Nevada Real Estate News
Local and National News about the Nevada Real Estate Market
Slide in housing prices halts, and buyers reduce inventory
By Roger M. Showley
UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER
November 14, 2006
San Diego County's housing price slide reversed course last month and brought the median up $9,000 from September to $485,000, DataQuick Information Systems reported yesterday.
October's turnaround was a welcome sign to sellers tired of cutting prices and waiting for buyers to make an offer.
Jolly said a lower inventory of homes on the market indicates that sales are making a dent in the backlog.
The statistics bear him out.
Jolly also said that he sees the same or Las Vegas and other cities in the south west.
Las Vegas Review Journal
Comercial Contractor sees upside to commercial property
By HUBBLE SMITH
REVIEW-JOURNAL
Las Vegas-based Crisci is finishing construction of the 4,500-square-foot Bank of America branch at 410 E. Silverado Ranch Blvd. It's the 14th Bank of America that Crisci has built in Las Vegas since rolling out a prototype building in 2002 at Tropicana Avenue and Fort Apache Boulevard.
The $1.5 million bank project is part of the surge in commercial real estate development in Las Vegas this year. Through June, commercial building permit valuation totaled $948.9 million, more than double the $453.8 million a year ago, the Center for Business and Economic Research reported.
Crisci started construction of the bank in August and has completed about 75 percent of the outside work, Ramberg said. The parking lot is scheduled to be paved this week.
Teller stations are ready and furniture is being moved into the bank as Crisci works on tenant improvements. The project is scheduled for completion in December.
Jones Lang Lasalle represented Bank of America in contracting Crisci to build the bank. Gensler of Nevada is the architect.
EXECUTIVE SUITES: Michael Wronski of Las Vegas-based Stonemark Realty is developing Ann Executive Center, which will be composed of 20 office suites at 3820 W. Ann Road in North Las Vegas.
RG & Associates is doing the build-out and tenant improvements for the $1.6 million project, part of Kennedy Commercial's $30 million Ann Professional Plaza. Completion is scheduled for December.
Wronski expects demand for the suites from business owners such as startup real estate firms, mortgage companies and insurance agents.
Tenants will share restrooms and conference areas, as well as maintenance and utility costs.
RHODES HOMES: The September newsletter from the Mohave County (Ariz.) Landowners Association reported that Rhodes Homes of Arizona has drilled several wells and has secured an agreement with the county to use public right-of-way and utility easements to construct new infrastructure for Perkins Mountain Water and Perkins Mountain Utility.
CRESCENT SALE: Crescent Real Estate Equities, owner of Hughes Center in Las Vegas, sold Four Westlake Park office property in Houston for $122 million, or $217 a square foot. Crescent, which had a 20 percent ownership in the property with a pension fund, expects to gain about $23 million in net income on the sale.
TRANSACTIONS: Soozi Jones Walker and Bobbi Miracle of Commercial Executives represented Rainbow Diablo Medical Center in the 10-year lease of 4,560 square feet at 5555 Redwood Street to Vision Properties. The transaction is valued at $973,000.
Daren Lemmon of CB Richard Ellis represented Wood Smith Henning & Berman in the three-year lease of a 7,470-square-foot office building at 7670 W. Lake Mead Blvd. The transaction is valued at $615,128.
Christina Strickland of CB represented Las Vegas University Gardens in leasing 800 square feet of retail space at 4632 S. Maryland Parkway to Ace Test Prep. The value is nearly $30,000.
HOME SALES: About that housing bubble ...
Sales up 6.1 percent; SalesTraq revises data
By HUBBLE SMITH
REVIEW-JOURNAL
July's housing numbers do not signal a bursting of the bubble in Las Vegas, nor is the market as depressed as preliminary reports have suggested, a local analyst said Tuesday.
Dennis Smith, president of Home Builders Research, counted 2,869 recorded new home sales in July, compared with 3,071 sales in the same month a year ago. The year-to-date total of 21,545 is up 6.1 percent from a year ago. The median price of a new home in July rose 11.9 percent to $324,517.
Another housing research firm revised its July numbers upward from a previous report. SalesTraq President Larry Murphy said he's now reporting 2,794 new home sales for the month and a median price of $337,272.
Smith said the "traditional new construction segment" of the market, excluding apartment conversions and high-rise condos, showed a median price of $335,315, up 5.5 percent from a year ago.
