It isn’t very often that I have something to say worth posting to both my personal and professional websites. This is one of those posts.
I am often asked by my relocating clients about “nice, safe neighborhoods.” This is honestly a trick question that I can’t really answer. I can point you to Metro‘s or Trulia‘s Crime Map, I can tell you what I like about various areas, I can tell you about historical resale trends. What I can’t and won’t do is say “Oh yes, that’s a great neighborhood and you shouldn’t have any problems there.” Not going to happen.
I can’t even say that gated communities are “safe.” A lot of people think it’s a “security gate,” but it’s only an “access gate” and it will only keep out people who want to be kept out. And what if the guy who wants to hurt you already belongs within the gates?
If you ask 10 random Las Vegans about desirable neighborhoods, at least 8 will mention Summerlin. Granted, one or two might use it in a sentence like “Well, a lot of people like Summerlin, but….” Of course “but” can lead many directions: but it’s kind of expensive, but the HOAs can be so picky, but it’s so far away from the Strip. I do think, however, that more than one of our imagined random people could be persuaded to say the area is “safe.”
Sadly, bad things happen in “nice, safe neighborhoods” too. Yesterday, a 19 year old was shot and killed in a Summerlin backyard. It’s a little unclear yet whether he was really trying to break in or was just cutting through the yard, or even whether he tried to get away after the first shot was fired.
Nobody really wants to live in a bad neighborhood. However, living in a “good” neighborhood is no magic spell preventing crime or tragedy.
Posted in Communities in Las Vegas by .
Mar 12
16
Friday Figures for 3/16/2012
It’s time for Friday Figures! All information from the GLVAR MLS system. Here’s the no-spin facts that you and your REALTOR really need to know about our local market before touring, making an offer, or preparing a listing in the Las Vegas Valley this weekend. Look for my YouTube video on the numbers later today!
Summary: While last year we had 15066 available listings, now there’s just 7834! That’s just a little more than half what we had then. This is the time to put property on the market and take advantage of the Law of Supply and Demand. Prices are up year over year, particularly for single family homes. Don’t listen to anybody who says Vegas prices are dropping, or anybody who says buyers are getting steep discounts off list price. Where we are seeing more listings is in non-distressed property and higher priced properties. A lucky 777 properties closed this week (and even prices inched up here), so have a lucky St Patrick’s Day.
The News: New foreclosure data is out, and we’re not out of the woods yet even though foreclosures are down and short sales are up. It’s clear that there was a lot of foreclosure fraud by the banks, so it will be interesting to see what happens as it is fully investigated. Good news on short sales: the feds want to set rules to make them go faster and smoother. Let’s see how that works out. I am seeing signs that more shorts are closing.
Someone other than me has finally noticed that the Vegas market is on fire! And it’s not just because of silly-low mortgage rates under 4%. Buyers need to be prepared for slim listings and make their strongest offer first.
Posted in Las Vegas Real Estate by .
Details are now publicly available. It still won’t do as much as expected, but at least criminal investigations and prosecutions are not off the table!
However, there may still be fallout and disagreements. Bank of America appears to have agreed to make a good number of pretty large mortgage modifications. It can’t be all good for consumers: JP Morgan Chase just announced a bigger dividend to stockholders.
Posted in Mortgage and Financing by .
Posted in General Real Estate by .
Mar 12
2
Friday Figures for 3/2/2012
It’s Friday again?? Must be time for Friday Figures! All information from the GLVAR MLS system. Here’s the no-spin facts that you and your REALTOR really need to know about our local market before touring, making an offer, or preparing a listing in the Las Vegas Valley this weekend. Watch me talk about the figures live on Getting REAL (Estate) in Vegas on the Vegas Video Network live today and every Friday at 2:00 PM! Today I’ll talk about a few reasons our home prices are up and disaster preparedness.
