In 2013, foreclosures in Nevada could see some significant increase if lawmaker officials and financial institutions back a 2011 bill that prevented the progress of banks' retaking Nevada homes. Although the Nevada housing market has fluctuated significantly, the long term effect of more foreclosures isn't exactly horrible. Since 2011, Nevada foreclosures have risen somewhat, but are only less than half of where they were before the law went into place. The law that, consequently, slowed foreclosures in Nevada.
The bill in question is Assembly Bill 284: passed by Nevada State Legislature in 2011, this bill makes banks have to prove legal rights to foreclose a home before any action is taken. Further, this law requires documented history of a property, and bank workers knowledge of said documents via a signed affidavit. The bill was passed initially to advocate honorable standards of the legal proceedings that accompany a foreclosure process. Homeowners dealing with this process were thought to be protected from dishonorable actions from banks who might be attempting to foreclosure without proper cause. While the intent was not to entirely prevent valid foreclosures, the threat of the law itself forced foreclosures into a dead stop. Numbers of foreclosures that were once close to 5,000 statewide, were reduced to only 80 in October 2011.
Some housing analysts share the opinion that this law is stifling legal and necessary foreclosures, consequently making a false housing price increase that is only temporary. Changes to the Assembly Bill 284 are currently being discussed in order to turn the foreclosure issue around that has so significantly effected Las Vegas real estate.
While home sales in Las Vegas have slowed down, prices are rising again in the Valley, says a report from the Greater Las Vegas Association of Realtors. November showed 2,682 single-family home sales – up 16.8 percent from last year. The median price for these homes was $146,000.
Statistics in the area are also showing a positive transition from foreclosures to short sales throughout the Valley, which accounted for 41.2 percent of those November sales. Foreclosures made up 10.7 percent, which is significantly less than the near 50 percent of 2010-11. In fact, the Las Vegas Review-Journal recently reported that Nevada is no longer the state with the highest percentage of foreclosures. That honor now belongs to Georgia.
Further good news is that more “traditional” owners are selling – meaning the home owners, rather than banks are the ones selling. Inventory is still very, very low, however, which could account for the rising prices. Yet, 52.7 percent of all homes sold in November were cash sales. The competition is still ferocious for buyers! If you are looking to sell, the market is hot.
If you are looking to buy, homes in Henderson, Nevada are continuing to sell at comparably low prices – and you can still get historically low interest rates. Give me a call to get started! 702-845-8540 Bill.
Sun City Anthem, NV resident, Robert Frank, has been appointed to oversee homeowners associations in Nevada Commission on Common-Interest Communities and Condominium Hotels. Governor Brian Sandoval in responsible for appointing Frank this position.
Replacing Marilyn Brainard as representative of homeowners' interests, Frank now sits on a commission that consists of seven members. This committee acts as an advisory to the Real Estate Division, and conducts hearings which help to regulate and adopt conduct regulations within Nevada (including Las Vegas and Henderson) real estate.
A retired United States Air Force colonel, Frank has served as the vice president of HOA in 2007-2008 in Sun City Anthem. He is known as an extreme advocate of homeowners' rights- putting him in the perfect position to rightfully regulate standards in Nevada HOA's and real estate committees.
In an attempt to resolve current HOA disputes, Frank said, "…I hate it when (real estate) boards are able to get away with corruption…how do we fix the abuses so the HOA works the way it's supposed to?"
Q: My husband and I qualified for a VA loan, which means that we can purchase a home with no down payment, but we are still being asked for $2,000 “earnest money” – what is this? Why do we have to come up with so much?
Anna
A: Congratulations to you and your husband on making an offer on your new home! (If you have been asked for earnest money, that means you are making an offer on property.) Your earnest money means that you “earnestly” intent to purchase the property. It is a sort of security deposit that accompanies your offer showing good faith.
There is no set amount for how much earnest money can be asked or how much you should put down. Typically, earnest money is 2-3% of the purchase amount, but the more you put down, the more serious your offer looks. Right now, the market is pretty tight, so you may want to really seriously consider the effect your earnest money has on the seller. Most of the time, you can offer less than what they are asking – but in this market, I wouldn’t advise it.
The money is held in a trust account through the closing period and is usually applied toward the buyer’s down payment and closing costs. There are, of course, many exceptions to this rule. With a VA loan, since you will not be making a down payment, you may receive the money back or it may be applied towards closing. Sometimes, you may apply it towards your first mortgage payment.
What if the deal doesn’t go through?
