Las Vegas real estate is heating up

by Charles Richey
Sheryl Crow may be singing about leaving Las Vegas, but no one is taking her advice… in fact people are still moving to Las Vegas in droves.  Just when the Las Vegas real estate market has been bombarded by the media, depicting a real estate ghost town and ‘slumping’ economy, home sales are up from the previous two months.  While there has been a small downturn due to a small loss in tourism, people are still vacationing in Las Vegas and the construction industry is still booming.
Ghost of Real Estate Past
In 2004, many Las Vegas real estate investors saw astronomical increases in home values, sometimes over 50% in just a year. These gains brought on a feeding frenzy in the market, with entrepreneurs and first time home flippers flooding the market seeking a quick, easy fortune. With so many properties being sold, builders jumped on the bandwagon and construction took off, providing thousands of jobs and thousands of new homes and condos.
Like all good things, the boom came to end and prices started returning to normal pre-boom levels and lower. Housing inventory started to creep higher and higher and home sales dwindled. The media started talking about a ‘housing bubble’.
Real Estate Investors
The Las Vegas real estate market attracted so many speculators and home buyers thinking that prices would never drop, that many were left hanging. Buyers who bought at the peak of the boom thinking to quickly flip the property for a hefty profit were stuck with over priced properties financed with an adjustable rate mortgage. Short sales started to appear in the MLS. As these loans adjusted and the mortgage payments sky rocketed, many of these homes went into foreclosure. Bank owned properties flooded the market, competing against resale homes and new home sales. Builders anxious to get rid of their standing inventory started offering huge incentives and free upgrades. Inventory continued to rise…enter the bargain hunters.
Today’s Las Vegas Housing Market
In the early part of 2008, the weak dollar combined with the overall housing slump in the United States brought tons of foreign investors. European, Canadian and Asian buyers started snapping up vacation homes in Las Vegas and other hard hit vacation destination cities.
Now that the dust has settled, Las Vegas is still an attractive market. Home prices are still attractive for many people who are selling higher prices homes in states like California. Lured to the area by a robust job market, many transplants are able to afford larger homes that cost less than their prior residence. That combined with low property taxes and no state income tax, the lure of Las Vegas has remained strong. An estimated 5,000 people a month move to the valley and an estimated 39 million people annually visit the city.
Everyone is familiar with the exciting night life Las Vegas has. It’s why so many people visit the city every year. But Las Vegas has so much more, whether you’re a NASCAR fan or a nature lover. There are several museums, sporting events and cultural centers as well as hiking at Red Rock National Conservation area, water sports at Lake Mead and skiing at Mount Charleston. Regardless if you are looking for a vacation home on the links or a lake front condominium, you’ll find it in Las Vegas.