The real estate market is like a giant boat:  it has a lot of momentum, it takes a while to get where it’s going, and it takes a lot to get it turned.  In the case of Las Vegas, tugboats are already on the scene, nudging us towards safe harbor.

The Review Journal picked up this article by Jim Woodard called Buyers can find benefits by making home purchase in current market. His main points are that record inventory means incredible selection, there are no bidding wars (well, personal experience suggests “few”), and interest rates on a 30 year fixed mortgage of under 6%. Sure, these things are true other places as well.

The other item is from Inman News, a great source of news and insight into the real estate market nationwide.  They actually took the time to tell us Second-home buyers flocking to Las Vegas.  They specifically talk about the City Center project, with “18.6 million-square-foot, $7.4 billion hotel, casino, retail and residential complex on 76 prime acres”, hiring “7,000 tradesmen and 350 supervisory personnel”, where “60 percent of all residences, starting at $500,000, have sold in the past 10 months.” Many of these units are being purchased as secondary residences, according to the article.  This says nothing of the jobs that will be created when their “60-story, 4,000-room hotel and casino” opens.  Of course, this is only 10% of the hotel rooms currently scheduled to come online in the Valley over the next few years.

One last local note:   Maybe you don’t have a half million dollars for a high-rise condo vacation home on the strip; but if one looks very carefully at the chart of the Case-Shiller Home Price Index, it looks very suspiciously like homes in Vegas can be purchased for near 2004 prices.  Follow the emerald green line. Or money green if you prefer to think of it that way.

Particularly if you are investing with non-US Dollar denominated currencies, you should take advantage of the current market.  Your Canadian Dollars, Yen, Euros, Pounds, Francs, or what-have-you go further now than they have in a very long time.