While the money is in the trust, it is essentially held by both the buyer and the seller. Even if the deal does not close through any fault of the buyer, they may not be entitled to the whole amount back, due to cancellation fees. This is something that the buyer and seller must work out.
An experienced real estate agent will have dealt with these scenarios and will be able to walk you through the process. Make sure you ask your agent lots of questions along the way.
Do you know a business woman whom you expect to make a huge impact in Southern Nevada in 2013? Now is the time to send your nomination for the Vegas Inc’s “Women to Watch” program. Visit http://www.vegasinc.com/ to download the nomination form, and be sure to meet the December 20, 2012 deadline!
According to Vegas Inc, the special edition is not a lifetime achievement award but dedicated instead to those up-and-comers who are expected to make a big splash in the future. They cover multiple industries and backgrounds.
This year’s winners (nominated last year) included the creative director of Silverton Casino Resort, Alison Gramenos, and Stacey Wedding, the founder and CEO of Professionals in Philanthropy - to name just a couple. The 18 women chosen were honored at an awards show at Mandalay Bay last January.
Vegas Inc is a weekly B2B publication aimed at professionals in the greater Las Vegas area. The magazine endeavors to cover the area’s most pressing topics, including gaming, tourism, entertainment, healthcare, and real estate – to name a few. The magazine is available for home or office delivery or per issue at newsstands. Visit the website, above for further details.
Who is your Woman to Watch? Be sure to see her honored by sending in your nomination today!
If you’ve driven around the Las Vegas Valley, you’ve most likely seen the half-built structures and abandoned construction sites littering the area. Many of these projects were halted in the last few years as part of what many are calling the Las Vegas real estate bust. Sadly, the economy did seem to founder what was a once robust growth spurt in our area, but things look to be getting back on track.
Several local developershave begun to purchase these now discounted projects, and they’re predicting some serious profits. The only thing that isn’t on their side is time.
It seems the process is quite lengthy, particularly since the first step involves research to find the seller – which is rarely the original investor. Many were foreclosed on by big banks, some were sold at auction, and others have had an extended list of owners since then. Those bought by LLCs are notoriously difficult to track.
The next step is to find out what debts and other burdens, such as liens, permits, and repairs, will come with the purchase. Some of these properties are mired in legal issues, and a few even have creditors that will battle the buyers in court. Many properties will need to be approved by a federal judge, due to a list of creditors, objections, and lawsuits.
Other considerations include how much damage has been caused by vandals and scrappers, a very common problem even for fenced-in areas. These amounts can run in the tens of thousands of dollars in damages, while the thief may have only recovered a few hundred dollars’ worth of scrap.
The good news is that our dry climate allows most of the steel to be reused, if need be, and the low humidity cuts down on rust and sun damage of these exposed construction sites. Investors are still interested in purchasing these distressed properties because the locations are so good and the possibilities endless. With a turning economy and interest rates still quite low, the problems seem to be worth the payoff.
Hopefully, our fair valley will soon be graced with shiny new structures and the skeletons of the past will be a distant memory.
It wasn’t even Halloween when all the stores started to decorate for Christmas. Now, all the malls and even the Las Vegas Strip are decorated for the winter holidays – and we haven’t even had our turkeys yet! It’s become almost impossible to find out where, when, and how one can celebrate and give thanks what with all the bells jingling in our ears. Fear not! If your home is in the Green Valley / Henderson area, we’ve got some wonderful options for you.
The City of Henderson Parks and Recreation is hosting the “Rad Tad Turkey Day” on Saturday, November 24 at the Whitney Ranch Indoor Pool. Kids can make handprint turkeys and enjoy games and snacks and a water safety demo by Rad Tad – all for $5.
Rated the number one buffet in the Las Vegas Review Journal poll, this Feast Buffet has everything for your Thanksgiving celebration – except all those dishes you’d be stuck with afterwards. Open all day on Thanksgiving, the offerings include traditional oven roasted turkey, but you can also partake of their dried apricot stuffed pork loin or prime rib. Add sides of cornbread and apple stuffing, sautéed mussels in champagne caper sauce, honey glazed baby carrots, and blue nut salad with poached pears and you’ll be well on your way to holiday bliss. Finish your meal with either a mini strawberry rhubarb tart or some pumpkin cream brulée and wash it all down with warm spiced apple cider. Yum!
If you are able to walk after all of that good food, you will want to attend the Thanksgiving craft and gift shopping show November 24 & 25 at Sun City MacDonald Ranch Resort. They will be raffling all kinds of super prizes every 30 minutes, demoing several products, and you can browse all sorts of goodies from over 50 vendors, including crochet works, handmade jewelry, candles, teas, books, pet clothes, specialty foods, and baby items. Admission is free for this family-friendly event.
