March 2009 | Jeff Howard's Las Vegas Area Real Estate blog

B of A buys Countrywide – Maybe monopolies are a good idea?

A good friend of mine currently works for Countrywide Mortgage, but will be working for Bank of America soon. Is he changing jobs? No. B of A is preparing to finalize the deal which has so far kept them profitable. That’s right, B of A credits their liquidity to the acquisition of CW. Neither B of A, nor CW seem to be in very bad shape! When was the last time we heard any bad news about CW?

CW is writing a lot of loans for investors with excellent credit and at least 20% down, as well as First Time Home Buyers. Las Vegas has been a hotbed for this activity, but the loans are being written nationwide. You hear so much negativity everywhere about banks not lending and the so called ‘credit crunch’. Well if you want to call responsible lending a bad idea, then be my guest, but the truth is, money is flowing into the housing market and though there are fewer loans being written these days, the loans that are being written have a much smaller chance of default than what was being written just 2 years ago. I think that is more helpful to us than just making loans for the sake of moving some money around.

Here in Las Vegas, you see more investors showing up to take advantage of the real estate prices. Check out the percentage of owner occupied homes in Las Vegas over the past 6 months in the chart at the bottom of this post.

Notice anything? Don’t be last! Are you ready to begin investing in Las Vegas real estate? Now is the time. Really. What are you waiting for? If you would like help buying real estate in Las Vegas, whether for your personal use, or for investment, please contact me.
www.CapeCodAREI.com/contact

Month	TotalSales	OwnerOcc	%
Feb 2009	2,540	1,438	57%
Jan 2009	2,484	1,477	59%
Dec 2008	3,032	1,882	62%
Nov 2008	2,657	1,660	62%
Oct 2008	3,106	2,215	71%
Sept 2008	2,436	2,436	70%

Las Vegas home prices stabilizing?

I just became aware of some very interesting statistics about the Las Vegas housing market. First I want to make sure you understand that the information in this particular post only pertains to Single Family Homes (SFR’s) and does not include Condo’s, Town Homes, multi-family or any other Las Vegas real estate.

For the first time in over 2 years, prices have been stable; for 9 straight weeks $180,000 is the median price and holding; even better, the supply of homes has decreased and demand for homes under $300,000 has increased. The local real estate market is behaving somewhat normally. 9 weeks ago we had 101 days supply available, now we have 66 days of supply and the number of properties going under contract are up.

What does this mean? Are we out of the woods? I seriously doubt it, but these are good indicators that good things are starting to happen. I will tell you that this past weekend, as my good friend was driving back to Las Vegas from Los Angeles, he said that the traffic going towards L.A. was horrible – then he corrected himself and said that he would not have wanted to be driving in that traffic, but that it was good for Las Vegas.

It’s true that we still have problems here, but these are good things. Are you ready to begin investing in Las Vegas real estate? Now is the time. Really. What are you waiting for? If you would like help buying real estate in Las Vegas, whether for your personal use, or for investment, please contact me.
www.MyFastEasySale.com

UPDATE – M Resort, Las Vegas

A couple of days ago I wrote about the new jobs being created in Las Vegas. (http://jeffhoward.net/2009/03/02/job-creation-is-happening-in-las-vegas/) My good friend visited the M resort last night with another friend of his for dinner. They went to Veloce Cibo, which the web site claims ‘the food may leave you speechless’. The LACK of food had them anything but speechless. They were sat more than 30 minutes after their reservation time, and within an hour of sitting down, they had only received their appetizer. They complained 3 times to management and there were empty tables in the restaurant. My guess is that the M resort is still hiring, or at least I hope they are so they can have the right personell to handle their customers.

Job creation is happening in Las Vegas

Last night, M Resort opened with nearly 2000 new hires, 12,000 more jobs are coming to City Center later this year, followed by thousands more expected from Cosmopolitan and Fontainebleau Resorts. These jobs have always created multiple spin-off jobs in the local area to not only support the properties, but additional services needed for more business and residents added in the community. Everyone of those employees need a place to buy groceries, clothes, gas and more.

Other service businesses continue to grow here as well. If you are a landscape contractor or want to start a pool maintenance company, we constantly have more lawns and more pools. That is what happens when 5000+ people move into your area every month.

There is the new airport, the Wal-Mart distribution center and a new call center for the City of Las Vegas Redevelopment Agency, which could be bringing as many as 2500 more jobs. A few days ago Ecompass Group Affiliates, an electronics repair, parts, and logistics firm, announced they will be opening their own 38,000 square foot Las Vegas center. It will be located in ProLogis Park, where Amazon.com and Monster Cable have located in a 513,000 square foot building.

These latest non-hospitality jobs are not only a further diversification of the Las Vegas economy, they are a sign that the lower commercial and industrial rents and property pricing have made Las Vegas an even more appealing market to enter. With it’s low-to-no tax structure, technology, communications and connectivity infrastructure, and logistics capabilities it offers so much to business locating in Las Vegas.

Relocation.com ranked Las Vegas as their top relocation city for 2008, and has predicted Las Vegas as the top relocation destination again for 2009. Other predictions and surveys have also ranked Las Vegas high among top relocation cities of 2009. This doesn’t come as a surprise as many (like me) in recent years have been looking to escape the cold nasty weather for warmer climates. Frankly, I don’t know how people live in those places.

Remember, Las Vegas has more non-gaming entertainment per square mile than anywhere else in the world. Add no personal income taxes and it becomes more apparent. Combine this with the fantastic bargains in Las Vegas single family homes, and it becomes an even more attractive destination. All of this also provides businesses an ability to present these perks to potential hires, and to their additional advantage, an apparent desire of many wanting to relocate to Las Vegas.

No, we are not out of the woods yet, but this is where you are going to want your investment dollars, because Las Vegas will emerge earlier than any other metropolitan area.

If you would like help buying real estate in Las Vegas, whether for your personal use, or for investment, please contact me.
www.CapeCodAREI.com/contact