AVAILABLE DATA ON LAS VEGAS APARTMENT AND CONDO RENTALS

As there is very little in the way of statistics
available on Condo rentals as opposed to Condo
sales, here is what we have put together from
talking to Las Vegas Realtors and Agents:

Apartment occupancy in the Vegas valley improved to 92.7 percent in the third quarter, up from 92 percent in the previous quarter and the highest it's been in 3 years business advisory firm Applied Analysis reported.

Realtors contacted about Condo rentals all seem to agree that if purchased Condos are rented at about the same price as comparable sized Apartments, the Condos rent quickly as most people would prefer living in a Condo.

Many realtors use their Multiple Listing service to rent Condos which expedites the rental, sometimes in as little as one week.

The highest rents were found in the southwest valley at $910 a month, Applied Analysis found; the lowest rents in the northeast.

The key to quickly renting Condos is to compete with Apartment rental prices all participants agreed.

(Please read the previous blog concerning the estimated return on Condo rentals.)

Irv

WHY, AND WHERE ARE THE BUYERS COMING FROM?

At a median price of just over $50,000, investors are snapping up Condos right and left all around the Las Vegas valley.

Condo buyers are usually empty-nesters, retirees or young people looking to live close to work or school --a 3 mile radius. Some are second home buyers who plan to retire within the next 5 years, many coming from the snowbelt regions back east -- Ohio, Pennsylvania and New York.

Residential Resources of Las Vegas said that "Condos generate a cash flow of ten percent, even after HOA fees and management costs, reporting 476 Condo sales in October, about an average monthly total."

Numbers exclude high-rise condos.

The median price fell 8.7 percent from a year ago to $50,213. "There are deals everywhere -- hard to believe condos could get any lower."

More than half of October's Condo closings were real estate or bank owned, while 24.4 percent were normal sales and 23.3 percent were short sales for less than the mortgage owed.

The median price for normal sales rose to $51.70 per square foot, short sales to $52.03. Cash transactions account for 90 percent of sales, with 8 per cent of sales receiving institutional financing.

While the median value of single family homes continued to trend downward in October, Condo closings increased in all 3 categories for the first time since the tracking began for transactions by sales type.

Irv

LAS VEGAS TO BE DEVELOPED AS A HUB
FOR FASHION DESIGNERS

Already having two world class shopping centers and two huge industry trade shows, a newly created Las Vegas Fashion Design Council seeks to develop Vegas as a center where fashion designers seek to create, manufacture and market their products.

For its first project, the council is planning a Las Vegas Fashion Week to be held in August. Fashion is a 20 billion dollar industry according to statistics from the University of Delaware, bringing in almost two billion dollars each year to New York alone.

This "fashion hub" could be a huge job creator in the area. The MAGIC show, held twice a year in Vegas, (Men's Apparel Guild) itself brings in thousands of industry folks.

About 85 percent of apparel manufactured in the U.S. comes from California which makes Las Vegas appealing due to its proximity, plus low tax rates and rents could entice designers and manufacturers to move to Nevada, potentially creating thousands of JOBS.

Young designers have benefited already from networking with other Las Vegas designers, being taught tailoring techniques and tips to make them more efficient.

Right now, young Vegas designers are working on spring men's and women's collection and a line of UNISEX T-shirts, with more to come.

Las Vegas sorely needs concepts like this to diversify its economy. Being the convention capital, other industries could follow suit.

Irv

IN THIS ECONOMY,  WHY WOULD A BRAZILIAN STEAKHOUSE CONCEPT COME TO LAS VEGAS?

I asked the CEO that question the other night - between skewers of beef and lamb, during a media night gathering.

With the Las Vegas economy still in the doldrums, forcing chefs to greener pastures, why would they come here?

Fogo de Chao is a high end restaurant chain, a Brazilian Steakhouse concept.

For starters, the CEO said "they are sold on Las Vegas, with its convention business, and we wanted in here since 2005 with 17 of their restaurants in the USA and seven in Brazil."

"We wanted the right location, the right price and the right time." "But the market was so crazy by 2008 we couldn't do a deal."

Late last year the deal was resurrected and they got what they were looking for.

"We had 30 other cities that wanted us but we wanted Las Vegas." "We are going to be a great addition to the city."

Irv

LAS VEGAS SKI RESORT OPENS WITH A NEW LOOK

The ski resort at Mount Charleston opened for opened for its 2011 and 2012 season at 9:00 on November 19th. Three chairlifts and one surface lift that serve the areas 16 trails and freestyle terrain ran until 4 p.m. 

The Sports Shop, the Big Horn Cafe, arid the Bristlecone Lounge were open from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Snowmaking is in progress with a snow base of between 12 and 18 inches with at total season snowfall of 21 inches.

This season almost every aspect of the resort's operations has been modernized. Point of sale systems were updated, lift tickets were bar coded and the rental shop's process was streamlined.

The goal was to make the consumer experience more enjoyable. About 35 percent of skiers are tourists who build a snow day into their Las Vegas vacation. About 15 percent of the tourists come from Hawaii.

About 5 percent hail from Southern California, another 5 percent from Asia. A spokesman said, "this resort in a couple of years will surpass Brian Head and Big Bear."

During the 2011-2012 ski season, over 8 million people were estimated to have visited the Pacific Southwest to ski or snowboard according to a National Ski Areas Association report.

