Las Vegas housing crawls along

The November residential real estate indicators for Southern Nevada were recently published by Home Builders Research and SalesTraq, two local industry research shops. In general the numbers are down, an altogether familiar pattern for the past several months.

In the new home category sales were off by 47.5% from last year and the median price declined 20.2%, to $271,228. The drop in the price is meaningful, as it now reached over 20% year over year, a moderately high figure. Resale house sales decreased 42% and the price was cut back 10.5%, to $257,000. During the boom years in Las Vegas the new home prices were racing well ahead of the existing stock and now the reverse is taking place, the new home having given up roughly double the amount of value in comparison to the resale sector. To read the entire article, kindly click on the link in this paragraph.

The Plaza project moves ahead

Another Las Vegas mega resort development obtained its preliminary approval this week from the Clark County Planning Commission. The $5 billion Plaza is planned for the New Frontier's old location at the north end of the Strip. If the final approval is granted in January, construction is set to begin later in the year and completion is estimated for 2012.

The developer is Elad IDB Las Vegas, a joint venture of Elad Group and Property & Building Corp. which is a subsidiary of IDB Holdings Corp. The Plaza is designed to emulate the famous Plaza Hotel in New York that features French Renaissance architecture.

The current plan has seven towers in total built on the 34.5-acre site that will house 4,100 hotel rooms and 2,600 condos spread throughout the buildings. In addition, it'll have substantial space allocated for a casino, a host of restaurants, a large convention center, a health club and of course retail.

The condominium component could pose some headaches for the project since the market is presently saturated. The time frame, however, takes the completion date out to 2012 when the conditions may well be more stable. The developer also has experience in condo development and a known brand that will help in marketing the units.

The stretch of the Strip from the Venetian north to the Sahara is nowadays a beehive of activity. Other projects under way there are the Palazzo, Encore next to Wynn Las Vegas, the Fontainebleau and Boyd Gaming's Echelon Place. Each new property will add bankable value to the north end micro market.

Vegas housing market about to pick up

A lot of attention has lately been directed toward the mortgage industry where lenders continue to struggle with rising foreclosures and try to keep their balance sheets somewhat respectable. Washington also announced an interest rate freeze plan that on the outset received proper headlines, but on closer scrutiny it appears to be more politics than a sincere attempt to help those in need.

In the meantime, Greater Las Vegas Association of Realtors, or GLVAR, compiled its monthly statistics for November and one sector indicates that the market is working actively on trying to right itself. It's the single-family house inventory that deserves special mention, as it dropped slightly to 23,494 from October. The significance actually is that this is the third consecutive month it moves lower. To read the entire article, please click on the link in this paragraph.

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Las Vegas real estate market sluggish

There have lately been small signs of improvement in the local housing market and anything positive on that front is warmly embraced. Perhaps the low mortgage rates are helping out, perhaps the sellers are pricing their homes more realistically, could be the buyers have realized that now is the time to make a move. Or it's a little bit of all of them.

The Southern Nevada Index of Leading Economic Indicators rose slightly in November to 133.06. The index is compiled by the UNLV's Center for Business and Economic Research and really is a six-month economic forecast from the month the data was collected. Overall, it has been relatively flat since March of 2005.

New and existing home sales remain about 48% behind last year's numbers according to October's data, which has been the pattern for several months and was expected. The median new home price declined by 7.9%, to $300,812, from October in 2006. Builders have aggressively cut prices in many subdivisions to move unsold inventory, but it hasn't eroded the median price that much. Not yet anyway.

A bright spot in the real estate arena is the new home permits, which more than doubled from October a year ago, from 860 to 1,840, per Home Builders Research . The figure is somewhat misleading because a new building code went into effect on November 1 and builders decided to pile up on permits under the old code. Those rascals. We'll see in the next few months if a pattern is forming.

Once the residential real estate sector reverses course, it'll undoubtedly begin pushing the economic index up.

Las Vegas developable land hunt

Downtown and its surrounding areas have long had a questionable reputation and a leisurely drive through there will quickly spell it out why. The only bright spot has really been the Fremont Street Experience with its well-lit casinos. Only the brave would choose to go that way after dark, much less buy a house there to live in.

But things have lately changed for the better. Investors, many of them from out-of-town, have been able to identify suitable parcels of land scattered about and purchase them for a price that met their return on investment criteria. Then they proceeded to build on the sites something unheard of before, luxury condominiums. One of the pioneers was Sam Cherry who developed the SoHo Lofts. Another daring investor was the Fifield Co. that built the Allure luxury condos in a seedy neighborhood behind the Stratosphere.

Please click on the link in the above paragraph to read the entire article.

Real estate sold by auction houses

As the real estate market in Las Vegas struggles with a high inventory of unsold homes, sellers are trying to find ways to successfully move their properties. They list them with Realtors and the MLS, some decide to proceed on their own as FSBOs and advertise in the newspaper and the Internet, they distribute flyers in the surrounding neighborhoods, they do a lot of different things and often none of it works.

But many of them must sell, for a variety of reasons. This is where the auction house comes into the picture. Today, it's increasingly the last resort for a desperate seller. Now the marketplace can decide the price of the house and the seller can say, whatever the sales price, that it was fair value.

Hudson & Marshall is a national firm and comes to Vegas every 90 days or so to auction foreclosed homes. They work closely with local agents and advertise the events for 45 days for maximum impact. Properties are auctioned "as is" and have clean titles, meaning no liens or encumbrances and no back taxes.

Those with winning bids are required to put down $2,500 or 5% of the sales price, whichever is higher. Also, they conduct "reserve" auctions where the seller can either take the offer or turn it down. Interested home buyers and investors can go to http://www.hudsonandmarshall.com/ for more information.

But why does it take so long to sell a property, by auction or other means? If it is priced correctly, it will go. Isn't that the motto of the marketplace that there always is a buyer when the price is right? The Las Vegas market has been soft for a while now and it's critical for the seller to accept that. Otherwise it's going to be a long and agonizing wait.

Housing wealth substantial, although largely overlooked

The media headlines have been relentless in sending the message that the residential real estate market in many areas is sinking fast. The glut of new and resale homes sitting for months without a viable buyer in sight is certainly worrisome, as is the trend of tightening underwriting guidelines in the mortgage sector. The market is undeniably trying to find its footing again, but is it really that ill in the big picture? In the broad sense of national economics?

The Federal Reserve, or the Fed, recently released its "flow of funds" statistics and they show that the equity homeowners had in mid-2007 amounted to a massive $10.9 trillion. It was arrived at by taking the market value of residential real estate, roughly $21 trillion, and deducting mortgage obligations of $10.1 trillion from it. This alone doesn't say much, only that it's a lot of money. To read the entire article, please click on the link in this paragraph.

Nevada tops preforeclosure list

Heading a ranking of this nature reflects accurately what happened here during the real estate boom days a few years ago. It was then when many homeowners and professional and weekend investors got carried away in the charged atmosphere of ever-rising home prices and failed to hold back in time when the market was about to plunge over the edge. Call it bad timing, poor judgment or greed, it doesn’t matter much which, but it’s still hurting equally bad those who were caught in its ugly repercussions.

