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The featured home sale of the week comes from Summerlin real estate.  The condo at 801 Dana Hills Ct Unit 103 is located in a wonderful golf community “The Terraces.”  It has 2 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms and a 1 car attached garage.  Living space totals out at 1531 square feet. Given the fact that it’s in a golf course community, the HOA dues are a bit steep, $360 a month.

Looking back at the tax records this Summerlin condo was built and purchased in November of 1999 for $172,377.  The bank took possession of the property at the Trustees Sale in May of 2009 for $184,863.  The property was originally listed for $199,900 but eventually reduced to $134,925.  After being actively on the market for 2 months it closed last week for a sales price of $134,925.

The key is still location, location and location!  Even though home prices have declined “The Terraces” as a community has not.  It is still a very beautiful and desirable place to live.  This sale is a great example of the many investment opportunities out there right now.

At any given time Welcome Home Nevada features many real estate opportunities just like this one.  Many of them are bank owned, distressed or just deals we have located on the open market.  Let us know how we can help with your Las Vegas Real Estate success.

The goal is to look at the Las Vegas real estate numbers for the prior week to see if there are any interesting trends or general market information that could be useful.   Here is the market research from last week.  It will be organized in the categories we plan to follow in future weeks.

Actively Listed on the Las Vegas MLS
SFR – 8950
Condos – 1207
Town Homes – 741
Highest List Price - $18,500,000
Lowest List Price – $14,355
Short Sales Listed – 4964

Las Vegas Homes under Contract
SFR – 11,858
Condo - 1923
Town Homes - 920
Highest List Price - $4,999,000 - Custom Home on Bear’s Best Golf Club
Lowest List Price - $7,000 - Converted Double Wide
Short Sales under Contract - 10025

Las Vegas Real Estate Sold (Last 30 days)
SFR – 2372
Condo – 413
Town Home – 184
Highest List Price – $4,000,000 - Custom Home on TPC course in Summerlin
Lowest List Price – $20,000 - Condo on Sunrise Mountain
Short Sales Closed – 699

The gap between the high list price and low list price for the Actively Listed Category caught my attention.  Remember a house is not worth what someone is asking, it’s only worth what someone will pay for it.  Sellers can ask for any amount but if a buyer is not willing to pay for it, there is no deal.

The property at the high list price of $18,500,000 is located in the Southern Highlands Real estate area.  It is a 4 parcel plot of land setting in a gated cul-de-sac.  The property is being sold as a private estate.  Homes include custom pools, guest quarters and many other wonderful features.

The property at the low list price of 14,500 is located on Jeffreys Avenue by Tropicana and Eastern. It is a 1 bedroom/1 bathroom Las Vegas Condo and is being sold in “as is” condition, with no Sellers Real Property Disclosure being provided.  This is a cash only deal.

The problems of the Lake Las Vegas real estate bankruptcy seem to continue. Most recently the Ritz-Carlton announced it will be closing operations at the Resort in May of 2010.  This is a huge blow to the already troubled desert resort.

There are two leading stakeholders at this point, two parties that have the most to gain.  The first is the Lake Las Vegas homeowners.  These people have paid a lot of money to live in this great resort.  They do in fact have the most to lose; home values and quality of life.  The second is the city of Henderson, NV.  This is one of the most recognized destinations in the city.  It would be a terrible circumstance to allow the project to go under.  Recovery would take a very long time.  Guess it goes without saying; Henderson is also the beneficiary of tax revenue.  They are the only ones still getting paid on this deal, literally.

I was impressed to hear the Henderson homeowners taking a uniquely active roll in the community.  They have gone to a lot of trouble to raise money from amongst themselves to pay for the water bill so The Falls golf course can be cared for.  It looks like the owner is planning to abandon it if they have not done so already.

The City of Henderson has agreed to take on the role of mediator but I cannot see what they are going to mediate.  The homeowners do need help but the battle here is between developers and creditors, not the city.  The whole thing comes down to money so unless they can offer some incentives that bring value to the table I don’t know what good the city will be able to do.

