Las Vegas resales stay on an upbeat course in November

The holiday season is upon us although this year it might be more subdued than in a long while due to the overall weakness in the national economy. The mortgage and real estate markets have taken unprecedented punishment in most parts of the country that requires extraordinary efforts and just plain old time to turn around. Southern Nevada housing sector, for its share, has paid dearly for past excesses but has lately shown some flickers of hope that perhaps a tentative recovery may be shaping up.

November statistics from Greater Las Vegas Association of Realtors, or GLVAR, back up the cautiously upbeat sentiment. There were 2,183 single-family house sold last month that is well over double the number for the same month in 2007. True, it's a small drop from October that really is a normal development as the slower-paced winter season sets in. For several months now resales in Las Vegas valley have been significantly better than comparable figures a year ago, an entirely positive sign.

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Home builders go hat in hand to Washington for aid

It's becoming the exercise of the year that major industry lobbyists are sent to march up the long, stone steps of the U.S. Capitol and ask for federal help for their struggling businesses. The belief seems to be that Congress is the cradle of group therapy that will cure their problems by dishing out taxpayer money and somehow that will turn things around. The mortgage lenders have been there, the insurance lobby has been there, the banks, the car manufacturers, the list is long.

Now it's the home builders.

They did get a modest tax credit package passed in the spring but it didn't do that much good at all. Now they are aiming higher. Their latest proposal, which is called "Fix Housing First", seeks a home buyer tax credit of 10% of the property's value that would face a limit of $22,000. Moreover, their wish list has a 30-year fixed rate, government-backed conforming home loan product subsidized so that the rate drops to 3% for the first six months in 2009 and 4% for the rest of the year. The National Association of Home Builders, or NAHB, figures the interest rate initiative alone would cost only about $143 billion to the government.

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