The National Association of Realtors recently came out with a list of the top 10 cities that they anticipate will be the best places for real estate in the next three to five years.

In alphabetical order they are Charleston, SC; Charlotte, NC; Colorado Springs, CO; Columbus, OH; Dallas, TX; Fort Collins, CO; Las Vegas, NV; Ogden, UT; Raleigh/Durham/Chapel Hill, NC; and Tampa/St. Petersburg, FL.

Now how is this related to real estate at Lake Tahoe? The reality is that just like politics all real estate is local. You can’t really make sweeping generalizations for the entire United States because at any given time some markets are trending up, some are moving down and others are going sideways.

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What all of these 10 markets have in common that makes them completely different from Lake Tahoe is the cost and availability of raw land.

Also, the cost of new construction in almost every one of these areas is far below that of the Lake Tahoe basin. And employment opportunities are much more abundant. This creates opportunities for broad based economic growth in these 10 regions. They also (for the most part) do not face the extremely strict legal and environmental regulations that affect development at Lake Tahoe.

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However, the finite supply of buildable land at Lake Tahoe along with proximity to some of the wealthiest communities in America results in housing prices that far exceed the national average. But, the vast majority of local jobs do not pay wages that are sufficient to make purchasing a home affordable.

What makes the 10 places listed above so attractive in many respects is that they also have a decent level of affordability relative to local incomes.

A lack of affordable housing in many areas of our nation has been a contributing factor to the problem of homelessness. While there are many different reasons why a person could be homeless, those geographic areas with nice weather and very high housing prices have seen the problem become particularly acute.

Reflecting on the local state of real estate, since 2012 the market at Lake Tahoe has generally been in a nice steady uptrend. While overall sales in 2019 are below the very big year of 2018, the real estate market at Lake Tahoe will likely remain a bastion of strength into the foreseeable future.

Don Kanare is the founder and Sabrina Belleci is the owner and broker of RE/MAX North Lake in Incline Village. You can follow their blog at http://www.InsideIncline.com.