On the per capita basis Nevada leads the national preforeclosure list with a rate of 4.05, followed by Florida at 2.86, Arizona at 2.05 and Colorado at 2.04, according to Foreclosures.com. These figures alone don’t tell much, except that who has the most, who is second and so on.

But when the data for Nevada is expanded to include the 30,276 preforeclosure filings through October and that amounts to a 106% hike from last year, now the picture becomes quickly much clearer, and more problematic. The situation has been steadily worsening over the last twelve months is the cold truth.

Clark County, home of Las Vegas, is in second place in per capita preforeclosures among counties nationwide, but curiously its numbers for the last few months are quite fluid. In August there were 3,590 filings, then a nice drop to 2,420 in September and an increase in October to 3,794. The see-saw action could signal that the curve is trying to break the upward movement and perhaps soon start drifting steadily lower.

It’s important to remember that these statistics are for preforeclosures, unlike the standard foreclosure when the bank takes possession of a home. Many homeowners will come up with a remedy to their dire situation before they have to turn in the keys. As urged by the Fed and other Washington agencies, lenders are now more willing than ever to do workouts to help borrowers keep their houses. In areas where prices have remained stable or are rising a refinance is an option. Some will work a second job for a while to bring in extra funds for mortgage payments. There are other creative ways.

Union Park back in the picture

It's easy to count out the fingers of one hand when you think of how many times Union Park has been in and out of the news over the past decade. It's a 61-acre parcel of land the city of Las Vegas owns west of downtown. City Hall has worked hard for years to find a reliable developer who can successfully complete its intended vision there but for one reason or another the plans always fell through. Frustration was understandably setting in.

Optimism, however, is rising again. It comes on the heels of a major strategic change on how to approach the entire project. The concept of one developer handling it all was scrapped and the site was broken into several pieces, each now having its own designated developer. It seems to have made the difference that at least for now is pushing the master plan forward.

Please click on the link in Union Park in the first paragraph to read the entire article.

Future Nevada homes powered by wind

Nevada has a lot of open spaces across its deserts and long mountain ranges where wind has the freedom to race and swirl as fast as it can. It sometimes blows into Las Vegas valley with such a fury that it knocks unsuspecting and tipsy visitors into resort pools. On those days you don't want to play golf either.

The idea to harness this natural resource has been slowly gaining traction here. Recently a major hurdle was overcome when Senator Reid convinced the Defense Department to drop its objections to the development of a wind farm in Wilson Creek Range in the eastern part of the state, about 180 miles from Las Vegas. It could become the site for a 450-megawatt project. Sierra Pacific Resources, the owner of the state's two largest utilities, has plans to build a 200-megawatt facility in northeastern Nevada. There clearly seems to be a healthy does of momentum toward harnessing this free and clean energy source. Click on the link in this paragraph to read the entire article.

New single-family homes again affordable

It was only a few years ago when affordable housing was one of the great draws in Southern Nevada. Despite the city growing at a breath-taking pace supply and demand stayed in sync and kept prices relatively low. And then the secret was out of the bag, sometime in 2003 and 2004, and speculators in particular moved in to ply their trade and began driving prices ever higher. The ensuing frenzy predictably ended in a bust that still prevails.

Those home builders who still are operating in the valley have drastically revised their business plans because they had to. Not too long ago median new home prices were heading well past the $300,000 mark, but in doing so slowly started to become unrealistic to many buyers. The market eventually tanked, as we well know, and values are now marching the other way. Going toward where the annual household incomes can afford them again.

Builders are adjusting to that reality. They are now offering some single-family homes even below $200,000. Typically these houses are small, the yards resemble postage stamps, streets in the communities are narrow and out of necessity they are two-story designs to allow more of them per acre. These neighborhoods are normally situated in the outlying suburbs.

But they make great starter homes and that is what the builders have in mind. Get the first-time buyer into the ownership cycle, generate equity and later on move up.

It's good news for the working-class buyer, but it's still a niche market as the median new home price in Las Vegas is $312,639. Builders are barely making a profit with this special product line because the costs of land and construction remain high. Getting as little as $110 per square foot is very close to a break-even point, so anything less than that would force them to wait for better times or leave the area.

Source: SalesTraq, Home Builders Research

Las Vegas housing market soft in October

Anyone who follows the residential real estate market here anticipated pretty much what the official figures from October are now telling us. It's soft out in the field and any sustainable improvement seems to be at least a few months away since we are now heading into the heart of the winter.

The Greater Las Vegas Association of Realtors, or GLVAR, informs us that existing home sales were still down about 40% in October from a year ago. That's about where it has been for the last several months. Besides that, the median house price declined 11.4% from last year to $274,725. The drop was expected and as long as the slide doesn't accelerate from there, it'll be manageable.

Keep in mind that if lenders begin listing their foreclosed homes for sale at the current market prices instead of what the mortgage balances on them are, that would put more downward pressure on median values. We'll see whether they'll do that or not.

And now to the upbeat news. The inventory of single-family homes in the MLS eased down 1.2%, to 23,917. That is the second month in a row when it has decreased some and should the slide continue, we just might start honestly climbing out of this mess sometime next year.

In closing, it's a genuine buyer's market out there in the valley, so take advantage of it.

Jumbo mortgages still in short supply

While the subprime sector has been everyone's punching bag for quite some time now, another sector has toiled with its own struggles largely unnoticed from the public eye. The jumbo loan mortgage market plays an important role in the wide mix of mortgage products, especially in the perennially high-cost areas like California. Loans over $417,000 are considered jumbo and nationwide their share last year of the total home loan pie was 16%.

What has happened is that borrowers even with stellar credit find it tough nowadays to locate jumbo money. And the reason is that investors who buy this grade mortgage-backed securities are shying away from them because this past summer the ones they had bought earlier started going bad. To read the entire article, please click on the link in this introduction.

Las Vegas housing encroaching on Nellis

It was just a matter of time when Nellis Air Force Base officials would start talking about the residential and commercial development creeping toward their runways in the northeast section of the valley. The time has come and they are rightfully concerned. The pressure is strongest from the south and is now growing in intensity from the north and northwest, too. At this pace it'll soon be coming from all directions.

The base has a sizable economic impact on the metropolitan area. According to the officials there, it's annually somewhere around $4.2 billion. Nellis buys a lot of supplies from local businesses, from construction materials and food to fuel and all sorts of parts. It puts up visiting service members in nearby hotels and motels, filling hundreds of room each year. To read the entire article, please click on the link in this paragraph.

Las Vegas homeowners like to go short

Going short in this case has nothing to do with the short position people take on the stock market, hoping to profit from a declining price of a security. Short sale in real estate is a concept where the homeowner is allowed by the bank to sell his property for less than what his mortgage balance is. It’s one way to avoid the dreaded foreclosure.

Before a short sale is even discussed, the lender needs a hardship letter from the borrower/ seller, a valid contract between the buyer and seller and a preliminary settlement statement. The homeowner must prove a severe financial hardship to get the lender’s ear. Once all the paperwork is in, the negotiations can start. Many banks really have been ill-prepared to deal with the rising number of potential foreclosures and therefore typically lack the necessary staff to tackle the issue. So be aware that it'll take some time and patience from those involved in the process to see it through.

