a slowdown so that they can “catch their breath”, but it hasn’t happened yet. The top residential developments in the Tahoe market include, Martis Camp, Lahontan, Schaffer’s Mill and Incline Village.

The market is driven by the strength in the tech industry as Tahoe is viewed as a great place to own vacation property for people in this sector. It’s also a great market for BC Industry due to its close geographic proximity. Also, with the popularity of the “Modern Mountain” Design aesthetic, wood is a prominent feature in both the structural and appearance applications. There is a number of influencers in the Tahoe market including key builders, architects, and distributors. For a list of these companies please feel free to contact me at [email protected].

In the next Wood Connections, we will give a review of opportunities a little further south down the I-80 corridor, with a review for the Napa/ Sonoma and St Helena markets. A hint would be that there is a lot more to this market than just great wine.

As always, you can reach me at [email protected] or on my cell at 604-728-8786.