Seime said the base price of a single-family detached new home in Las Vegas, not including premiums, was $353,000 in the second quarter, the same as last year. Housing starts fell to 6,834 in the quarter, compared with 7,061 in the same period a year ago.
Attached housing such as condos and townhomes increased its market share in Las Vegas and production continues to increase for attached units Seime said.
"Las Vegas is definitely its own market and has its own dynamics," he said. "The economy is generating organic growth, although the economy is not as solid as it has been for the last three quarters. That said, there's still demand out there. There is a disconnect between values and sales prices. People are having a hard time swallowing that."
"But two words -- job growth -- would seem to assure that the long-term picture for the traditional housing market in Las Vegas is not dying," Smith said.
Annual job growth for Las Vegas was 5.6 percent in July, compared to 1.3 percent nationally.
New-homes sales log another record in 2005
By Jeannine Aversa
ASSOCIATED PRESS
7:20 a.m. January 27, 2006
WASHINGTON – New-home sales for all of 2005 climbed to an all-time high, marking the fifth year in a row of record sales.
The Commerce Department reported Friday that sales of new single-family homes clocked in at 1.28 million units last year, representing a 6.6 percent increase over last year's 1.20 million units, the previous all-time high.
Sales of new homes as well as existing homes – the biggest chunk of the housing market – have logged records five years running.
In December, new-home sales rose 2.9 percent from November's pace – defying analysts' expectations for sales to go down last month.
The roaring housing market has helped to underpin consumer spending and bolster overall economic growth. Looking ahead, economists expect the housing market will slow this year, and there have been increasing signs that the market is starting to lose steam.
For all of 2005, existing-home sales hit a record high of 7.072 million units, up 4.2 percent from 2004.
In Friday's report, the median price of a new home for all of last year was $237,300, a record high. That median price – where half sell for more and half sell for less – broke last year's record high of $221,000.
Rapidly rising home prices over the past years has made consumers feel wealthy. They have borrowed against their houses and used that to support their spending, which in turn has helped overall economc growth.
Dec. 21, 2005
HOUSING MARKET: Bubble not on LV horizon
Home prices continue on record pace
By JENNIFER ROBISON
REVIEW-JOURNAL
Despite numerous predictions of bubbles and woe, the Las Vegas housing market is poised to pull off yet another record year.
New numbers from real estate research firm SalesTraq show 85,074 closings on new and existing homes in the Las Vegas Valley from January to November -- a tally that already surpasses the 84,595 units sold in all of 2004.
Local builders closed on 34,631 units through November, a 17.7 percent improvement on the 29,187 homes they sold in 2004. The median price those homes are commanding rose to $303,903, up 5.4 percent from $288,447 in November 2004.
Developers sold 849 condo conversions in November, nearly a quarter of the 3,824 new units sold marketwide. Those condo conversions carry a median price of $171,940, and that has helped keep new homes at a median of about $300,000 for the past three months. Murphy also credits condo conversions with reining in resale prices.
I would say the resale median will be over $300,000 a year from now," Murphy said.
Local Realtors agreed with Murphy's assessment of the market's high plateau.
Bill Berning, broker of the Bill Berning Team at Prudential Americana Group, Realtors, said his sales agents are fielding a steady stream of phone calls from out-of-state buyers looking to move to Las Vegas, as well as local homeowners seeking to trade up equity to a bigger home or downsize to a more manageable property.
"All of my sales associates are busy showing (properties), and all of the listings we have are getting activity," Berning said. "We are getting offers on our listings. It's been a very good, consistent year."
"I do believe we'll see continued demand and appreciation that's not going to be as aggressive as we had in 2004," Berning said. "We're still going to see good interest in our market."
Bette Leal, broker-owner of Century 21 Consolidated, said ongoing in-migration should continue to bolster the valley's real estate market.
"As long as 5,000 people move here every month, we're going to have a healthy market," Leal said. "It's all about supply and demand."
Condominium craze continues with wave of new projects
Twin-tower Pinnacle, Onyx among projects
By HUBBLE SMITH
REVIEW-JOURNAL
Holding 12 acres on Tropicana Avenue just west of the Strip for 20 years gives Falcon Group a financial advantage in developing the $650 million Pinnacle twin-tower condominium project, an executive with the development group said.
Pinnacle is among several new condo projects coming to Las Vegas.
The Onyx, a 63-unit luxury low-rise condo, is planned for two acres on Reno Avenue behind the new Hooters Hotel, formerly the San Remo. Away from the Strip, Vantage Lofts recently broke ground in Henderson for the first phase of 110 units.
