real estate

How rising gas prices are effecting the real estate industry

crichey — Wed, 11 Jun 2008 18:25:05 +0000

Just a few years ago the thought of seeing gas prices hitting over $4 per gallon was unthinkable. Today, its a reality and the odds are prices will continue to climb and hit over $5 per gallon before the end of the year. Fuel prices affect everything, since the majority of goods in the U.S. are moved by truck.

Real Estate Industry

The effect rising gas prices have had on the real estate industry is two fold. Consumers are more concerned with commute time than they were a few years ago, making communities on the outskirts of the city less desirable (its still about location!). In response, developers have switched to mixed use developments, marketing them as live/work areas. Business owners can live right above their place of work, virtually eliminating the need to commute. The monetary savings in fuel costs is a large incentive. Other communities take it a step further by providing free transportation to other areas of town, like the airport and the strip (two of the largest employment areas in the city). As fuel prices continue to go up, I'm sure we'll see more communities offer these type of amenities. Redevelopment of older neighborhoods closer to the city core will also increase.

Energy Star

Almost all of the new homes built in the Las Vegas valley meet the minimum requirements for the Energy Star rating. Currently, a few builders exceed those requirements and build homes that are very energy efficient. To stay competitive with an increased consumer demand, developers are going to have to build even more energy efficient homes. Green buildings may become the standard in the next five years due to energy costs. But its likely that location will still play a huge part in the buying decision. It may effect resales of older, less energy efficient homes in the coming years. Those home sellers will be competing against more energy efficient homes for buyers. A rise in the number of "green" remodelers is a definite possibility and such remodeling may become a necessity to get top dollar for a resale home in the future, since it is doubful that energy costs will be going down any time soon.

Real Estate news update

crichey — Fri, 11 Apr 2008 00:56:35 +0000

One of the major contributors to the job market in Las Vegas is the construction industry. It looks like construction will not be slowing down any time soon. Time-share giant Wyndham Vacation Ownership plans to develop another property in Las Vegas near the Rio. Dubbed the Wyndham Desert Blue, this will be their fifth time-share property in town. Later this month their prior project the WorldMark Las Vegas Tropicana, is scheduled to open (Wyndham has been advertising heavily employment sites). The project will feature 280 units in phase one on a 14.75 acre parcel on West Twain at Dean Martin Drive.

The phase one of the project is slated to open in early 2010. The first phase will have one, two and three bedroom units and 50 suites. Amenities will be the standard fare, pool, computer library (no word yet on whether free internet access will be included), fitness center and recreation room. According to Clark county records, the site has been owned by Wyndham since 2005 and was purchased for $1 million dollars.

High Rise Condos

There is good news for some high rise condo buyers. Today One Las Vegas received its Certificate of Occupancy for tower I and residents can expect to take possession of their condos soon. Tower II is due to be completed in the next few weeks. At build out, One Las Vegas will have four residential towers and two hotel towers located on the front of the property, facing Las Vegas boulevard.

Other projects are coming along as well. Earlier this year, Metreon lofts had their ground breaking party. This is another mixed use project, located in the growing beltway area of West Flamingo being developed by Kennedy Commercial.

Housing Deals

Lennar has been consistantly sending me emails about special pricing, etc for the last month. Right now Lennar is offering special financing, with the first year interest rate of 2.88% fixed for the first, year, 3.88% fixed for the second and 4.88% (5.34% APR) for the life. Of course there are some requirements, including you must put 3% down and have a credit score of at least 580.

Old school Las Vegas more your style? Check out this page about vintage Las Vegas.

Historic property in Las Vegas

crichey — Mon, 11 Feb 2008 21:18:40 +0000

Believe it or not, there are still a few historic places that have not been hit by the wrecking ball. There has been some efforts to save a few of the older places left and a quick search online will give you a few websites dedicated to preserving the Las Vegas of the past. Usually the best you can hope for here is name preservation, which is what is happening to the Moulin Rouge.

A Piece of History

If you haven't heard of the hotel, not to worry. The Moulin Rouge opened in 1955 as the first inter-racial hotel in Las Vegas. It only remained open for a very short time before going belly up, along with a few other hotels that year. But during that time such legendary performers as Jack Benny, George Burns, Sammy Davis Jr and Frank Sinatra performed in its show room. The property has been boarded up ever since for the most part. Interestingly, it was used as a meeting place in 1960 to discuss civil rights' issues and again in 1995 for filming the movie Casino.

Most of the original property unfortunately is gone due to an unsolved arson in 2003. Only the original neon sign and facade survived the fire. The current owners are proposing a major renovation and expansion to 700 hotel rooms, retail space, convention space, restaurants, jazz center and concert venue. The property is located in downtown Las Vegas, at 900 W Bonanza. There are some zoning issues that the project will have to get approved, but given that its downtown and the city's commitment to rennovate the area, its a safe bet there won't be any problems getting approval.

Restoration and expansion of the Moulin Rouge should only help raise property values downtown, especially for projects like Juhl and Streamline. The downtown renovations are still ongoing, but some areas are nearing completion. Fremont East has its retro neon signage up and construction can be seen in several areas.

The Canadians are coming!!!

crichey — Fri, 08 Feb 2008 01:25:42 +0000

The sliding housing market and recession are good news for our neighbors north of the border. A recent article in the Edmonton Journal talks about how Albertans and other Canadians are scouring the once red hot markets in the US for deals and steals. The story cites that home prices are down in Las Vegas by 13.2 percent. That combined with a strong showing against the US dollar by the Canadian dollar (loonie), Canadians are looking to buy property in the once red hot markets now in a slump, like Las Vegas, Phoenix, San Diego, Miami and Tampa. Never before has it been a better time for Canadians looking to buy property in the US.

Vacation destinations are the most likely to see an influx of Canadian and other foreign buyers. Personally I've had more foreign buyers inquiring about some of the Las Vegas high rise condos for sale, especially in the strip area. It will be interesting to see what impact these buyers will have on those markets.

This is great news for vacation and second home sellers. Local statistics are showing a slight upswing in the amount of properties sold as well as a stablization of prices.

Changes to the site

crichey — Fri, 18 Jan 2008 07:32:10 +0000

If you are a regular visitor here, you'll notice a change on the right hand navigation bar. The search function has been integrated into the site. So now if you are looking for a particular community, you can simply type in the name and let the search function find it for you.

My webmaster has been hard at work adding more pages of information. Summerlin has some new communities coming up soon, and information about Sun City Summerlin, The Canyons and Summerlin Centre is now available. If you like mixed use projects, information about the Village at Queensridge is available.

Real Estate price record in Newport Beach

crichey — Thu, 17 Jan 2008 23:04:41 +0000

It seems that some Nevadans are moving to California (quite a few people from California move to Vegas). According to the Wall Street Journal, Nick Cage sold his Newport Beach estate for $35 million dollars, setting a new record for Orange County real estate.

The property was bought by Las Vegas business man Jerry "Terrible" Herbst. Mr. Herbst is CEO of Terrible Herbst, Inc. The company owns the local gas station/convenience store chain and the Terrible's casino in Las Vegas.