Right now there are about 3,350 homes marked as short sale properties in Vegas, a number that has doubled from just four months ago, reports Wingate Mortgage Group. Of these 1,450 are vacant, a clear hint that they are owned by investors. And the current thinking is that these figures will keep growing at least for a while.

By doing a short sale, borrowers in distress will hope to salvage their credit rating and avoid the negativity of it all. Banks will benefit, too. They don’t have to spend money in auctions, upkeep and additional staff. There is still another beneficiary, namely the home buyer or the investor who could purchase a property under market value. All combined, it could then be called win-win-win, right?

Photo by roadsidepictures

More mortgage payments made on time.

It's uplifting to find a wisp of good news here and there in the otherwise cluttered collection of bad news that you keep reading in the national media about the mortgage and real estate industries. Positive stories have lately had a really hard time finding headline space for themselves.

According to First American LoanPerformance, a California research shop, more homeowners are making their payments on time in the last year. The data base the firm maintains includes about 80% of the overall mortgage market in the U.S. and they assess loans that are four months old or less. To read the entire article please click on the link in this paragraph.

Housing foreclosures fall some

If this is the beginning of a trend, then it's good news going forward. Yet, it could also be only a statistical quirk that doesn't mean all that much. Regardless of what the stats really stand for, here they are. The September foreclosure filings nationwide dropped 8% from a scary 32-month high in August. The filings, however, are almost double from last year, so there still is a way to go to a healthy environment. These stats were provided by RealtyTrac, an online real estate marketplace.

The significant development in these numbers is that 39 states show declines. For those who follow the broader real estate market, this certainly puts a cautious smile on their face. Please click on the link in this paragraph to read the entire article.

Vegas luxury real estate an exception

Southern Nevada housing market is nowadays on a wild ride, setting all sorts of dubious records. Here are a couple of them for your consideration. The MLS has more inventory than you care to admit and the current foreclosure rate here is beyond the pale. The thing is these are the kinds of milestones you try to forget as soon as you hear about them.

Just about the only right type of a record is being achieved in the ultraluxury real estate segment. Anything selling over $3 million is labeled ultraluxury in Sin City. There is this retired gaming exec who recently bought a house for $5.1 million in Promontory at The Ridges, paid cash for it and closed escrow within days. Nothing to it. It took 81 days to sell. At least he got to bypass the currently exhausting mortgage approval process.

The sector is on course to break the old annual sales record. GLVAR, the Greater Las Vegas Association of Realtors, reports thus far 49 sales in the over $3 million category and 17 in the over $5 million category. Doing that in a market that otherwise is on an IV drip is heart-warming.

Moreover, a Japanese developer has paid $10 million for a large gray-shell penthouse at the Panorama Towers. His plan is to spend another cool $5 million to finish up the digs to his liking. Supposedly it's the most ever dished out for a luxury condo in town.

So, there is the bright side of the local real estate market, representing a narrow niche.

Las Vegas land shortage looming

There is plenty of raw land still around in Southern Nevada, the desert kind. The land belongs to the Federal Government, though, and therefore is out of reach of developers. For some reason the Bureau of Land Management, or BLM, is very slow in releasing much of it for the usual auctions they from time to time run.

Knowing that, Las Vegas Chamber of Commerce reps trekked all the way to Washington to talk with Nevada's congressional delegation. Their beef is that the lack of available land here is pushing up prices and the federal dirt now allocated for sale could dry up in six years. More land should be auctioned off, they say. To read the entire article, please click on the link in this paragraph.

Vegas home sales slow

The real estate market here in the valley is still struggling. GLVAR, or Greater Las Vegas Association of Realtors, published its September stats the other day and they continue to tell us how weak the market is. September usually is slow, but this time it was a little more than that.

In all there were 990 sales last month which is 43% below last year's number. That is a sizable drop. Given that and the high inventory means that to sell a home now takes a long time. According to one calculation Vegas has 22-month supply of properties on the market.

Let's look at some of the good news next. The inventory of single-family houses on the MLS actually edged down to 24,218, a 0.5% change. Once this figure starts heading lower on a consistent basis we can start breathing easier. So, let's hope this is the beginning of that.

The median price for September was $285,750, a 7.8% decline from a year ago. It's a drop, yes, but not that bad. It could be much worse. Actually the older, established neighborhoods are holding their values pretty good. The real weakness is found in the new developments where people went in and bought houses with exotic mortgages. So, all in all, it's an uneven situation that today's buyers should take into consideration when contemplating a purchase.

Las Vegas housing reasonably affordable

In Coldwell Banker's 2007 Home Price Comparison Index, which just came out the other day, Vegas ranks way down the list from the most expensive metropolitan areas. They used as a base a 2,200 sq. ft. house with four bedrooms and two and one-half baths and surveyed a total of 394 markets in the U.S., Canada and Puerto Rico. It's really called a "snapshot" study because of its limited range.

When you compare this year's results to those of 2006 the HPCI tells us that 148 markets experienced an increase in values and 139 a drop. The HPCI national average stands at $422,343 and Vegas' number is $362,188, so we are quite a bit under the norm. It comes as no surprise that eight of the top 10 most expensive cities are in California. On the other hand, a few Texas locations and the Midwest dominate the most affordable end of the rankings.

Median price for resale homes here has decreased 5% to $275,000 and new home price, in a reversal, edged up 4% to $335,560, as recorded by Home Builders Research. As a reminder, the HPCI uses a typical 2,200 sq. ft. house as its base.

We have to remember one thing, though. Pricewise Vegas appears affordable, but when household income, the other crucial element in determining affordability, is factored in, we suddenly become less so. Historically household incomes here have been relatively low and continue to do so.

Photo by radicle2

Stated income mortgage issue still brewing in Nevada

The updated consumer protection law that was put in the books earlier in the year is effective as of October 1, 2007. One of its stipulations is that a stated income mortgage loan can be a crime in the state, as interpreted by some legal experts. And that has caused thick smoke to come out of the ears of many in the residential real estate business, and for a good reason. There seems to be genuine ambiguity as to what the new law really means.

Critics feel that the stated income program is going to become nearly impossible to get from now on. And if so, it would have a serious negative impact on housing here in Southern Nevada. This is prime territory for service industry workers and business owners who mainly earn their living from tips, which are hard to document accurately. No one would like to see the market that is already struggling to sink even further. To read the entire article, please click on the link in this paragraph.

Turnberry spawned Vegas luxury condo market

Roughly ten years ago Turnberry Associates jetted into town and bought some land in the north end of the Strip, on Paradise by the Las Vegas Convention Center. It had already carved itself a stellar reputation as a luxury condominium developer over in Miami, so valley observers knew what they were up to. The locals were quick to point out, though, that they had chosen a poor location for their project.

Despite the friendly advice the firm built the Turnberry Place on the parcel, an enclave of four 38-story towers with a total of 720 units. As word spread, it soon turned into a favorite among the luxury condo-affording crowd back in Florida and elsewhere in the country, even abroad. Consequently, they had no trouble selling the units. With that it became the undisputed catalyst for the present boom in luxury condo development around the valley.

