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?

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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.