The Mount Charleston Ski and snowboard resort sees from 300 to 2,000 visitors daily. Business at the resort increased about 5 percent last season.

Besides the above mentioned upgrades, the Las Vegas resort began a 35 million master development plan during the summer that will expand the number of trails to 50 and lifts to 10.

Irv

LAS VEGAS HOME BUYER PREFERENCES

More than just a seasonal desire for warmer weather during winter  months, more than all of the top long distance  home searches coming from New York and Chicago at the end of summer were to major metros in the south and southwest.

Chicagoans  prefer homes in Nevada,  Arizona and Texas, along with the Gulf coast of Florida, while New Yorkers tend to flock to the Atlantic coast of Florida, including Miami, west Palm Beach and Fort Lauderdale.

Las Vegas is number 9 on the long distance outbound searches from Chicago and is not on the list from New York. Although the data focuses on home searches and provides some insight into potential home buyer
intent, actual deals will depend on improvement in the job market, the willingness of banks to lend, and other economic factors.

"There are some jobs that are remote, that can be done anywhere, but most long distance moves mean retirement or a new job, the economist said".  

Sarasota Florida topped the list topped the index at 6.03 at 6 times more inbound than outbound searches. On the other side, Washington D.C. and Arlington Virginia showed the weakest housing demand with an index reading 0.37, which means there were about 3 times more outbound than inbound searches.

Search behavior tells us where people want to move and can point to which
markets will grow long before official population data tells us what happened.

"The glut of vacant homes in Las Vegas -- the result of overbuilding and high mortgage delinquencies -- has made Las Vegas home ownership more affordable and has become more of a draw than a deterrent for prospective home buyers."

Irv

HOUSING COSTS BOOST INTEREST IN LAS VEGAS

The bursting of the housing bubble has created strong demand for metropolitan areas in Nevada, pushing Vegas to number 9 on the Metro Movers Index introduced Wednesday.

These areas are where home prices have fallen by 50 percent or more, said Jed Kolko, chief economist for an online real estate listing service in San Francisco.

Las Vegas registered 1.88 on the Metro Movers Index, which means that it found nearly twice as many "inbound" home searches from outsiders as "outbound" searches by local residents.

That's typical of cities that have seen huge price declines since the bubbleburst and a high vacancy rate, so there are bargains and bargains attracting buyers from elsewhere, Kolko said, even from California. "We are seeing that very clearly from search activity on our site".

While sales of existing homes in Las Vegas more than doubled from 24,000 in 2007 to 51,000 in 2010, the median price fell 57 percent from 274,000 dollars to 118,000 over that same period.

Five of the top inbound markets to Las Vegas are from California, with Los Angeles and Orange county first and second, respectively. Although Southern California accounts for most of the home searches in Las Vegas,
35 percent of house hunters are coming from 500 or more miles away,

Honolulu, New York and Chicago are high on the inbound list. Despite having more employment opportunities, he higher cost of housing in big cities has made homes in nearby suburbs and smaller metros more attractive to home buyers and renters.

Reno came in at number 8 and at number 10 in outbound searches from Las Vegas. "You see a lot of that in larger cities, Kolko said, For Las Vegas
you see outbound searches to lower density areas to Reno and Pahrump, from Los Angeles to San Bernardino and smaller suburban areas. Real estate tends to be even cheaper in these smaller density areas".

Irv

NEW NV LAW AIMED AT ROBO-SIGNINGS

Assembly Bill 284 requires a lender seeking to foreclose in Nevada to record a notarized affidavit of authority to foreclose that includes information that they have the legal right to exercise the power of sale.

This new law protects homeowners from improper foreclosures and protects the integrity of the home ownership system, the Nevada Attorney General said.

It was crafted largely in response to the robo-signing scandal that surfaced last year. The law also gives Nevada homeowners access to data on companies that hold their mortgages by requiring that documents used in foreclosures be recorded in the county where the property is located, a challenge to the Mortgage
Electronic Registration System, or MERS.

This new foreclosure process needs to work its course, said Victor Joecks, communications director for Nevada Policy Research Institute.

(Please read previous blog about short sales referring to this new law.)

Some realtors feel the world is coming to an end because of the delayed foreclosure process while others say its only a speed bump and things will
be fine in a month or so. WHO KNOWS?

Perhaps this law will convince other high foreclosure states to act or maybe

the Federal Government will expand it to other areas.

Irv

LAS VEGAS SHORT SALES

ALIVE AND WELL

Due to a recent Nevada law (a seller may not require a buyer to waive the SRPD requirements in NRS 113.130) making it harder for banks to foreclose because of alleged fraud, banks are starting to realize that receiving some dollars are better than getting none at all, and so are more actively agreeing to short sales with homeowners.

Headline in recent Vegas paper --

STATE FORECLOSURE STARTS PLUNGE 

Nevada foreclosure starts plummeted 81 percent in
October 2011 in reaction to a new law that imposes
stricter requirements on filing notices of default,
an online listing service reported today.

Notices of default dropped from 4,656 in September 2011
to only 897 in October 2011. In October 2010 they were
5,417.

Las Vegas foreclosed homes are a glut on the local real estate market, with boarded up windows, dying or dead lawns, vandalism, and home values dropping nearby. 

It's about time that banks are waking up to the facts and
are dealing with homeowners with short sales.

VIVA LAS VEGAS

Irv