Since then the company has erected the Residences at MGM Grand in a joint venture with MGM Mirage. It is now finishing up Turnberry Towers by the Las Vegas Hilton that consists of two 45-story buildings. And it has under construction the Fontainebleau Resort at a cost of $2.9 billion, a project that also includes about 1,000 condos, in addition to the normal mix of services and features common to Vegas entertainment palaces.

Some experts here are lukewarm about the near-term viability of the luxury condominium explosion, citing that the units simply are over-priced. Turnberry's top executive disputes that. Southern Nevada's economy is relatively stable, the city has plenty of international appeal as a destination resort and when the local population matures, it'll seek more vertical housing, he adds.

Housing price declines in the forecast

According to the latest forecast by Moody's Economy.com, the nation's home price picture is going to be rather smudgy in the coming years. The study it conducted analyzed the high and low ends of real estate values in the target markets, a total of 379 of the largest ones. Only the median prices in the single-family category were used.

The survey came up with an above 10% drop in 86 of the cities, which is bad enough, and a slide between 1 and 10% in 290 other markets. That's just about all of the areas the study covered. When they averaged out the decline, it came to 7.7%, a worrisome uptick from 6.6% they just published in June. To read the entire article, please click here.

Housing woes pinch new home size

Home builders have lately been on a steady course of constructing ever larger houses and condos for the consumer who was looking for a bigger place to live in, whether he really needed it or not. That was the trend for years. It, in fact, accelerated during the early years of the millennium when mortgages were inexpensive and easy to get. Life was good.

A responsible attitude toward the marketplace and how it truly functions were largely forgotten by many and it gradually germinated heavy overbuilding and increasing foreclosure rates and all that has brought us to today's stagnant residential real estate environment. Please click on the link in this paragraph to continue.

Nevada foreclosures still climbing

Everybody and his uncle continues talking about the soft real estate market we have here in Nevada today. Whether they are losing their pants in there or not, they are still comparing notes. And why not? I would, too.

So, let's go right into the latest stats on it, which by the way are rather glum. Or maybe not. It actually depends on what side of the fence you are on.

So, here it is. Nevada had one foreclosure filing per every 165 households in August, which is the tops in the nation. Ouch. And our number is more than three times higher than the national average. To clarify, these stats consist of default notices, auction sale notices and bank repos, a bunch of different things and this information is provided by RealtyTrac. Regardless, it's still pretty bad.

Anyway, for the homeowner who is struggling today with his payments, perhaps the lower mortgage rates that we have seen in the last couple of weeks could be the way out. A basic refinance might be all he needs.

On the other side of the fence stands the buyer. For him this is one of the better times ever to find a bargain here. They certainly don't call this a buyer's market for nothing. There are thousands of vacant homes out there that can be purchased at great prices and with low mortgage rates.

Should you buy a retirement home now?

That is a question crossing many minds today. A host of people from their 40s all the way to the 60s are spending quality time on the subject, weighing possible locations, finance options and the exact timing of the purchase, which are among the more important points. It's a strategic decision, so it does deserve careful study. Today's real estate market, though, tends to favor the notion that now might be a good time to act, especially if you are planning to buy a vacation-type property.

One good reason to move on it soon is the current price softness. When the housing market bottoms out is impossible to predict, but when the turnaround comes, prices will most likely rise steadily again over the next 10 to 20 years. Please, click on the link in this paragraph to continue.

Photo by drmatt

Are real estate prices going up or down?

You would think that with the market as soft as it is in many sections of the nation prices would be heading south. And they are. At least that's what you keep reading in the media. And then two separate home price reports are released in the same week and all of a sudden the story gets real blurry.

Here is why. First Standard & Poor's Case-Shiller national home price index comes out telling us that values dropped 3.2% in the second quarter of 2007 from the same time a year ago. That goes along with common belief. The news immediately hiked the angst factor on Wall Street, confirming the fears of some experts that the housing sector was in more trouble than previously thought. To read the entire article, please click on the link in this paragraph.

Vegas housing market on the mend?

Southern Nevada real estate market has been battling a bad headache for a decent while and weary industry experts are wondering when it might right itself. There are some positive signs now that the slide may be slowing down, and maybe even coming to a halt. Wouldn't that be something to cheer about?

Here is the proof. The MLS administered by the Greater Las Vegas Association of Realtors, or GLVAR, reports that the amount of homes for resale grew only 1.1% in August to 24,341. This is the smallest monthly uptick all year and it's a good reason to some optimism.

Moreover, in the same release the median home price improved 1.7% to $299,900. Another positive sign toward a better future in the housing market. However, it still is 3.9% less than in August of last year, so let's keep our feet firmly to the ground. That's always a good policy.

Buyer's market does continue to dominate the scene here in the valley, but it appears that soon it'll come to an end. Those who are sitting on the fence, this might be time time to take the plunge and purchase the house you've thought about doing over the last several months. Not only that, but mortgage interest rates are still attractive, too. Double benefit to the buyer.

Pinnacle Las Vegas news

The developer of the $740 million condo-hotel with 1,100 units named a few days ago its third general contractor. The new builder is Dick Pacific Construction which also is a joint venture partner in the project, a marked shift from an earlier arrangement. The first two were signed up as general contractors only. Although the details are largely unknown, this change likely comes from a financial necessity.

The original framework of the development remains pretty much untouched. It'll still feature two 36-story towers linked to one another by three sky bridges. Among the amenities are restaurants, shops, a spa with a fitness center and a large wet deck. A wet deck probably means a pool and such. Construction is now set to kick off later this year and be completed by 2010.

Current condominium market conditions, just like all residential real estate, in the valley are difficult. Available inventory is growing steadily as sales lag and financing of units is getting harder thanks to the present mortgage turmoil. According to experts, a developer with experience and secure finances plus a brand he can put in a good location, like the Strip, will have a much easier time at it than a first-time entrepreneur.

Subprime mortgage legislative proposals from US Congress

The lawmakers are back in Washington, after taking the month of August off for a little R & R. One of the first matters they've decided to work on is the subprime debacle that still roils the mortgage market. Some of the ideas they are planning to float for debate are quite controversial even before being officially introduced. Kind of a test to see what the reaction in the field might be.

One of them is a provision where the investors purchasing mortgage-backed securities on the secondary market would be liable for lender misconduct. More details are needed to fully assess this one, but it appears to be a bad call. Please click on the link in this paragraph to read the entire article.

Vegas luxury condo market feels the pinch

The luxury condominium market was also expected to feel the adverse effects of this uncertain mortgage and real estate environment. And it undeniably is. Some projects have been canceled outright and some are on hold for now, obviously waiting for the financial conditions to improve and the rising construction cost trend to stabilize. This closely mirrors the single-family sector that has been soft for a while.

Through the second quarter of this year there were about 14,000 condos under construction, reports Applied Analysis, a Las Vegas financial consulting company. Please click on the link on this paragraph to read the entire article.

Mesquite housing market cools

Mesquite has been lately called a bedroom community of Las Vegas. And rightfully so. It's only about 90 miles away, a straight shot northeast up the freeway, and definitely has its own small-town aura that is coveted by so many. Pahrump to the west and over the mountain range is the other one.

What comes to real estate, it has been linked to the metropolis all too closely, too. And this one is easy to prove. When the housing market boomed here a few years ago, Mesquite's followed right behind it with the same type of over-heating. And now, as if on cue, it's nursing the very same ills that the soft market has brought to Sin City.

