A signed grant deed at Martis Camp does not open the gate to the golf course, the Family Barn, or the beach. It opens the mailbox for the membership application. That distinction, more than any single price point, is the one buyers moving through comparison sheets for Martis Camp, Lahontan, and Schaffer's Mill tend to miss until they are already deep into escrow.
The home purchase and the Club membership are two separate transactions in Martis Camp, governed by two separate contracts, with two separate price tags. A buyer can close on a $4 million cabin homesite and still have zero access to the golf course, the pool, the ski lift to Northstar, or the lake. Access requires a Club application, its own initiation fee, and its own annual dues, on top of whatever the buyer already paid for the address.
Two bills, one property
Every property owner at Martis Camp pays into the mandatory Homeowners Association, roughly $1,800 a quarter, which covers roads, gates, and general upkeep. That fee does not buy a tee time or a locker. To use the amenities the community is known for, an owner applies separately for Club membership, and the current tiers run well into six figures before annual dues even start.
A Social Membership currently carries a transfer fee near $125,000 and annual dues around $29,000. A Golf Membership, which includes the Tom Fazio-designed course along with everything the Social tier covers, runs closer to $300,000 in initiation on a 50 percent equity structure, with annual dues near $45,000. Both figures have moved up meaningfully from where they sat just a few years ago, when public estimates put initiation closer to $100,000 for Social and $105,000 for Golf. The direction of that change tells its own story about demand outpacing available memberships.
Layer on the 1 percent conveyance fee due at closing, paid by the buyer, which is structured as a charitable trust contribution and is largely tax deductible. On a $6 million purchase, that alone is $60,000 before any membership conversation starts.
Run the full math on a buyer entering near the lower end of the market, a $4 million cabin homesite, who wants full Golf access. The purchase price is $4 million. The conveyance fee adds roughly $40,000. The Golf Membership initiation adds $300,000. Annual dues add $45,000 before a single round is played. The advertised price and the actual cost of living the way Martis Camp is marketed are not the same number, and the gap runs into the mid six figures.
What the membership actually buys, and why it just got bigger
The Club side of that ledger changed materially in late 2025. In November, Martis Camp Club completed its purchase of the Mourelatos Lakeshore Resort, a 3.2-acre lakefront property on Lake Tahoe's North Shore in Tahoe Vista. The resort had operated under one family since 1978, on a site originally built in 1942, and the sale closed for $25.75 million across 21.8 acres that included three parcels, among them the Mourelatos Cable Car Ice Cream Parlor. The grant deed was recorded November 14, and the deal became public two days later, the end of a transaction that reportedly took nine months to complete, according to Moonshine Ink's coverage.
For members, this adds a rare thing to the Club's amenity list: an actual stretch of Lake Tahoe shoreline, with one of the area's larger sandy beaches sitting inside a commercially zoned parcel, a combination that is difficult to find anywhere on the lake at this point. Colin O'Hanlon, the Club's Chief Operating Officer, framed the acquisition around continuity rather than immediate change.
"Our focus is on maintaining continuity and honoring what has made this property special for decades."
That caution shows up in how the Club has handled the property since closing. Coverage from Club + Resort Business noted there are no immediate redevelopment plans, with day-to-day resort operations continuing under the existing model while longer-term options are evaluated. For a prospective buyer, the practical read is this: the Golf and Social tiers now include a lake amenity that did not exist in the fee structure a year ago, and the membership price has not fully caught up to reflect it. Whether that gap closes through a future fee increase or stays absorbed into current dues is a fair question to raise directly with the Club before applying.
The days-on-market number depends on who's telling it
Buyers comparing Martis Camp against other Truckee-area communities will run into a second inconsistency, this one around how fast homes are actually selling. Third-party resale data covering the three months ending May 2026 puts the median time on market at 91 days, down from 114 days over the same window a year earlier, alongside a median sale price of $6.3 million, up 5.4 percent year over year, even as price per square foot slipped 2.1 percent to roughly $1,670.
Marketing materials from individual brokerages active in the community report a much faster pace, with some claiming average days-on-market under 40 for premium estates. Both figures can be technically accurate and still describe different things, whether that is all closings versus a curated subset, or a full calendar year versus a shorter recent window. The gap is wide enough that it is worth asking any agent presenting a days-on-market figure exactly what pool of transactions that number is drawn from before treating it as the current market speed.
The same fee stack looks different at Lahontan and Schaffer's Mill
Comparing Martis Camp's median price against Lahontan's or Schaffer's Mill's median price, without also pricing each community's membership tier, produces a misleading picture of what a buyer actually spends to live the lifestyle each community sells.
| Community | Social tier | Golf tier | Annual HOA |
|---|---|---|---|
| Martis Camp | ~$125,000 transfer + ~$29,000/year | ~$300,000 initiation + ~$45,000/year | ~$1,800/quarter |
| Lahontan | ~$40,000 initiation + ~$9,350/year | ~$200,000+ (trades on open market) | ~$5,800/year |
| Schaffer's Mill | Right-to-use structure, modest one-time enrollment, low dues | Same right-to-use model | Figures not published |
Schaffer's Mill runs a right-to-use club model rather than an equity structure, with a modest one-time enrollment and no capital calls, which makes it the lowest entry point among the three private clubs even though its home prices sit in a comparable range to entry-level Martis Camp cabins. Lahontan's Golf tier trades on the open market rather than through a fixed initiation, meaning the actual entry cost moves with whoever is selling their membership at the time a buyer is looking.
None of these figures are fixed for long. Club dues and initiation costs shift with demand, and the clubs that keep figures private, like Schaffer's Mill, do so deliberately. Any number here should be confirmed directly with the relevant club before it factors into an offer.
Why some of this never shows up on a comparison sheet
A meaningful share of the highest-value inventory across these three communities never reaches a public listing at all. Real estate professionals working the Truckee-Tahoe corridor estimate that off-market transactions account for roughly 20 to 25 percent of deals at this price tier, arranged agent to agent before a property is ever marketed. That matters for the same reason the membership math matters: the number a buyer sees first, whether it is a median price or a days-on-market figure, is rarely the whole picture. The rest of it, the fee stack, the amenity access, the inventory that never goes public, only becomes visible with someone who is inside those conversations regularly.
Frequently asked questions
Does buying a home in Martis Camp include Club membership? No. Every owner pays mandatory HOA dues, but access to the golf course, Family Barn, ski lift, and beach requires a separate Club application with its own initiation fee and annual dues.
How much should a buyer budget beyond the purchase price? Beyond the purchase price, plan for a 1 percent conveyance fee at closing, quarterly HOA dues near $1,800, and, if applying for membership, either the Social tier near $125,000 plus $29,000 a year or the Golf tier near $300,000 plus $45,000 a year.
Is Martis Camp's membership more expensive than Lahontan's or Schaffer's Mill's? Generally yes. Lahontan's published Social initiation runs closer to $40,000, and Schaffer's Mill uses a right-to-use structure with a lower one-time enrollment, though neither club's figures are guaranteed to hold at the time of purchase.
Can a Martis Camp home be used as a short-term rental? No. Rentals under 30 days are prohibited at Martis Camp, along with Lahontan and Schaffer's Mill. Buyers weighing rental income against membership cost should factor this restriction in early.
If you are comparing Martis Camp against Lahontan or Schaffer's Mill and want the real entry cost run for your target price range, including current membership availability and what the Mourelatos acquisition means for the tier you are considering, Harmony Steingrebe can walk through the full math before you write an offer. Schedule a private consultation to start.
