Office vacancies are up to a 17 year high at 17.4%. Obviously, a quick look at inventory will show you that some buildings have higher occupancy than others, and that the usual factors are at play — price, location, lease terms. That building in poor repair, or with unreasonably high rents and other costs, or in the middle of nowhere, or with security issues, or with a lousy allowance for tenant improvements is going to have a lower occupancy rate (higher vacancy rate) than a building without those problems.

Nevertheless, what is bad news for investors may be great news for new and/or growing business ventures. High vacancy puts potential tenants in a great position to negotiate a favorable lease.

While commercial real estate is not my area of expertise, I will gladly refer interested parties to a qualified licensee.

Prof tells us it’s going to be at Las Vegas Blvd and Harmon, near CityCenter. Anchoring will be the Strip’s 4th Walgreens, providing not only prescriptions but also cheap souvenirs, bottled water, and sundries. Walgreens won’t be the only retailer in the 3 story, $25,000,000 project, but it will take 100,000 square feet — 1100 times bigger than my first apartment, 7.6 times bigger than the typical chain drug store, and 80% the size of a typical Home Depot. No word when developer BPS Partners will open the leasing office.

These pictures of Death Valley wildflowers were too good not to pass along.

As a bonus, here’s an item on a new report speculating that the Las Vegas Valley may be overbuilt. While this may not be good news, it does mean that there are some great housing and commercial real estate bargains to be had right now.

Due to scheduling issues beyond my control, Friday Figures will probably be published tomorrow afternoon instead of tomorrow morning. Any inconvenience this may cause is regrettable.

Hooters Las Vegas is currently in default, and is trying to restructure $147 million in debt.

More on the Cosmopolitan: Deutsche Bank has had to write down a half billion euros — about $748 million — and there is no clear opening date in sight.

I’ve said before that the housing crisis will not be over until the banking crisis is over as well. The two are just too intertwined. Well, banking reforms may be further away than we would like, and the TARP is looking more like a cover-up than a life-preserver every day. In fact, I am more certain than ever that as bad an idea as it is, it would have been a better use of taxpayer money to put up to $100,000 towards every American mortgage than to continue to prop up huge banks that aren’t accountable to anybody. At least paying off people’s mortgages would have changed the fact that we now have record high delinquency rates.

Housing starts — that’s beginning construction of new housing — is at a new low. Permits to build housing are down too. Surprisingly, that’s a good thing if you think we have an oversupply of housing. It of course isn’t very good news at all if you work in construction.

I do have to say that I am very concerned by the disconnect between the economy you and I see on the streets and the economy that Wall Street is apparently enjoying. I can’t see the Wall Street economy continuing forever, nor pulling the rest of the nation up. Let’s face it, most jobs are not created by huge publicly traded corporations, but rather by the small businesses that are having a hard time getting financing right now. And until we have enough jobs, the housing industry will have something less than smooth sailing.

And on a happy note, there is a movement to create a new national park in the Northwest part of town. An area called the Upper Las Vegas Wash is home to many fossils.

The FDIC is ordering the liquidation of properties held by Corus Bankshares, which the FDIC took over last week. Corus lent a lot of money to condo developers locally:

Other local projects [besides One Las Vegas and Streamline Towers] financed by Corus include Meridian ($111.3 million), Platinum ($87.6 million), Loft 5 ($56.5 million), Juhl ($106.2 million), Newport Lofts ($67.1 million), Panorama Towers ($236.3 million), Village Green ($60 million), the Residence Las Vegas ($56.8 million), Soho Lofts ($49.3 million), Copper Canyon ($43 million), Boulders at Lone Mountain ($40.2 million), Verano ($39.5 million) and Spanish Palms ($28.2 million).

At least 3 condo developments and one commercial property are likely to be sold. Of $7 billion in loans, $2 billion are “non-performing” — bank talk for not being paid. While this could be a great opportunity for a well-capitalized investor, it more likely spells future trouble for our luxury and high rise condo market.

The foreclosure problem is has been so bad here that Las Vegas, North Las Vegas, Henderson, and Clark County are teaming up to best get and use Federal stimulus money.

People who signed up to buy condos in the City Center project are not very happy right now. They bought near the top of the market, and prices in general have plunged 52% since then according to Case and Shiller. Worse yet, many of the people who bought high and early were MGM executives and high rollers. Ouch.

This is more interesting than bad, but the nice folks at Rain City Guide wonder about the wisdom of spending lots of money on rooms your family doesn’t even use.

Office vacancy is up to 15.9%, and apartment vacancy rates are at at 22 year high.

And mortgage fraud is is up… or at least awareness of it is.

If you want the good news too, come back tomorrow for Friday Figures. I will be focusing on year-over-year figures. Except for the drop in prices, things aren’t that bad.

Because Vegas has lost jobs over the last year, our population is down. And that in turn has caused apartment vacancy rates to rise and rents have dropped to 2006 levels.

Economist and real estate expert Robert Shiller (whose name you may recall from the Case-Shiller index) says that real estate prices will continue to drop “for some time.” Please remember that he is speaking about a nationwide trend, not particularly about any specific real estate market.

Important news for our do-it-yourself crowd! If your home is in an unincorporated section of Clark County (NV) and perhaps you’ve forgotten to pull a permit on a home project, you can still make your upgrades perfectly legal and avoid penalties through a permit amnesty program. Contact the county right away, because this program won’t last long. If you are in Las Vegas, North Las Vegas, or Henderson, you will still have to deal with the city permit office.