Generally home values there are somewhat lower, but still within striking distance. For the second quarter, the average home price fell to $249,659 when a year ago it stood at $291.379, reports Mesquite GMAC. That amounts to about 14%, which can be called a sizable drop. Inventory is pushing steadily up and days on the market is getting longer, the classic signs of a weakening market.

On the positive side, home building permits grew slightly to 189 through the first six months, compared with 186 last year. And sales as a whole moved up by about 10%, to 149 homes in the second quarter from 135. Although there are a few brighter spots, the overall trend points to a correction that can last for a while.

photo by goobersmyn

Mortgage defaults bring opportunities

Real estate flippers and other speculators have been flogged badly in recent months for being partly responsible for the quick run-up in prices during the boom years and now for the smoldering ruins they left behind. And deservedly so. They managed to do most of the damage in four states, namely Nevada, Arizona, California and Florida.

The Mortgage Bankers Association, or MBA, reports that Nevada sits on top of the list of most home loans defaults for investors in the prime and subprime mortgage segments. Please click on the link in this paragraph to read the entire article.

Real estate investment fluff

If you want to make money investing in real estate, you have to do it the old-fashioned way, you have to earn it. There really are no shortcuts. Unfortunately not.

Now, if you sit down and listen to late-night TV where fake real estate experts hawk their half-baked theories and believe that they are the answer, think again. These people can be very convincing, and persistent, too, but is there anything concrete behind what they are saying? Let's examine the story a little bit.

John T. Reed is a long-time investor and a newsletter writer who has followed the industry for many years, including watching the gurus who make a living peddling real estate seminars, books and tapes. He is totally dismayed at the practice. These operators aggressively market their products, yet the content you are supposed to get isn’t there. Time and again. And they claim that it’s really easy to become rich using their programs when in reality it’s nothing but. Reed nowadays calls them con men. He adds that the gurus of the ‘60s and ’70s were for real, admittedly some were better than others, but they were genuine.

For more on Reed and real estate, visit his website JohnTReed.

The latest scheme on late-night TV appears to be note buying. How it works is that a home seller takes back a note, in other words holds a second, to make the sale possible since the buyer couldn't finance the entire transaction with a first mortgage. In a soft market like today’s it’s being used quite a bit. The gurus are now pushing seminars, books and tapes on that and make it all look easy, again, with huge returns. And when you struggle to make one penny using their simple formulas, they try to sell you additional mentoring services because that’s what you are still missing in order to become wealthy. Yeah, right.

The bottom line is that when one of these smooth-talkers tells you from inside the box that you can get rich in a jiffy with no money and little effort, yawn and go to bed.

photo by sonjapollon

Mortgage interest write-off in some danger

While the mortgage and real estate industries are trying to find steady footing in this wobbly market, Capitol Hill in Washington is getting ready to unveil this fall wide-ranging legislation that would address climate change, more specifically the reduction of carbon emissions. The aim is a cutback of 60 to 80% by the year 2050, an ambitious endeavor. It is to be achieved by raising taxes on gasoline and eliminating the mortgage interest deduction on homes over 3,000 sq. ft. The so-called McMansions.

Everybody is aware of cars and the pollution they produce, but houses are also large greenhouse-gas emitters. It happens through cooling, heating, building materials and power usage, areas that quite a few of us don't consider all that harmful.

Soon after the legislative draft was circulated, the real estate and building sectors found all sorts of problems with it. Please, click on the link earlier in this paragraph to read the entire article.

CityCenter project has a new partner

The mixed-use development right on the Strip is coming steadily off the ground as we speak. The construction site is full of activity and some of the buildings have already reached up to about 20 stories. It will include several hotels, 2,650 high-rise condominiums, a casino and a huge retail, dining and entertainment venue. The cost of this massive undertaking is pegged at $7.9 billion and it's expected to open late in 2009.

MGM Mirage, the owner of the project, has decided at this stage to sell half of it to Dubai World, a holding company for the state of Dubai. This is another joint venture for MGM Mirage, something that has lately become its preferred investment strategy. Please click on the link in this paragraph to read the entire article.

Las Vegas market continues its soft ways

If anything, the Southern Nevada real estate market is staying on the same path from last month. It's on a slow and steady downward slide. Hopefully not too long, though.

Home Builders Research reports for July that sales at the resale sector declined over 40% from a year ago and for new homes the number is almost 40%. As you can see, the distress is pretty evenly divided. The news are a bit better on the price side. Existing home values gave up only 4.3% from last year to $276,500, while new homes held the drop to 2.6%, down to $327,790.

How far does the market have to go before the recovery starts? No one knows, of course, but when the inventory stops growing and prices level off, then we are about to turn the corner for a new day. Clearly, we are not there yet.

The present mortgage industry upheaval isn't helping any, either. Qualifying for a mortgage has become more burdensome, especially for borrowers at the lower end of the credit scale. That is effectively removing some hopeful buyers from the mix and adding to the market's weakness.

As I've said before, it sure smells like a buyer's market. And those with a lot of cash to put down are the real kings of the hill.

Photo by kadanwa.

Real estate contract negotiating tips

Even though it's a buyer's market, purchasing a new home can easily bring from moderate to severe heart palpitations. No, this isn't about the lender you were planning to use that could go under any day now. This is about the value of the house you are supposed to close on in one month. And the problem can be that while you're waiting for the big day, you also see new homes in the same subdivision with yours sitting empty and hear that price cut-backs are gaining steam around town. Did you pay too much for the new property? That's your question, and the reason to your anxiety.

What can you do? Can you renegotiate the real estate purchase contract? It's possible. To read the entire article, click on the link in this paragraph.

Subprime mortgage an innovation that will last

What might everybody be talking about in the office today? Or in the gym between sets? Or out on the golf course riding in the cart? They are likely talking about the health of the mortgage business. That's what they are doing. And how the subprime loan got it all started and what it spawned could do damage to other lending sectors as well. But let's leave our emotions aside and look at what has happened and what financial history tells us.

The subprime mortgage is actually an innovation that began taking shape only in the late 1990's, a new financial instrument to make money available to a borrower who hadn't had access to this kind of capital before. Please click subprime mortgage above to read the entire article.

Vegas housing affordability challenge

For the blue-collar home buyer the good old days here were the 80's and 90's when he could afford to purchase a nice house fronting a wide street and had a decent-sized backyard. Newspapers across the land were writing about that. But in the early 2000's things began to turn for the worse. Mortgage guidelines by then had become increasingly lenient, allowing home buyers to borrow money way more than they could actually afford, fueling artificial demand. Then real estate speculators got involved and fanned the flames even more. Prices soared and the market badly overheated. And then stalled. And that is where we are today.

During this run-up median resale and new home prices reached to a little over $300,000 and are now desperately trying to hold on. To read the entire article, click Vegas housing.

Micro real estate markets thrive

Many of the large metro areas around the nation are wallowing in stagnant or sliding housing markets. Home prices and sales are struggling big time to maintain any type of momentum. The industry is really facing a nice challenge.

Yet, according to national real estate connoisseurs, just about every major city has within its limits so called micro markets that are performing well above average. These neighborhoods and ZIP codes typically exhibit rather strong economic fundamentals that keep them in demand among homebuyers.

