Lake Tahoe's high-end housing market is flourishing, an island in a sea of struggles across much of northern Nevada, a Tahoe-based real estate firm said in a quarterly report.


Single-family home sales in Incline Village, among the priciest markets anywhere in the region, rocketed in the third quarter by 45 percent from a year earlier, officials for Chase International said. The median price rose 15 percent to $1.2 million from 2006.


The report also showed condominium sales in Incline Village fell 12 percent in the August-September period from a year earlier.


"The ultra-high-end market is extremely solid, it's better than I've ever seen it," said Sue Lowe, vice president of Chase International.


"These numbers show the lower end of the market still needs more time to normalize while the higher end is showing a significant increase," she told the Reno Gazette-Journal.


That was apparent in Reno, where the report shows single-family home sales fell 19 percent in the third quarter from a year ago with the median price dropping 7 percent to $310,000.


But Reno's condominium market, with numerous projects under construction or renovation, showed a 9 percent increase in overall sales and 38 percent increase in units sold at more than $500,000.


The report said single-family home sales elsewhere along Lake Tahoe's eastern shore rose 11 percent with the median price falling 12 percent.


Other locations in the Tahoe region weren't as robust. Chase's third-quarter report showed, including:


_ Tahoe City, Calif. Single-family home sales fell 28 percent over the year, and the median price fell 8 percent to $722,500. Condo sales fell 43 percent.


_ Tahoe's south shore. Single-family home sales dipped 4 percent and median price fell 9 percent. Condo sales fell 51 percent.


_ Truckee, Calif. Single-home sales dropped 5 percent with the median price down 8 percent to $631,425. Condo sales fell 13 percent, but sales of units more than $500,000 rose 3 percent.


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Information from: Reno Gazette-Journal,


www.rgj.com