Ranchos the sixth? What if it’s more?

Are homes in the Gardnerville Ranchos the sixth most expensive in the country?

That’s what a story published in the New York Times based on a press release from an online mortgage broker claimed.

But that data from the U.S. Census is two years old and counts Douglas County’s entire population as Ranchos residents.

According to a chart that lists the Ranchos in the top 10, the population of the Ranchos is 49,000 people, whereas the reality is closer to 12,500.

The Ranchos micropolitan area covers all of Douglas County, which if you include Lake Tahoe, does have some of the priciest real estate in the country, and home values have done nothing but increase over the past two years.

According to the Sierra Nevada Association of Realtors, the median sales price in Zephyr Cove was $1.54 million in August. Glenbrook was running $1.4 million.

The Association doesn’t list the Ranchos as separate from Gardnerville, but between the two of them the median sales price is $692,000, up 20 percent from July.

The median sales price for a home across Douglas County was $834,950 in August.

According to the chart included with the release, that would put the Ranchos micropolitan area at No. 3 on the list, between Jackson, Wy., and Breckenridge, Colo., in the unlikely event that none of the other entries have increased since the 2022 American Community Survey conducted by the U.S. Census. The Census asks residents what their homes are worth for the survey, so that might account for some of the disparity.

The Times reported a median home value of $529,600 for the area and hence the entire county. According to the Douglas County Assessor’s Office, the median sales price for a home in Carson Valley was $645,000 for the quarter ending June 30.

According to the Realtors Association, Douglas County had 53 sales of existing single-family homes in August, a decrease of 7 percent from the previous month and a decrease of 20.9 percent from last year.

The median sales price for an existing single-family residence was $819,900, an increase of 15.2 percent from the previous month and a decrease of 2.4 percent from last year.

The Gardnerville Ranchos was founded in 1965 by Red Swift. It is an independent general improvement district governed by an elected five-person board.