Archive for November, 2008

Odds and Ends 12

November 29, 2008

Yahoo and the Human Capital Institute asked “Imagine you were offered a dream job that required you to relocate to your favorite city. Which city would it be? And why?” Scroll down to see how Vegas fared: Affordability, which was No. 4 in last year’s list, is now the second-most important attribute workers consider before [...]

Posted in General Real Estate, Las Vegas Commercial Development, Vegas Economy Comments Off

It Figures

November 22, 2008

I’ve been studying the latest information on the Las Vegas housing market. This week, we had just under 17,000 single family homes available, and an additional 4500 condos and townhomes. Sure, prices are down almost 30% over last year, but actual closed sales are up over 40% from last year. That’s simple supply and demand: [...]

Posted in Las Vegas Condominiums, Las Vegas Real Estate, Las Vegas Rental and Apartments, Las Vegas Single Family Housing Comments Off

Who is to blame?

November 15, 2008

Every once in a while, somebody will ask me “Who is to blame for the current housing and foreclosure mess?”  Usually they want a short, snappy answer.  The truth is that there is a giant pie of blame, and there’s plenty to go around.  In no particular order, here are some of the culprits.  This [...]

Posted in Distressed Property, Mortgage and Financing, Politics, Realtors Comments Off

Is the foreclosure tide turning?

November 12, 2008

The Review-Journal reports that not only have local pre-foreclosures dropped, we have fewer bank-owned properties too.  Of course, that’s only a drop from the previous month;  we’re still way up over last year.  Nor is Vegas unusual, as we are more-or-less in line with the nationwide numbers. Could it be that all the various foreclosure [...]

Posted in Distressed Property, General Real Estate, Las Vegas Real Estate Comments Off

CitiBank and Others Working to Solve Foreclosure Problem

November 11, 2008

Rather than waiting for a government solution, Citi is joining institutions such as Bank of America and J.P. Morgan in preventing foreclosures.  It is estimated that the Citi effort alone will prevent 130,000 foreclosures on $20,000,000,000 of mortgages.  That’s $20 billion, or $20,000 million.  In addition, they will actively reach out to a half million [...]

Posted in Distressed Property, Las Vegas Real Estate, Mortgage and Financing Comments Off

Vegas Real Estate Continues to Plug Along

November 7, 2008

It is true that the number of single family homes available in the GLVAR MLS system is up from where it was last month.  However, it is also true that it is the 4th straight month of 3000+ actual closed sales.  We also have over 2000 “pending” (contract is signed, contingencies removed, just waiting for [...]

Posted in Las Vegas Real Estate Comments Off