If Black Friday isn’t your thing, but you still want to head to the stores this weekend, don’t miss the tree lightings at The District on 2225 Village Walk Drive, Suite 171 in Henderson. The lightings start at 4pm this Saturday and continue every night through December 22nd. Every weekend, they will have musical groups and holiday characters for photo ops. Stay to shop at all the different stores.
Homes for sale in Las Vegas, NV are up in double digits over 2011. Homes that are considered in the median price range in Las Vegas and Henderson are now listed at 12.41 percent higher than one year ago. In October, home prices in Las Vegas were close to flat for the first time in nearly eight months. According to Kolleen Kelley, president of the Greater Las Vegas Association of Realtors, "we sold fewer homes in October than we had listed."
Overall, foreclosures are down in Nevada. That is an accomplishment, considering that Nevada was, at one time, the nation's leader in foreclosures. Notices of default that are new, have fallen 74 percent over the past year. Bank owned inventory is also down- 65 percent.
In light of all the good news, there is a new foreclosure designed that slows down the time it takes to foreclose in Nevada- a record-high of 509 days in August.
The end of 2012 is seeing signs of the housing recovery slowly down just a bit. Las Vegas and Henderson list home prices have declined somewhat over the past three months. This has had an erasing effect of the gains that had been accrued in the middle months of 2012. The median national list price remains at $189,000. Henderson and Las Vegashomes for sale are continuing their battle to raise the property values in a market that has seen some of it's worst values, ever.
On top of the country's list of cities that have been hit the hardest in this economic climate, Las Vegas showed to have less homeowners underwater over the past few months. However, Las Vegas and Henderson real estate continues to be one of the hardest hit markets, overall.
63 percent of Las Vegas and Henderson real estate owners were underwater during the third quarter according to research from Zillow (Seattle-based research firm). The 63 percent figure is down 68.5 percent from the time period that ended in late June. During both quarters, Las Vegas still held the highest rate of borrowers who were underwater among that list of 30 metro areas that had been reported on, and whose status had been tracked.
In a National average, homeowners that totaled roughly 28 percent were considered to be underwater during the third quarter. During the second annual quarter, that figure was closer to 31 percent of homeowners considered underwater. So, even though the improvement was small, there was still a slight percentage jump over the second half of the year.
The highest rate of underwater borrowers in Las Vegas and Henderson, NV comes from the North Las Vegasarea, where some 73.5 percent of borrowers are considered to be underwater. Las Vegas (city) was at 63 percent, Henderson, NV at 55.2 percent. These figures were reached during the third quarter.
You know how important staging is to selling your home. (If not – see Specific Tips for Staging a Home for Sale Parts 1&2) Why not take it one step further and make it season-specific? Fall is a wonderful time to accentuate the coziness of your home. Remember, the idea is to give buyers a view of themselves in the home, and decorating for the season really enhances this feeling.
Start outside. While you may be one of the lucky ones with the lovely colors of fall littering your yard, you want to keep your yard as neat and tidy as possible. Most homes in Henderson do not have leafy trees, but if you do, rake up those leaves! Remove the Halloween decorations and candy wrappers, and sweep your entryway from that latest rain/dust storm.
Inside, the trick is to not go crazy. The idea is to be subtle with the decorations, not personal, so consider adding only a few accents here and there. Try a bowl of seasonal fruit on the counter or a vase of colorful foliage in an entryway table. Be tasteful and understated.
As the days get shorter and the nights darker, be sure to brighten up rooms as much as possible. Before you show your home, turn on all the lights you can find. Buyers may be looking after they get off from work, which means it will already be getting dark outside. Help them picture a warm, cozy glow by brightening it up as much as you can. If you have a fireplace, light it. You might even add some candles here and there – perhaps with the subtle scents of apple or pumpkin pie.
Speaking of scents – if you do not have candles, try simmering some apple cider or even baking some cookies. Studies show that the smell of fresh-baked cookies really does reel people in.
If you are painting, consider warmer neutrals that will go well with splashes of fall colors, such as deep oranges and dark reds. Don’t throw the bright fall colors on the wall, though – it may turn off potential buyers. Bring out these colors with throw pillows and rich fabrics.
Overall, try to keep your home neutral and tidy. Each person who walks through that door should be able to picture him or herself living there. If you do it right, you will be closing before the next season!