Pinnacle is planned for the site of the old Falconi Honda and Acura dealership, owned by Angelo Falconi.
Once the entitlements were in place for mixed-use condo development, the land value went from $6 million or $7 million to about $30 million, said Mike Bellon, Pinnacle's development director and developer of Falconi's automobile dealerships.
With no debt service on the land, securing mezzanine and construction financing almost became a cinch, Bellon said.
"It basically made the project sound," he said. "We were able to get the funding easily because we had no debt. So we haven't had to go out and borrow initially."
Pinnacle's 410-foot, 36-story towers will have 1,095 units, including 31 separate two-story townhouses that wrap around the pool deck and five sky-bridge residences suspended between the two towers.
"You literally live in the air. There's nobody above you and nobody below you," Bellon said.
Prices start in the high $300,000s for the lower floors to $5 million for the penthouse suites.
Falcon Group is a joint venture between Falconi, who still owns dealerships in Pittsburgh; Plaxis Resources, a real estate development firm in Pittsburgh; and Elysium Enterprises, led by Bellon.
Pinnacle's development team includes Youngblood Wucherer Sparer Architects, Attanasio Landscape Architecture, Cleo Design and MARC USA Advertising.
Bellon said final site development plans are being reviewed by the county, construction documents are being drawn up and negotiations are under way with two contractors.
"It's very difficult to find a contractor," he said. "Toronto, Miami, San Diego, Chicago -- the costs to build are cheaper in those towns. It's difficult, but we're in a fortunate position. When the contractors and banks look at us, it's simple because it's basically debt-free."
The Onyx, on the site of the former Tropicana Inn Hotel, has already sold 57 of its 63 units at an average of $530 a square foot, said Aaron Dean, principal of San Diego-based Crestone Cos. The units are priced from $385,000 to $950,000.
"I take great pride in spending less than $50,000 on marketing and having 57 hard sales," Dean said. "Every unit has 10-foot ceilings, stone floors, wool carpet, granite counters. No upgrades are available. It is what it is."
Financing for the $28 million project is 100 percent in place, design work is complete and planned-use development has been approved, Dean said. Phoenix-based Summit Builders is the general contractor for the four-story project. The Federal Aviation Administration still has to approve the plans.
Crestone has developed mixed-use projects with apartments and condos in San Diego's downtown Gaslamp Quarter, along with single-family housing and hotel revitalization.
Vantage Lofts is being built by Las Vegas-based Slade Development at the southwest corner of Gibson Road and Paseo Verde Parkway. Expected completion of the first phase is fourth quarter 2006.
The $160 million project consists of one- and two-bedroom flats, townhomes and two-story, urban-style lofts ranging from 1,000 square feet to 2,600 square feet. Most of the units are in the $450,000 range, going up to $1.6 million, Slade Development Chief Executive Officer Chad Slade said.
"We want to create an urban living environment that combines creative design, attention to detail and a level of finishes unique to Las Vegas living," he said.
REAL ESTATE: Las Vegas housing
11/25/05: Las Vegas Review Journal
Article Written By Hubble Smith
New home sales and prices continue to increase. Home Builders Research reported 3,310 new sales in October, bringing the year-to-date total to 30,684, up nearly 30 percent from a year ago.
The median new home price was $295,057, an increase of $22,127, or 8.1 percent, from last year. Excluding apartment conversions, the median price shot to $335,091, a 22.8 percent increase.
Larry Murphy, president of SalesTraq, reported similar numbers. His median new home price was $297,289, up 6.4 percent from October 2004. He has existing home prices at $285,000, relatively flat from $284,500 in September, but up 14 percent from a year ago.
Murphy said there is no housing bubble in Las Vegas, nor will there be one in the near future.
Homes are spending an average of 39 days on the market, which defines Las Vegas as a red-hot housing market, Murphy said. Homes sell within 60 days in a hot market and 90 days in an average market, he said.
The number of resales topped 50,000, with 4,566 closings in October. However.
The new home market is on pace for a record year and last week's Bureau of Land Management public auction sets the stage for 12,000 to 14,000 more homes coming to North Las Vegas.
Standard Pacific, a home-builder partner with Olympia Group, which paid $639 million for 2,675 acres, has announced that construction on the single-family homes, townhouses and apartments will begin in late 2007, with completion expected eight years later.
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