Today we have more information on the bridge being built parallel to the Hoover Dam. It’s a 1900 foot span, 900 ft above the river. Although you’ll be able to see the bridge from the Dam, only pedestrians will be able to see the Dam from the bridge. Also, traffic patterns to will be different once the bridge opens, so be alert to changes if you’ve traveled this way before.

When I have new clients come from out-of-town, one of the things they always ask about is the schools. What are the “best” school districts? Are any of them in financial trouble?

As a matter of state law, Nevada’s school districts are organized by county. There’s only one school district for each of our 17 counties. So there isn’t a Henderson school district, a North Las Vegas school district, a Paradise or Winchester or Sunrise Manor school district — it’s all just part of Clark County School District from Primm to Blue Diamond to Mount Charleston. This means that small towns and the rural areas around them don’t have to worry about coming up with the money for their own school districts, and it eliminates some of the problems of “poor” and “rich” schools. It also means that CCSD is the 5th largest school district in the nation, with all the benefits and problems of being a large school district.

Many people still ask what the best schools are. Unfortunately, I can’t answer that question. What is a good school? Every family has a different answer: some want strong academics, others want a variety of electives and extra-curriculars, some want a high graduation rate (which sadly we do not have), others want a top-notch athletic program. Even if I could read minds and pair families with the “perfect” school, there is the risk that the district will re-draw the attendance boundaries next year. I always encourage parents to do their own research both at the CCSD site and at sites like GreatSchools or SchooGo.com.

One thing CCSD does have is some very well regarded magnet schools. Any student can apply (this year’s deadline is February 8), and admissions are competitive. Three of our magnet high schools are US News and World Report Silver Medalists, and 2 more are Bronze Medalists. Application deadline this year is February 8.

For those of you who have “live” Christmas trees, please be thinking about proper disposal of them after the holidays are over. One great option is “recycling” of trees. Starting this Saturday and running through January 15, you can drop your tree off for recycling at the Springs Preserve and 22 other locations across the valley. The trees will be turned into compost rather than allowed to rot in a landfill.

Christmas is Friday, so Friday Figures will be run on a special “holiday” schedule this week.

A few years ago, someone drove out here to visit me. Since she was planning on driving anyway, I gave her a little advice. I said “Vegas water is not exactly tasty stuff. And the big hotels will gladly charge you for bottled water. If you are smart, you’ll pull off the highway before you make it all the way to the Strip and buy yourself a cheap flat of water at a grocery store. If you don’t drink it while you’re here, you can always drink it on the way back home.”

Now an official study has declared what many people already knew: even though Vegas water meets Federal safety standards, it’s some of the worst municipal drinking water available in a major city. Vegas water comes from two main sources: underground springs and Lake Mead.

There are a lot of things that you can do to improve your water quality in Vegas without springing for bottled water. First, there’s water softeners. Most households in Vegas already have the “loop” to install one in the garage, if not a pre-installed unit. They work by a chemical reaction where sodium or potassium pulls calcium and magnesium out of the water. The salty “brine” left behind is then flushed as waste water. A common misconception is that you end up drinking salty water, but it turns out that the water softener only adds a very small amount of sodium, far less than you get from typical processed foods.

Many househholds also have filtration systems for their drinking water. These systems can be as simple as a filtering pitcher — or it’s larger undersink filtration cousins — or as complicated as a reverse osmosis system. There are a lot of different kinds of filter systems, each with its own benefits, drawbacks, and costs. In addition to the installation cost, don’t forget to consider the ongoing cost of filter materials. A guide like this one can help you pick the right sort of system before you start talking to salesmen (whose job is to convince you that his system is best!). It is worth noting that most refrigerators with icemakers have filters built into them. It is my personal experience that these filters usually need to be replaced every 6-9 months.

Remember that these filter systems are also very likely to remove chlorine from water. While this will make it taste better, it also means there is nothing left to kill germs in it anymore. So be sure to drink up or stick it in the fridge soon after filtering.

Of course, if you have time and patience, it is possible to cheaply purify your own water at home. This is a skill which will also serve if you are someplace where the water system has been compromised or if you are camping.

To get the most detailed information possible about Vegas’s water, be sure to check out the information available from the Southern Nevada Water Authority.

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.

see more Funny Graphs

Granted, they are quite late to the party, but The Market Oracle is talking about Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac’s role in the housing bubble (and therefore the housing collapse that came afterwards).