Both stakeholders seem committed to the success of this Henderson real estate project but the details are very cumbersome.

There are many great opportunities in the Las Vegas Valley to do something good for someone else.  Next weekend, March 13, 2010, will be one of those events.  Lake Las Vegas real estate will host a Brew Fest to benefit a local cause, the New Vista Ranch.

The venue will be the ever stylish MonteLago Village Resort. Whether you are a fanatic of fine beers or just a weekend warrior, it’s an effortless way to sample the work of the best breweries in the region.  All in the name of a good cause of course.  Attendees might want to prepare a bit for this event as we expect there to be 75 beers on tap.  The hotel is offering special packages for the event.

New Vista Ranch has been serving the needs of disabled adults in the area since 1984. The goal is to make sure every client is afforded the same opportunities as any other citizen.  Living arrangements include group homes, transitional living and supporting living arrangements depending on the individual needs.  This organization does some great work in the area so come out and offer your support. We will see you there!

One of the various benefits of declining house prices is that property taxes should decline too.  The Clark County Assessor bases property taxes on an assessed value, which is calculated from the actual value.  Naturally if the actual values have dropped so should the assessed values and the tax amount.

In the spring of 2009 nearly 6,000 homeowners contested the assessed values on record.  80% of them won a reduction. These folks followed the required steps by calling the assessors office to get the paperwork and have it returned by January 15 of the following year.  The deadline for 2010 has now passed and homeowners should be receiving status updates from the assessor’s office soon.

I took a look at my tax card for this year and compared it to the year before.  The assessed value was down 40% from the year before. The property tax amount had dropped as well.  I had no reason to contest but I did have a good reason to call my mortgage company and make sure they were working with the same numbers.  Think about it, most homeowners have their loan impounded or escrowed.  The mortgage company receives the property tax bill directly from the assessor’s office and pays it once a year.  What happens if the mortgage company has the wrong property tax bill on file?  It means you may pay too much in taxes!

There is a possibility if a reduction is awarded to a homeowner that the mortgage company may not get the updated tax bill.  Don’t assume your bank received the correct tax bill.  Go ahead and contact your mortgage company and make sure the tax numbers are right.

President Obama recently visited Las Vegas and brought with him some great news.  He is establishing a special fund to help housing agencies located in the states that have suffered most in our recent housing crisis.  That most certainly includes Las Vegas real estate owners.

Though all the specifics have not been worked out what is known is that the resources will be used to help out of work homeowners and borrowers who owe more on their house than it is worth. Its possible Nevada could receive $100 million out of the $1.5 billion program allotment.

The ultimate goal is to stabilize the housing market so house prices will be able to rise again (hopefully sooner than later).  Market appreciation is a long term proposition but steps like this could certainly help real estate markets in the hardest hit areas take one step closer to stabilization.

At least one analyst is being positive.

Marta Borsanyi, a principal of a Concord Group, believes that a full recovery of the housing market for Las Vegas could come as quickly as 2011.  Concord Group is a Newport Beach, Calif-based real estate company.  This comes with news as the final January home sales numbers show a significant increase from last year.

One of the greatest signs of recovery are the thousands of new hotel rooms being opened on the strip.  In more conventional years, this has equaled new jobs, which conversely equals more home sales. 

Borsanyi points to the unique market of Las Vegas whose housing demand has a larger concentration of non-resident buyers than any other U.S. metropolitan area.

Home prices have continued to decline as 75% of the market is now being composed of foreclosed homes.  Last month, Las Vegas was cited as the emptiest city in America and on average, 1 in 78 homes a month is foreclosed upon. 

A client of mine sent the following article and asked me if this was the end of Vegas. 

