Las Vegas Real Estate Report

Las Vegas real estate is propelled forward by the hottest job market in the country. KLASTV in Las Vegas reports that the unemployment rate in Las Vegas has stayed at a low 4%, in spite of huge numbers of people moving into the city:

Kara Kelley, president of the Las Vegas Chamber of Commerce said, “We have 6,000 residents moving in every month, but we still keep an unemployment rate of around 4-percent. That is remarkable.”

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The Las Vegas Valley also added 62,700 jobs over the past year. That’s a 7.7-percent increase. No other market grew faster than 5.6-percent.

Thanks to a growing population and a sound employment base, demand for Las Vegas real estate has continued to surge, pushing housing prices higher and higher.

Las Vegas commercial real estate is some of the healthiest in the country. An article examining where businesses affected by Hurricane Katrina will relocate to listed vacancy rates for Las Vegas commercial real estate as exceptionally low.

In terms of retail space, there is less than 3.1% vacancy in Las Vegas. Las Vegas commercial real estate is also seeing very low vacancy in industrial space, with less than 6.5% currently unoccupied.

Las Vegas real estate experts are increasingly vocal about the need for attainable housing in the Las Vegas Valley area. “Attainable housing,” as opposed to the more commonly used term “affordable housing,” refers to property for people who do not qualify for federally-defined affordable housing, but who don’t earn enough to purchase a market-rate house.

According to an article in In Business Las Vegas, “Housing is attainable when a household at 80 percent to 120 percent of area median income pays no more than 30 percent of their income for housing and utilities.”

Las Vegas real estate investors and wealthy visitors, buying up luxury condos and vacation homes have pushed up housing prices tremendously over the last few years. It is worthwhile for us all to remember the people who help make this neon city run smoothly, and help keep them here in Las Vegas.

A Las Vegas luxury home is not usually the first thing a non-profit foundation opts to purchase with its scarce resources. But apparently the Olin B. and Desta Schwab Foundation thought that a Las Vegas luxury home was exactly what it needed.

Reports are surfacing in Fort Wayne, IN, that a subsidiary of the Schwab Foundation purchased a Las Vegas luxury home in a gated community at about the same time that the Schwabb Foundation added $1.5 million to its list of assets.

Foundation Board President Richard H. Blaich has been photographed poolside at the Las Vegas luxury home in question, and claimed in an article that it was his second home. He denies any wrongdoing.

The Indiana Attorney General’s office is investigating the purchase.

Las Vegas condos once seemed like a guaranteed way to make easy money. However, with talk of a looming real estate bubble and the potential for rising interest rates, Las Vegas condos seem to be losing their appeal.

An online poll on CNBC recently found that only 22% of 1106 respondents would consider purchasing Las Vegas condos today.

Prices for existing homes in Las Vegas rose 33% in the first quarter of this year. But inventory is rising, and if demand doesn’t stay high, this glut of supply could bring about the infamous crash everyone has been talking about for so long. Because Las Vegas condos have been at the forefront of the local housing boom, they would likely be hit hardest by any significant downturn.

Las Vegas real estate has posted impressive returns over the past few years. Prices for condos, houses and other Las Vegas real estate properties have been soaring!

In no case has this been more evident than in the pre-public sales of the Ivana Trump Las Vegas hotel and condo tower. Sales for Las Vegas real estate in this high-profile development have reached the $500 million mark.

A recent study has shown that 20-30% of luxury Las Vegas real estate is being purchased by people who live in the Silicon Valley region. These wealthy ex-“dotcom”-ers are buying into Las Vegas real estate as a solid and tangible investment that can help them diversify their portfolios and build equity.

According to a press release in the Hotel News Resource:

Over the last five years, we have watched as more and more leaders in the tech community have purchased real estate in Las Vegas,” said Victor Altomare, CEO, Sahara Condominiums, LLC and partner, Ivana Las Vegas. “Now that the technology industry has stabilized, many of the thought leaders of that movement are investing in tangible equity. With the Las Vegas real estate market ranked 4th in America, the investment in this ribbon of gold makes perfect sense,” he concluded.

Las Vegas Nevada foreclosures are happening more and more. Business Wire reported this month that Las Vegas mortgage defaults jumped up 27% in June.

Las Vegas Nevada foreclosures hit a high of 639 in January. The number of foreclosures dipped early in the year, but June again saw 602 of them.

The ready availability of easy financing may be helping some homebuyers to get in over their heads. Adjustable rate mortgages offer consumers lower interest rates - to start. But after a specified period, interest rates will be allowed to match market rates and may rise precipitously. If a family hasn’t budgeted for the increase, they may find themselves in very serious trouble when this happens, and have no choice but to sell the house quickly or default on their mortgage.

Las Vegas Nevada foreclosures pose a significant risk to the booming real estate market in this up-and-coming city. Foreclosure homes could flood the market and depress the value of homes, effectively putting the breaks on the continuing housing boom.

New homes in Las Vegas are being built all the time, in a fevered effort to fill the demand for housing. People keep pouring into the Las Vegas area, and all of them are looking for new homes in Las Vegas. Along with new residents, however, Las Vegas is also filling up with speculators following the scent of easy money.

A large portion of the new homes in Las Vegas that are being built are condos. Las Vegas real estate analyst John Restrepo was quoted in an article in In Business Las Vegas, indicating that some 53,000 Las Vegas condominiums were currently “on the drawing board.” He stresses, however, that only half of them will ever be built, and that this huge number of new homes in Las Vegas is more of a reflection of the influence of speculators on the market than it is of true demand.

The condo craze is a surprisingly new phenomenon, considering how much media buzz it has been generating of late. Turnberry Place, built only 6 years ago in 1999, was southern Nevada’s first ever large-scale condo project.

Demand for these kinds of new homes in Las Vegas has now been proven though, and as of right now, there’s no end in sight for Las Vegas’ condo fever.

A Las Vegas condo tower broke ground today. The Las Vegas condo project is being overseen and financed by real estate mogul Donald Trump.

The Sun reports that the new Trump International Hotel and Tower will cost an estimated $500 million, and occupy a 3 acre parcel of land across from the Fashion Show Mall.

All 1282 Las Vegas condos in the tower were sold within four and a half days of being on the market.

Trump’s newest project is expected to be completed in 2008. Units in the building cost between $600,000 and $6 million.

The Las Vegas real estate market has been much-hyped of late because of its soaring housing prices and hot luxury accommodations. But now Las Vegas real estate is becoming the battle-ground for an old grudge: Trump vs. Trump. The Donald and his ex-wife Ivana are both working on competing Las Vegas luxury condominium prices, and both have a lot to lose.

Donald Trump’s entry into the market is the 64-story Trump International Hotel & Tower Las Vegas. The Ivana, located at the northern end of the strip, will be 80 stories tall and is scheduled to break ground in the summer of 2006.

After a sharp correction last fall, the Las Vegas real estate market is still seen as fairly turbulent. Whether either of the Trumps has the wherewithal to make it in the hot Las Vegas real estate market will surely be hotly watched as both race to complete these projects.