Don’t even think about trying to fraudulently claim the first time buyer’s tax credit. The IRS is looking for people who do that.

Has housing hit bottom? I don’t know. I think it entirely depends which local housing market we are talking about. The good news is that prices nationwide are up for the first time in 3 years.

Unpaid property taxes are becoming  a problem for municipalities. It is important to remember that just about everybody who has a mortgage pays those property taxes automatically out of an escrow account run by the mortgage company. Should the mortgagee be in default, banks are still pretty good about making sure those taxes are paid off. It then stands to reason that if those taxes are not paid, it is either people who have completely paid off their mortgages, or banks that are shirking obligations.

And last, TheStreet.com has noticed that “About 70% of the Las Vegas-area houses and condos that resold in June were foreclosure resales, meaning those homes had been foreclosed on in the prior 12 months. That was up from 59% in June 2008 but the lowest for any month since it was 68.9% last December.” Notice that their definition of bank owned is that it’s been foreclosed in the last 12 months. Seeing as I can think of a half dozen currently listed addresses off the top of my head that have been bought from the bank, quickly renovated, and put back on the market long before the 12 month mark, I think that number is high.

See everyone in the morning for Friday Figures!

T.G.I.F., it’s Friday Figures! All information from the GLVAR MLS system. It’s everything you and your Realtor should know about Vegas real estate market conditions before touring, making an offer, or listing a home this weekend.

Summary: Available inventory continues to drop, while median prices on on those listings remains stable (median prices overall dropped because of changes in the mix of houses vs condos). Distressed properties continue to sell briskly; if trends continue and we don’t have an abnormally large number of new listings, bank-owned listings could return to a more normal percentage of availabilities by the end of the year (a big if). While bargain hunters are still active in low-priced segments, a surprising number of higher priced properties moved off the availability lists this week. The gap between time on market for available units vs time on market for sold units suggests that very desirable and “right priced” homes are selling much faster than anything else.

Available listings for sale:  There are 10853 available single family homes, 3398 condominiums and townhomes. Current median list price dropped again to $166,900, and median time on market has dropped substantially to 104 days. At the beginning of last month, we had 12898 available single family homes, 3957 condominiums and townhomes.

Distressed Properties: Of those listings, 5853 are noted as short sales and 3143 are bank-owned.  Median price for a short sale is unchanged at $139,000; Median price on bank-owned is down at $112,900. This drop is probably because higher priced properties are being purchased, rather than a drop in prices. Non-distressed properties for sale had a median price of $340,000, up from last week. At the beginning of last month, 6523 were short sales and 4502 were bank-owned.

Contingent and Pending listings: Properties in the process of being purchased are 10336 single family homes, 2222 condos and townhomes. Median asking price of contingent houses barely down at $148,900; median asking price of contingent condos/townhomes is unchanged at $70,900. The accepted price is confidential until the sale closes. At the beginning of last month we had 9194 single family homes, 1785 condos and townhomes pending.

Single Family Home Prices: Of available listings, 241 under $50,000; 1650 between $50,000-$100,000; 4396 between $100,000-$200,000; 3073 between $200,000-$500,000; 915 between $500,000-$1,000,000; and 738 over $1,000,000. The drop in inventory over a half million dollars is notable. Median price on an available single family home is unchanged for an amazing 4th week at $179,900; median price per square foot is still $94. At the beginning of last month we had 241 under $50,000; 1901 between $50,000-$100,000; 5477 between $100,000-$200,000; 3708 between $200,000-$500,000; 986 between $500,000-$1,000,000; and 755 over $1,000,000.

Condo and Townhome Prices: 417 under $50,000; 1143 between $50,000-$100,000; 972 between $100,000-$200,000; 542 between $200,000-$500,000; 236 between $500,000-$1,000,000; and 147 over $1,000,000. Median asking price on these units remained the same at $115,000; median price per square foot is $100. At the beginning of last month we had 482 under $50,000 (back under 500, still up month-over-month); 1384 between $50,000-$100,000; 1106 between $100,000-$200,000; 631 between $200,000-$500,000; 269 between $500,000-$1,000,000; and 157 over $1,000,000. The month-over-month numbers are quite impressive.