Please click here to read the entire article.

Vegas land prices dip

It was only a short while back when Southern Nevada land prices were galloping along nicely. Every quarterly report from those who keep tabs on these things showed another fresh record for an acre of this dusty dirt. When you have nearly 6,000 new residents moving in every month, they need housing and services. Demand was running high then.

The second quarter report for 2007, however, tells you that the median raw land price per acre was down to $718,500, which is $90,600 less than a year ago. This according to Applied Analysis, a local economic research shop. Bear in mind that this figure leaves out all the megaresort deals on and near the Strip. If they are included, then the math would look totally different, the curve would be heading north at a steep angle.

You guessed it, today's soft residential real estate market is one culprit. The turmoil around the mortgage industry is an impediment as well. Commercial inventory levels, too, appear to be on balance, so there is less demand now. And general development costs, including cement and glass, have risen steadily. That's an assortment of valid reasons.

For the short term, the road is going to be bumpy, no question about that. Yet, as about 40,000 more hotel rooms are scheduled to come online in the next few years, the demand for additional housing and services is assured. And the price of an acre of land will start climbing again.

More homes in MLS inventory

The Multiple Listing Service in Las Vegas is a popular place nowadays. More and more sellers are calling it up to put their houses on the list for sale. The inventory climbed to a record level in July, reaching 24,087 single-family houses. In percentage terms, that's up 1.9% from June and 18.8% from a year ago.

The one brighter side over the last several months has been the price, but even it saw a drop in July, by 4.8% to $295,000. Perhaps that is what's needed to move the inventory, to burn it up to a level that brings more balance to the overall marketplace.

When pricing your home for sale, the experts have sensible words of wisdom for you. It can be valued at the one-year price, the six-month price or the one-week price. You get the idea? The price is of paramount importance in a soft market like today's. Over half of all single-family houses sold within 60 days and 47% of all townhouses and condos did the same. In other words, there is still decent activity out in the field.

Jumbo mortgage rates shoot up

In a full-size surprise, non-conforming, of jumbo, home loan rates for a 30-year fixed took off just last week, climbing from about 6.875% to around 8%. Wells Fargo made the initial move and soon other lenders followed. Jumbos are loans over $417,000. Mortgages below that limit are called conforming and are routinely purchased by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the two giant GSEs, or government sponsored enterprises.

Normally the spread between conforming and jumbo mortgage rates is from a half to three-quarters of a point, jumbo being the more expensive one. Please click here to read the entire article.

Subprime mortgage mess gets new scapegoats

It honestly looked like they had already found every potential participant in the subprime home loan segment who could be blamed for its current troubles. At various times fingers were pointed at the lenders, investors who bought mortgage-backed securities, homeowners themselves, Wall Street outfits that packaged and sold the loans to investors, federal regulators and hedge funds. There is, however, still another player to consider.

Now in the hot seat are the bond-rating agencies, two of the largest being Standard & Poor's and Moody's. Kindly click here to read the rest of the article.

Vegas downtown on the go

It appears that Vegas downtown hasn't received this much attention since they filmed segments of a James Bond movie over there 30 some years ago. The current buzz is not about any film, or high-stakes gaming, though. It's about residential real estate projects. More specifically mid- and high-rise condominium projects. And how they are going to attract more residents there and with them come more services and things for people to do. Pump fresh energy to the community.

Soho Lofts opened its doors last year and claimed the title of being the first high-rise there, a 17-story tower with 120 luxury units. More of them are going up as we speak, adding about 800 more condos to the inventory in the next twelve months or so. They include Streamline Tower, pictured, that will have 275 units, Juhl 341 and Newport Lofts 168.

Besides these, there are another 13,000 more condos either proposed or already on the drawing board. Once the first phase concludes successfully, as it so seems, then the next one gets a boost from the first and the momentum just builds from there.

City Hall has to be thrilled about the way things are moving ahead now. It has been working tirelessly for years on all sorts of drafts and plans that would help revitalize that part of town. It's offering tax breaks and zoning changes and what not to draw development dollars. As we can see, the effort seems to be paying off.

Downtown has always played the role of the second-class younger brother to the classy big brother of the Strip. Maybe the time has at last come for a nice turnaround. It's hardly going to challenge the Strip for supremacy, but it can firmly put itself back on the map and reclaim a measure of respectability.

Southern Nevada tightens screws on homeowners

It's no secret that Southern Nevada is in the tight grip of a worrying drought. Actually has been for several years now. As a result, several water use restrictions have been implemented. Homes built after 2003 are generally banned from having front lawn and turfs in the back have limits. Clark County is presently denying any new requests for new golf course developments. Yet, more needs to be done, agrees everyone you ask.

SNWA, or Southern Nevada Water Authority, is tasked with providing ample supply of the precious resource to the area and it's now increasing its efforts to do just that. Please click here to read the entire article.

Nevada tops Energy Star list

Energy Star is EPA's, or Environmental Protection Agency, energy efficiency program for the home building industry. To qualify for it homes have to pass an independent verification process to meet EPA's rather stringent guidelines. Houses that make the grade nowadays are a minimum 15% more energy efficient that those that were constructed to the 2004 International Residential Code. And they often consist extra features that generally make them 20 to 30% more efficient than regular homes. As you can see, it's a worthy program.

For 2006, there were 15 states where new single-family houses that received the Energy Star exceeded 12% of the total construction volume. Nevada was on top of the list. To read the entire article, please click here.

New Las Vegas house sale record set

Let's qualify that statement a little bit. A luxury single-family home recently sold for almost $7.9 million which translates into over $1,000 per square foot, as the property measures 7,519 of those feet. That $1,000 a foot is supposedly the new high for the valley. In terms of price alone, plenty of homes have changed hands for more money than that, but then they've been much larger. Some luxury high-rise condominiums have also done better than that, like units in Trump Towers and Park Towers, but this is the first in the single-family category.

So what happened to the soft real estate market here? Please click here to read the entire article.

Elvis returns to Vegas?

He just might do that. Unfortunately for the fans of the great entertainer it's only his name that is thinking about a comeback. Nothing else. Elvis won't be in the building.

A real estate firm out of New York a short time ago acquired total control of 18 acres of land between MGM Grand and Planet Hollywood. It can be said that this is prime territory right on the Strip. The company has aims to develop a mixed-use project on the site that would include residential, in short condominiums, hotel, retail and casino components.

How Elvis fits in the picture is that the firm owns licensing rights to his estate. And since the rock and roll star was such an important fixture in the Vegas scene for so long, they feel that adding an Elvis-theme somewhere in the development would be appropriate. Thus far the company hasn't announced any timeline for the project.

There are also skeptics toward the plan. Mostly they are the tenants who presently operate businesses on the 18-acre parcel. For the past 10 years they've heard all sorts of proposals for it and emphasize that nothing has happened yet. The location is attractive, though, that much we have to agree on.

It's true, Vegas has seen over the years many a developer from out of town wanting to build the world's best casino here and after the initial hoopla dies down, they fade into the sunset. It was the casinos then. Now the new breed developer wants to put up a high-rise condo or a mixed-use project and only the ones with solid track records will manage to pull it off, the Trumps and Turnberry's Soffers, for instance. Could be this developer, too.