Read it here:

http://realestate.yahoo.com/promo/americas-emptiest-cities.html

After reading the article I found myself feeling….well,…about the same as before.  This article really tells us what we already know.  The housing market in Vegas sky rocketed and then the bubble burst.  But what people may not be aware of is that Vegas still has roughly a net gain of 2,000 - 3,000 net gain a month in population.  Those people have to live somewhere.  Also, let me share this little bit with you.

Ask anyone how many homes are on the market and you’ll get a wide variety of answers.  One lady I spoke with recently said there were 50,000 homes for sale.  That’s a little high to say the least.  Here are the current stats:

Single Family Homes for Sale: 22,679

Condominiums: 4,079

Even that number can be deceiving.  For instance, let’s take the Single Family Homes (SFH) for instance.  Sure, there are currently 22,679 on the market.  But out of those, 6292 have had an offer accepted and are just waiting to close.  That leaves us with 16388.  But, take away all the short sales (of which, on 20% will go to contract and only 10% will be sold) and you are left with a true market of 10,858.  When you think of the fact that there are really only 11K ish homes available all over Las Vegas, that certainly doesn’t seem like too many, especially when you consider that at any given moment we have 6,000ish homes under contract.  So, one can expect that over half of that inventory will be unavailable in the next 30-45 days.  And this is FEBRUARY!  Think of what it will be like when summer comes and everybody who is going to move wants to do so between school years.  This could be one HOT summer!

Is Vegas over?  Maybe, but maybe not in the way you might think!

What does the stimulous package mean for Nevada residents?

On Monday, assembly speaker Barbara Buckley announced that Nevada is in line to recieve upwards of $480 million from the stimulus package passed by congress last week.  Questions of where it would go were answered with a vague response of education and transportation.

She estimated almost half of it would go towards immediate transportation needs which would provide some much needed jobs to help stimulate the economy.  Nevada’s unemployment rate has hovered around 9.1% since the fall with the 2008 average set to be announced on Feb. 27th by the US Department of Labor.

On this upcoming Wednesday, Senate majority speaker is set to address the Nevada legislation and is expected to elaborate on the funds and its use.  Buckley hoped the funds would be available for the start of the next fiscal year which begins on July 1st.

I’ve heard a lot of confusion lately as to the correct allowable seller concessions.  Here are the current allotments:

1.  When it is an FHA loan, sellers can give up to 6% of the sales price towards buyer’s closing costs.  

2.  When it is a VA loan, sellers can give up to 4% of the sales price towards buyer’s closing costs (can be more if you word it a certain way…if this is the case, call me and I’ll walk you through the write up).  

3.  When it is a conventional loan on a primary residence or 2^nd home the seller can give up to 3% of the sales price towards buyer’s closing costs if the buyer is putting 10% or less down.  

4.  When it is a conventional loan on a primary residence or 2^nd home the seller can give up to 6% of the sales price towards buyer’s closing costs if the buyer is putting 10-25% down 

5.  When it is a conventional loan on a primary residence or 2^nd home the seller can give up to 9% of the sales price towards buyer’s closing costs if the buyer is putting more than 25% down 

6.  If you have an investor purchasing a home the max seller contributions is 2% of the sales price.

Most buyers I work with tend to be quick to ask for seller contributions.  Understandably so.  If they can keep more cash in their pocket, it might be worth the time.   However, the fail to understand the basic math the comes along with asking for closing cost assistance.  If you offer $200K on a property and it is an FHA loan and request the maximum of 6% from the seller,  you are really only offering $182K on the property as you are asking for $18K back. 

Now, some people may say, “But I offered what they were asking for.”  But the truth is, you didn’t.  If they were asking $200K and you a put in the above example offer, you weakened your position by asking for closing costs. 

Bottom line, if you have the cash, it is better to not weaken and complicate the offer by asking for closing costs.  That way you will only pay the actual closing costs instead of overpaying and financing what you didn’t use.

If you don’t have the cash and need the seller to contribute, make sure you work with a lender who will provide a good faith estimate prior to writing your offer.  Then you can best estimate exactly how much to ask for and won’t be overcharging yourself.