Recently sold: 967 properties have closed in the last week, a number that was expected to be high because of month-end and month-start activity. 4032 have closed in the last 30 days and 17372 have closed since the first of the year. Of the properties closed in the last week, an amazing 139 properties were on the market less than a week; 81 were on the market more than 6 months; median dropped yet again to 39 days (median time on market including the contingent period also dropped to 106 days). Median sales price rose to $130,450 and median list price jumped to $132,500.  At the beginning of last month, median sales price was only $125,000 and median list price was $129,900.

Rentals: 4730 homes, townhomes, and condos were available for rent in the Valley according to the MLS system — up from last week. 123 are willing to consider a lease-option. There are 532 contingent leases and 1715 leases signed in the last 30 days. On May 1, there were 4761 available rentals.

Other information: Visitors, please be aware that Monsoon Season has begun, and we may have windstorms and thunderstorms over the next few weeks. You may feel dumb putting rain gear in your bag for a trip to Vegas, but you never know. One more detail, the spread between conventional and FHA mortgage interest rates seems to be narrowing. Be sure to weigh all your options before you choose a mortgage product!

You can always reach me by clicking the “Contact Me!” link in the sidebar or call the number at the top of the page. I am available to help both buyers and sellers at the present time, subject to change. Friday Figures is published by Bridget Magnus on BridgetMagnus.com and is her property, even though any GLVAR Realtor can access this data.

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!

A full month ago the Hope for Homeowners plan was declared “hopeless“, pointing out that the program designed to help 400,000 homeowners by now had closed a whopping 25 loans. That’s not even a hundreth of a percent of their goal. There were a lot of reasons it didn’t work, including high fees for homeowners and heavy losses for banks. 

Today, CNN reports that the program has only actually prevented one forclosure. In fact, they’ve only received 752 applications! The amazing part of that is that they receive thousands of calls each day. Nevertheless, Congress thinks the program can be “tweaked”. I doubt anything can save the program short of forcing bank participation, and I’m not sure that’s a good idea either. 

In other news, there are some signs that the market for pre-existing housing is stablizing, but there remains what some experts call a “distressing” gap between pre-existing home sales and new home sales.

This gap, in my opinion, is caused by the fact that some bank-owned and short-sale homes are being sold for prices the builders simply can’t compete with. If you have $150,000 to spend on housing, which would you prefer: a slightly older but bigger home on a bigger lot that needs some work; or something with “new house smell”? 

I’d like to close with a local interest item. Las Vegas is in the desert. Our water company reminds us of this regularly in radio and print ads. This last Sunday, the local paper published a list of the 100 biggest residential water users, noting that their use could have covered 1950 “normal” users. By way of counterpoint, here’s 5 cheap ways to save 1000 gallons of water every year in your home. If you pay for your own water, you can’t afford not to read it.

While homebuilder confidence remains near a record low, it turns out that actual housing starts are up 22% mostly due to apartments (official Census report). It sounds like the homebuilders have put in a “panic bottom”.

Renters, beware of the NAR lease scam. “In this scam, rental property is offered to consumers, who are led to believe that NAR is functioning as an intermediary to receive rental deposits from prospective tenants and, upon receipt of the deposit, to deliver the keys to the property to the tenant. The tenant is instructed to send money via Western Union to NAR’s purported agent, in the United Kingdom. NAR is not involved in this business and believes it is a scam.” At least it isn’t Elvis. 

A new HUD and DOT initiative is designed to tackle both housing and transportation costs at the same time. Many Americans have found themselves in a situation where they can’t really afford to live anyplace near their work. This is expensive and stressful for the entire family. 

This morning, I was forwarded a report on average closing prices here in Clark County. No shock that prices have declined again and foreclosure sales are up.  Prices are down roughly 60% from their peak, and have declined for 11 straight months. But the rate of decline is slowing. Greed and fear say to wait for prices to fall more, but the fact is that we won’t know where bottom is until prices begin to rise again. That’s one of several reasons I track not only average prices, but the number of homes in various price ranges.

At least we aren’t in Detroit, where the median home price is $7500, roughly what you would pay for a Hyundai. Yet more evidence that housing markets are fundamentally local, not national.

And one last item, how to spend time in Vegas without spending money.

I hope everyone will join me tomorrow for Friday Figures!

In the meantime, if you have a real estate need, please be sure to click the “Contact Me!” link in the sidebar, or just call the phone number at the top of the page.