Roadmap with Irina - June 2024

In May of this year, the median sale price in Santa Clara County for single-family homes and condos continued to climb, however, the number of closed sales was still below May 2022 levels. Despite fewer homes being sold at higher prices, it appears that the market is still recovering from the drop experienced in 2023. Looking at the market dynamics for this year, the median sale price continued to increase every month, with 14% more homes sold in May vs April and 5% more new single-family home listings, along with 16% more homes sold and 5% more new listings for condos and townhouses.

Currently, there are 1,731 homes for sale in Santa Clara County, just 1.7% more than a month ago, indicating that inventory continues to increase. Historically, market activity decreases by the end of May due to the end of the school year, and the summer market is typically calmer than the spring market. Let’s see how it plays out this year.

If you are thinking about buying or selling, let’s connect, talk about your options, run some numbers, and see if this is the right time for you. Call me, I am always here for you.

Every year we go at least once on a backpacking trip somewhere, and this year we decided to go on Memorial Day weekend. I always rely on my husband and son to pick a destination point, and usually, it was around a 5-mile walk from the parking lot to our camp, so when they said it would be about a 5.5-mile hike, everyone was ok with it. Our son mentioned that there still might be snow, and the temperature can get to 0°C at night, which happens in the mountains, so nothing alarmed me.

We left home pretty late on Saturday morning, and after 5 hours drive, we arrived at Emerald Bay, South Tahoe. It was about 3-4 hours before dark, so we thought we could get to the destination point, Dicks Lake, by that time.  At this moment we found out that my daughter forgot her hiking boots, so she had to go in her walking sneakers; and that our son injured his ankle a week ago during another hike and cannot walk fast. Anyway, we put all our gear on, and the journey began.

The trail was going up all the time, and after about 30 minutes we ran onto the first patches of snow. After another hour we realized that we mostly walk on snow and the trail still goes up. After 3 hours of hiking, we reached a decent snow-free area on big rocks and made only 2.5 miles! Our son twisted his injured ankle again, the temperature started to drop, and it was getting dark, so we decided to spend a night there and continue the trip tomorrow. It is not allowed to have an open fire in that area, so we couldn’t warm up by the campfire, but at least we made hot dinner and tea on a pocket stove.

To keep everyone warm we decided to sleep together, 5 people, in one tent. It was tight, but ok. One of us snored so loud that I couldn’t fall asleep till 3 am. I finally figured out why bears never came to our camps during our previous travels: they think the place is already taken by another angry bear, so I guess we are safe anywhere.  

Laying in the tent I was thinking about what I was doing there. Why did I agree to go to a challenge like this? Why did we even decide to go there? Two weeks before that I was tasting wine and relaxing in Paso Robles, so what did I do wrong to get in the middle of nowhere? Well, I guess, I need to think more about that.

The next morning we quickly ate and took off around 9 am. The second part of the hike was even harder: we walked on snow all the time and continued to climb. We stopped every few minutes to catch our breath. We lost the trail many times, and thanks to a surprisingly good internet connection, we could find the right way and return to the trail. One section of the way was brutal: about 45 degrees of incline covered in snow. Finally, after 5 hours of hiking and climbing, we got to the Dicks Lake. We were exhausted, our boots were soaked with snow water, we were all sweaty, so a change of clothes and hot tea and food was everything we wanted. We found a dry spot without snow, set a camp, and cooked lunch. Then we had a few hours of relaxing time. It was so great to sit still and not move a muscle!

90% of the lake was frozen, but the rest had crystal clear water. We had our swimsuits with us, but nobody wanted to get into that water. It was so quiet and beautiful there! Georgiy, our son, went fishing right away. He recently got into fishing and tries to catch a fish in every puddle. He got lucky and caught a small rainbow trout that he cooked for dinner. He was absolutely happy!    

The second night was warmer than the first, but I still couldn’t sleep much due to the same snoring bear next to me. In the morning, I was thinking about one thing only: we are going home today! A chipmunk visited us while we were having breakfast, and we shared sunflower seeds with him. The weather was great, and we quickly packed up and left.

The way back was much faster: it took us only 3.5 hours to get back to the car. It was downhill all the time and on some open slopes we just slid down on our bottoms. We lost the trail again and had to climb over a stream a couple of times, but we didn’t stop anywhere for a break, everyone wanted to get to the car as quickly as possible. When we came back, I felt and looked like a savage: sweaty, wearing wet boots, covered with dirt, not showered for 3 days, with a few bruises on my arms and back after falling. We changed all our clothes and shoes and took off. On the way home we stopped at a pizza place at South Lake Tahoe, and had the most delicious pizza and beer!  Feeling finally like ourselves again we got to the car and drove home.

We were lucky that the weather was great, no rain or wind, and warm during the day. And the nature was amazing! Fresh air, crystal clear water, full streams, beautiful views, quiet, wild, powerful! It reminded me of when I was a kid and we used to go to taiga with my dad for a few days. He never took me with him during winters, but we used to spend days in a forest on a riverbank fishing, mushroom and berry hunting. Good memories!

It was great to go for a backpacking trip with the family, away from civilization, back to simple food and deep conversations when you have nothing to do. Would I do it again? I guess, I will, but not in the nearest future and on a much easier trail. It was definitely a challenge for me: my knees and legs hurt for a couple of weeks after the trip, and I appreciate my bed and shower every day.  

Sorry for the long story, and thank you for reading it to the end. Wishing you a wonderful summer! Give me a call if you have a story to share with me, I would love to hear it.

Always yours, 
Irina