Las Vegas suburbs on the march

Las Vegas valley still has a good amount of land available for residential development and eventually it'll be graded for more houses and condos and townhouses. But real estate is getting so expensive here that the future homes will be priced out of reach for many buyers. Another housing solution has to be found. Home builders have their finger on the pulse, of course, and are gradually shifting some operations into the outlying towns like Mesquite, Pahrump and Coyote Springs, each about an hour's drive from the Strip.

Prices over in these communities can be 20 to 50% less than here, incentive enough for many to handle the extra commute time with a smile and a favorite tune. To read the entire article, please click here.

Pinnacle Las Vegas condominiums

A 12-acre site was cleared for construction at West Tropicana and Cameron, near the Orleans Hotel and Casino. It will be the home of Pinnacle Las Vegas, a $850 million condominium-hotel project that will have 1,100 units in two 36-story high-rise buildings. The unique feature is that the two towers are connected by Sky Bridge suites.

Groundbreaking is to occur later this year and completion is expected in 2010. When Pinnacle opens it provides permanent employment for about 500 workers. This will be the first high-rise building for any purpose in that area.

Condominium prices will range from the $400,000s to over $1.4 million. The amenities that the residents can enjoy include a health and fitness center, full-service spa, movie theater, three-acre wet deck, whatever that is, restaurants and business center. Property owners can also sign up for a managed resort program that allows them to rent out their unit when away.

Real estate investor tips

Buyer's market, like today's, is always enticing for real estate investors and those who want to become investors. There are opportunities everywhere and sometimes it's hard to focus on the fundamentals that are key to making profitable acquisitions. It's easy to get caught in the atmosphere of abundant supply and then make hasty decisions that turn out less than satisfactory. Let's look at three major areas that I value the most when selecting an investment property.

The house has to be in a basically sound condition. To read the entire article, please click here.

Mortgage foreclosure law variations

It pays to know what type of mortgage you have. What comes to mind first is the kind of home loan program you opted for. Whether it's a fixed rate product or an ARM of some sort, look up the details. If you happen to have an ARM, it's good to be aware of when it resets, like does it do it annually, every three years or when. Learn the index that's being used, and the margin.

Now that foreclosures are rising across the land, it's equally important to know what kind of a financial instrument secures the loan to your property. Is it a conventional mortgage or a deed of trust? They fulfill the same role in real estate purchases, but are quite different from the legal point of view.

Here's the difference between the two. A mortgage involves only two parties, namely the lender and the borrower, whereas a deed of trust has an extra party to it, a trustee, who holds title to the home until the debt is satisfied.

Let's say a loan goes delinquent and the legal instrument is a mortgage, typically in this case the lender would have to go to court to begin foreclosure proceedings. Doing that always takes time, a lot of it. Everybody knows that. But if the instrument is a deed of trust, the trustee does not need to go to court to get started. This is called a non-judicial foreclosure and now the process can be really fast.

34 states either for the most part or completely employ the deed of trust. Alabama they say is the quick draw champion of all, possibly foreclosing on a delinquent borrower in as little as 30 days. Mississippi and New Hampshire can do it under 60. At the opposite end of the field is New York where it can take over a year. In short, be aware of the legal instrument you are bound by.

Las Vegas home sales soft in June

The pattern is quite familiar. For several months in a row now the stats that the local analyst Home Builders Research puts out show that home sale numbers remain soft. The market is in a funk, that's clear. Besides product oversupply, there also is another factor in the mix at this time of the year. Namely, when the middle of the summer temperatures reach 111 degrees and higher, who wants to go out house shopping. It's called a seasonal trend.

Here's a quick rundown on some of the numbers that matter. To read the entire article, please click here.

Coyote Springs moves along

The master-planned community located about 60 miles north of Las Vegas and the Strip has begun construction on the clubhouse that will become its centerpiece. The developer has asked for customer input on its website, villagesofcoyotesprings, as to its design and features and has incorporated their findings into the facility's planning.

The clubhouse will have quite a few practical elements. The first phase will include a fitness center, an indoor basketball court, meeting rooms, a business center and a cafe. And then on the outside it'll present for the residents' enjoyment a 25-meter lap pool, a lagoon pool and a water slide. The second phase will add a 3,000-seat amphitheater and a 17-acre lake to the complex.

Coyote Springs is still in the very early stages of development, but when buildout occurs in about 40 years or so, it's estimated to have somewhere between 160,000 to 200,000 residents.

Plans for the tract also include several golf courses and a major golf training facility, in addition to the usual commercial and retail components.

Henderson leads $1 million club

Henderson is quietly living and thriving in the shadow of its much more famous neighbor, the entertainment capital of the world, Las Vegas. Sometimes it's easier on you when you can go about your business just off the spotlight. Everything you do is not scrutinized by somebody.

Henderson has been for years one of the fastest growing cities in the country. That's one feather on its cap. Now it can slip another one on it. It can claim the title for having the most over $1 million homes in Southern Nevada. To read the entire article, please click here.

Las Vegas land sales slow down

Looks like the good old days are gone, at least for now. It wasn't too long ago when the media headlines blared about the BLM, or Bureau of Land Management, land sale auctions in Southern Nevada that brought ever-increasing prices for an acre. Tracts of Nevada desert, small, medium and large, were gobbled up in a matter of minutes by eager residential developers in those gavel events. Soon thereafter you'd hear additional noise of construction all around town, single-family houses, townhomes, condos.

But as of today, the next major auction of federal land is far away, scheduled for November 2008. Almost a year and a half from now. The reason to that is quite clear, the real estate market is saturated with unsold houses and prices are weakening. What more do you need? BLM will hold an auction in November, but it's for smaller parcels spread all over the valley, ranging from 2.5 to 20 acres.

And the dominant word is demand. If there is no demand for land, BLM won't hold a sales event.

This is in general terms how it works with the agency. Developers, carrying rolled-up blueprints under their arms, will first approach local municipalities with the aim to build new homes. From there the cities and county will go to work and put together their plans for what is needed for the project, like infrastructure and roads. Once all that is accomplished to BLM's satisfaction, it'll then decide on how to proceed, which usually means that they'll schedule an auction. These are the three typical steps.

So, the building community has adopted the wait and see attitude for the foreseeable future due to the sluggish market conditions. The initiative has to come from them. Once they make a move, the wheels start turning.

Mortgage leads are us

The traditional lead sources for mortgage lenders have been satisfied customers, real estate agents, family and friends, newspaper ads, Yellow Pages and so forth. As long as you stay active, they'll work well. And then comes along the Internet and more and more people get into computers and, among other things, start seeking loan information on the web. With that, the lead business gradually transformed into a new game.

See, when a loan provider does his own lead generation, he knows which segment of the market to target and at the same time assumes responsibility for the message that is displayed. He has to operate within the law, whether federal or state, or his license is pulled.

Enter the Internet lead firms. To read the entire article, please click here.

40-year mortgage a good deal?

Home buying can often be a highly emotional experience. It gives you a shelter that you can call your own, you can run it your way and decide what to do with it and when. Nobody can evict you from it, as long as you keep making mortgage payments. You are a proud property owner.