Summary: The number of available units is down yet again, breaking through the 9000 unit level to 8704. At the beginning of February, there were 10225. The biggest difference month over month is in properties under $100,000. The number of properties under contract did not break through 14000, dropping slightly as properties are closing quickly. The number of those that are short sale, however, is steadily rising. Banks are getting better about approving them more promptly than they have in the past. As usual, we had a surge of month-end closings.
The News: Let’s start local! We have a new farmer’s market starting up next Friday downtown. When you’re done, why not walk down to the El Cortez to experience vintage cocktails? Another local note, but I’m not sure how I feel about it. Artists are looking for a North Las Vegas foreclosure to use as a “public art installation.” I have asked for clarification, but details are still sketchy. If they are trying to help a family who faces foreclosure, that’s great. If they are going to deface a bank owned property, that just delays getting it sold and into the hands of a new owner who can fix it up.
Got a few million dollars and want to follow Warren Buffett‘s advice on housing? Here’s some information on buying bulk foreclosures. Foreclosures in general account for almost 1 in 4 home sales in the United States, but short sales will be catching up this year. That’s a good thing since over 11,000,000 homes are “underwater.”
Case-Shiller numbers came out for December at a new post-bubble low. Needless to say, that doesn’t reflect what’s going on locally.
And finally, interest rates are down again, now averaging 3.9% for a 30 year mortgage.
Posted in Las Vegas Real Estate by .
Feb 12
28
Saving Your Assets
I’ve been talking for months now about how this is the Year of the Short Sale. I’ve pointed out that tax rules on short sales change at the end of this year, and anybody who has a short sale approved in 2013 could potentially owe the IRS thousands of dollars (that they probably don’t have). Well, let me talk to you about another thing you should look into that can save you thousands of dollars and headaches in the event of a short sale.
This morning we had attorney Gary Fales in our office. He’s always an interesting guy. His specialty is a type of trust we have in the State of Nevada that can clean up your balance sheet, protect your hard earned money/property from creditors, and make it much more likely to get a short sale approved with less risk of the bank ever coming back to you for more money — often no risk!
There are just a few things he said today that I want to share with you. The first is the idea that deciding not to pay the bank any more money is a business decision, not an issue of morality; your credit score is not a character score. He’s seeing foreclosure timelines getting very long in Nevada, with sometimes a year to get a court date! Chalk that as one more reason banks are suddenly enthusiastic about short sales. He’s even hearing about banks approving short sales without late payments in some cases.
If you are considering a short sale in Nevada, you owe it to yourself to attend a free public class on Thursday the 8th of March at Mr. Fales’s office (it’s almost around the corner from my office at Sahara). You can find out more — and watch some of his very educational videos free — at his website. Obviously, he charges money for his services, but at this free event you can get a better idea of what you need to do going forward.
Remember that if you go the short sale road, I am certified as a Short Sale and Foreclosure Resource (SFR) and I currently have capacity for additional short sale listings. Don’t forget to check out my videos on the short sale process and what goes in a short sale package.
Posted in General Real Estate by .
Oh, and just a reminder, nobody really knows all the details for the foreclosure fraud settlement yet.
Posted in General Real Estate by .
Feb 12
24
Friday Figures for 2/24/2012
Welcome (or welcome back) to Friday Figures! All information from the GLVAR MLS system. It’s real data you and your REALTOR really need to know about our local market before touring, making an offer, or preparing a listing in the Las Vegas Valley this weekend. Watch me talk about the figures live on Getting REAL (Estate) in Vegas on the Vegas Video Network live today and every Friday at 2:00 PM! Today we have a special guest, Chanelle Beller of Equity Title. We’ll also dispel a little real estate tax myth.
Summary: I didn’t think it could happen, but available inventory is down to 9176. Needless to say, median prices are up. This is partly due to the law of supply and demand, and partly due to a sharp drop in the number of very low price properties (median is half-above and half-below, and it’s still more accurate than an average for our purposes). Short sales are closing at over a thousand a month, giving me great hope for working through all the ones under contract. Rental supply is contracting again, but that is likely to change by Spring.