In News of the Obvious, someone points out that the real estate market won’t really get better nationwide until we have better job creation numbers. Since it’s been months since jobs were really created in this nation, and we spent most of the first half of the decade not making as many new jobs as were really needed, it may take a while to catch up.

A bad economy, lost jobs, and lost real estate values have created a situation where foreclosure is now no longer a sub-prime problem. Nor is the problem just in residential real estate any more: commericial defauls are at a 17 year high.

Here in Nevada, our legislature passed a bill to require mediation in some foreclosure actions. The rules for these mediation sessions are currently being written by our courts. I predict that most homeowners trying to force mediation will discover that large multi-state banks are federally regulated, and banks will claim they are exempt from this state requirement. The truth is there is very little state regulators and courts can do to them.

New rules that were supposed to make appraisals more uniform and less subject to influence by Realtors and lenders are actually making things worse.

And last, a bit of humor — Squat 2 Own Realty. I do NOT advocate any of the methods described! It’s strictly meant as humor. On a serious note, pay attention when viewing “vacant” homes, because they are a target for real life squatters.

First, a big Welcome Home! to almost 300 airmen of Nellis Air Force Base, returning from overseas missions. 

Another welcome sign, Mojave Max has emerged from his hibernation at the Desert Tortoise Conservation Center. That makes it “officially spring” for some Las Vegans. 

If you live in Vegas, your mortgage is with Chase, and you are having trouble making payments, please be aware of their Nevada Homeownership Center near N Rainbow and 215. They would rather help you out than own yet more houses.

Maybe things are slower than usual here in Vegas, but City Center is still under construction, with parts set to open later this year. 

It seems that in many parts of the country, apartment vacancy rates are way up! While it is true that when people lose their jobs, they often lose their means for paying for housing, I wonder where all those residents have gone. Mom and Dad’s place? Bunking with friends? I wonder what will happen when summer “leasing season” arrives.

Last item: Realtors, their clients, and title officers need to be on the lookout for mortgage fraud. Read your closing statements. Do your best to understand them. Here’s a place to start. Ask for explanations where you do not understand. If it’s not on the closing statement, it isn’t supposed to happen. 

I’ll see you again for Friday Figures!

This morning, we have news that the Fontainebleau Las Vegas has adequate funding to keep building, and is still on track for opening this coming fall. More:

The Las Vegas resort promises 28 restaurants and lounges including a 5,000-square-foot “chocolate experience,” award-winning chefs including Alfred Portale and Scott Conant, Michelin-rated Cantonese cuisine, a noodle shop and a gelato bar. Fontainebleau also will feature a 60,000-square-foot spa with 33-foot-high ceilings above plunge pools, “hypnotic columns of light” and “varying intensities of rain showers.” At least four outdoor pools will offer various settings, including a “whimsical topiary garden,” a bar with an open kitchen and Champagne and caviar service poolside.

The Las Vegas resort had planned to sell as many as 1,000 condo-hotel units, which banks have largely sworn off as risky investments.

Some analysts say Fontainebleau might end up renting the condo-hotel units as regular hotel rooms if they don’t sell.

This is great news for the local economy. Historically, a Vegas hotel room creates 2 jobs working in the resort, and more jobs within the community for a total of 7 jobs per hotel room. This facility will have 3,815 rooms, not counting any condos that will become suites. Between jobs at the hotel, jobs at the 28 restaurants, jobs at the spa, it’s easy to see the 2 jobs. It’s a little more difficult to measure the jobs in the community as cashiers, accountants, teachers, lawyers, and others. So this project will create a bare minimum of 7,600 jobs, and perhaps as many as 26,700 jobs across the Valley!

Of course, all these people are going to need places to live. Fortunately, we have roughly 17,000 single family homes, 1,300 townhomes, and 3,200 condos available right now, with a median price of $175,000, down 44% from the peak. 

If you need a place to live in Vegas, please click the “Contact Me!” link in the sidebar, or call the number at the top of the page now! I can help you find everthing from affordable housing to dream homes in gated communities, saving your valuable time.

First, from the “I sure hope so” files, we have the prospect of a high-speed train between Vegas and Los Angeles.  The Governor of Nevada is asking President-Elect Obama to consider it for part of his stimulus plan. The Governors of both Nevada and California endorse the plan. I think it’s a great idea that will help tourism in both cities.  It will save time and gas.  Furthermore, a stop in Jean is just what the not-yet-constructed Ivanpah airport will need!

Now, a little warning about winter weather. In an unheated home, if temperatures get below freezing, pipes can and will freeze and break!  This can cause thosands of dollars of damage. Since roughly half of the 17,000 available homes in the Greater Las Vegas MLS system are vacant, it’s a risk near you. Realtors, check your personal listings and your pending sale listings. Neighbors, keep an eye out for signs of problems if there are vacant homes near you. I know a lot of sellers don’t want to “waste money” heating a home nobody is living in, but it’s well worth while if it keeps the house’s value from being destroyed by water damage.

As bad as the foreclosure mess has been in residential real estate, we may be just beginning to see a wave of problems in commercial real estate.  Several chains have announced permanent closures. There are of course also small retailers that are being driven out of business by the current state of the economy.  That means there will be lots and lots of vacant retail space in the coming year.  How prepared are the owners to weather extended high vacancy rates?

And finally, this Las Vegas Review Journal article about mortgage “walkaways,” where people just stop paying and let the bank take it back. Things have gotten bad enough that some mortgage brokers are doing it too!

I hope everybody is enjoying the Holidays!  Merry Christmas and Happy Hannukah!