But you frequently forget that it's also perhaps the largest debt obligation you'll ever sign for. Therefore, it would be prudent to treat it as an investment as well. To read the entire article, please click here.

Las Vegas home inventory grows

In some circles this was cautiously anticipated. Now it's a cold reality. The Greater Las Vegas Association of Realtors, or GLVAR, released its monthly report yesterday and it shows single-family house inventory climbing to 23,642, a new record. It topped the prior peak of 23,474 that was reached in October of last year. This information was put together from data in the Multiple Listing Service, or MLS.

That's the bad news. On the good news side is the value of property, stubbornly holding on. The median price inched up 1.2% from May, to $305,000. It's not much but under the current circumstances you take anything that's coming your way. Compared with last year in May, however, there is a 3.2% decline, amounting to about $10,000.

All in all, the Southern Nevada real estate market continues under the banner "soft". No escaping that. What you can tell from the above numbers is that sellers can still get pretty much what they are asking for, if they are patient. Prepared to wait a few months to get the right offer. For buyers, it's your market, no matter which way you look at it. There are bargains out there by the truck load, so go ahead and take advantage of it.

Allure luxury condos on home stretch

The Sahara Avenue condominium tower is so close to completion that the developer expects first escrow closings to take place in September. That's good news for those who have bought units there. Moreover, he believes that they can finish up everything by the end of the year, effectively eliminating the dust and noise of construction for those who have already moved in.

Allure consists of 428 condominiums in a 41-story tower at its Sahara Avenue location. Units range in size from 671 to 4,400 square feet, with about 30 left for sale priced from the mid-$500,000s. As a side note, a penthouse unit sold for a cool $4.5 million last year.

Green housing research funding

It's encouraging to see that Washington is taking steps, still kind of small but steps anyway, to fund research on how to increase efficiency in our houses. The home building industry is already spending money on it and now the federal government is joining in. The two-prong approach will add more muscle to the effort and ultimately benefit everyone. The U.S. Department of Energy just announced that it'll have up to $40 million available to support research, development and deployment of technologies that will eventually cut new home energy consumption by 30-90%.

What exactly is the research zeroing in on? To read the complete article, please click here.

Subprime mortgage rules revised

The Feds, in other words the federal monetary system regulators, have been working hard on this for quite some time and at last they can present a final product for distribution. It took a while because they had to listen to all sides on the issue and then merge the more useful ideas into policy decisions. But the new rules how to write subprime mortgage loans are in. One thing to remember is that they only apply to federally regulated lenders.

Subprime mortgages are offered to borrowers who have had past credit problems or have thin credit files. To read the entire article, please click here.

Mortgage foreclosures create friction

It's all across the news that mortgage lenders are working hard to avoid as many defaults as possible, for the simple reason that it's in their best interest. Taking possession of a foreclosed home typically would come at a loss due to legal and other costs and in many cases because the property sold for less than the loan balance. They are encountering other pressure, too. It comes from the politicians everywhere who are all over them to minimize the suffering. Most delinquencies today take place in the subprime segment of the huge home loan market.

Now there is a fresh complication to the equation. To read the entire article, please click here.

Las Vegas builder joins green program

Southern Nevada Green Building Partnership has been able to attract its first member. The ambitious program was put together by the Southern Nevada Home Builders Association and the Green Building Initiative of Portland, OR, to assist local firms in the design and construction of more environmentally correct new houses. The builder with the vision that signed up from the valley is Signature Custom Homes.

To begin with, its plan is modest. It's only going to build two homes in the first phase. Despite that the features going into the homes are impressive and somewhat exotic, at least to me. They include radiant heat barriers, low-flow water fixtures, dual-flush toilets, tankless hot water heaters, dual-glazed and tinted windows filled with argon gas, solar systems to produce power, A/C units with SEER rating of 17 and Energy Star appliances. That is quite a collection of upgrades that will make a difference.

According to the builder the cost will be 3 to 5% higher than in a conventional version of the same, however the savings in electricity, gas and water will even that out in 5 to 7 years, he calculates. And there is the main point of going green. You don't only save money for yourself, but you help the environment at the same time.

Summerlin development going green

For years Summerlin has been famous for being one of the top-selling master-planned communities in the nation. Which has partly helped Las Vegas carve a favorable niche for itself as a livable city. Besides that, it has top finishes on other lists, too. It was the first local developer to introduce extensive desert landscaping in its common areas and it did something in 2003 that was thought unthinkable only a few years ago, namely doing away with lawns in front of new homes. Summerlin has earned the image of blazing the way to innovative and somewhat untested solutions.

Now Summerlin is at it again. To read the full article, please click here.

Las Vegas housing expensive

It is if you look at the report that the National Association of Home Builders, or NAHB, and Wells Fargo just published. The study took into account the median family income and the median sales price of a sample metro area during the first quarter of 2007 and then arrived at an affordability index. According to its findings, Las Vegas ranks 186 with only 18.9% of households able to purchase a median-priced home. That is a worrisome number.

I don't know what the index was before the residential real estate boom started early this decade, but it must've been much higher than the above figure. To read the entire article, please click here.

Sullivan Square Las Vegas goes high tech

The mixed-rise condominium project is coming to a screen near you. Your very own computer screen, that is. It doesn't matter where you are, here in the Las Vegas valley or in downtown Timbuktu, it'll be available 24-7 through a streaming live video on their webcam. To get a feel for it, click here.

Right now you can keep an eye on the progress of the excavation for the underground garage and utilities, which isn't all that exciting. But when work crews move above ground, things will be much different. It'll be floor by floor visual all the way to the top. Besides these live updates on actual construction, their website currently offers a virtual tour of the entire community, from streetscapes to the central park to the architecture of the buildings.

When Sullivan Square is finished, it'll have 1,300 residences that range in size from 500 to 2,000 square feet. The diverse design options you can choose from are regular condos, traditional brownstones, Chicago-style lofts, terraced condominiums, live/work spaces and townhomes. What about the pricing, you may ask? They start from the low $300,000s and can go up to $1.7 million.

Vegas real estate prices lower

Maybe that's the medicine we need here. Lower real estate prices, that is. Well, I understand, no one wants to see his house value drop, and that includes me. The equity you were counting on could be 5% less in a matter of months. Or 10% less. Or even more than that. Anyway, the market here is still reeling and the sooner we get to the bottom of it, the sooner it can settle down and then return to normal again. Right now we are in a wait mode that serves no purpose.

According to a local analyst Dennis Smith, in May the price of a new single family home declined 3% to $308,874, when compared with April's figures. On the resale side, the price drop was 2.5% to $278,000. The resale number is especially encouraging, yes it is despite going down, because now it seems that the sellers, most of them are speculators, are at last realizing that to unload a property is entirely possible so long as the price is right. I'm going place a minor wager on this trend continuing for a while.

The economy in Southern Nevada remains strong and people are still moving here at a good pace, 5 to 6,000 a month. That is solid inbound movement. But what they are doing once they get here is sit on the fence and study the scene. Local and national media have been all over the spectrum with negative real estate stories and that can make anyone hesitant. That is totally understandable.

How long is this apathy going to last? No one knows. I certainly don't. Six months? Twelve months? Longer? It's anyone's guess.