The News: The robo-signing scandal — and the quaint demand that banks follow the law — has resulted in a backlog of foreclosures. The bad news is that we do have to work through that inventory. The bad news is that in the meantime people aren’t kicked out of their homes and can hopefully get loan modifications or a short sale underway.
Home sales nationwide were down in January, but December’s numbers were revised up. That puts December’s sales at the year’s high. Remember that historically, December is a lousy month for sales. Who wants to move during the Holidays?
Bank of America is going to stop selling mortgages to Fannie Mae. This is fine with Fannie, because they’re stil trying to get B of A to pay them back for selling them mortgages that weren’t what they appeared to be. This move may be entirely meaningless, as regulators are trying to phase out Fannie Mae.
Mortgage rates are up this week, but have no fear! They’re still near historical lows at 3.95%.
And just for fun, here’s some luxury foreclosures.
Available Listings: There are 7784 single family homes (down), with a median price of $149,900 (up), $75 per square foot (up). In addition, there are 857 condominiums (down), with a median price of $55,000 (down), $55 per square foot (unchanged) and 534 townhomes (down) with a median price of $84,900 (up), $62 per square foot (up).
Distressed Properties: Of available listings, there are 3906 short sales (down) and 1555 bank-owned (REO) properties (down). Median price for a short sale is $115,000 (up); median price on a bank-owned home is $112,900 (up). All short sale listings should be considered at risk of becoming bank owned properties whether they are available or contingent. The 3711 non-distressed properties for sale (down) had a median price of $192,500 (up). While many of the non-distressed properties are traditional sellers, many others were purchased fairly recently as short sale or bank owned, and then renovated by investors.
Single Family Home Prices: Of available listings, 300 under $50,000; 1759 between $50,000-$100,000; 3197 between $100,000-$200,000; 1648 between $200,000-$400,000; 480 between $400,000-$700,000; 183 between $700,000-$1,000,000; and 307 over $1,000,000.
Condo and Townhome Prices: Of available listings, 479 under $50,000; 610 between $50,000-$100,000; 241 between $100,000-$200,000; 64 between $200,000-$400,000; 13 between $400,000-$700,000; 1 between $700,000-$1,000,000; and 1 over $1,000,000. For technical reasons, these figures do not include high-rise communities.
Contingent and Pending Listings: Of the 13995 properties in the process of being purchased (up), 11727 are single family homes with median price of $120,000 (unchanged); 1415 are condominiums with median price of $50,000 (unchanged); 853 are townhomes with a median price of $72,900 (down). Final negotiated sales prices are confidential until closing. Of the total, 9491 are short sale, 2755 are foreclosed, and 1749 are traditional sales. While the bank-owned and traditional sales are likely to close within 30-45 days, no time frame is available for unapproved short sales.
Recently Sold: 647 properties closed this week, 3590 in the last 30 days, and 5929 so far this year. For properties closed in the last 30 days, median time on market was 47 days (unchanged). Median sales price was $105,100 (up); median list price was $108,600 (up). For single family homes, median sales price was $121,500 (up), for condos $50,000 (up), and for townhomes $74,000 (up). Short sales accounted for 1013 of the total, there were 1598 bank owned properties, and 979 non-distressed sales.
Rentals: 5463 homes, townhomes, and condos were available for rent in the Valley in the MLS system (down). Median square footage of these units is 1487 and median rent is $1095. There are 1217 contingent leases waiting to be signed and 2752 leases signed in the last 30 days (up) with median rent of $1095 and median square footage of 1536.
Need more information or help with your real estate needs? Call me today at 702-727-7842 or email bmagnus@bridgetmagnus.com. Based on information from the Greater Las Vegas Association of REALTORS Multiple Listing Service for the date specified above. This article was written and copyright by Bridget Magnus, and is her sole property.
Posted in Las Vegas Real Estate by .
Bonus foreclosure and foreclosure fraud news: the big agreement is still not set in stone; mortgage delinquencies are down; more AGs are siding with voters over bankers; that goes for judges too; 84% of foreclosures may be illegal.
Posted in General Real Estate by .
