Las Vegas and Henderson Homes and Real Estate

Many national real estate metropolitan markets are still questioning whether or not they have experienced the worst yet in housing price declines, citing concerns about the expiration of the housing tax credit that expired in April 2010.  However, here in Las Vegas where we have seen some of the greatest declines already in the country, the bottom may have already passed.

Monthly home sales (including both resale and new home sales have remained steady over the past year at levels near or above 3,000 transactions per month.  In addition, the median home price has remained largely flat now for over 12 months with a modest gain in the past two.

This chart from DataQuick's website, a company that reports real estate market news for major west coast cities, shows the median price of homes has remained steady (although under $100 / square foot) for quite some time.  These two figures together mean that Las Vegas was stable before the tax credit was even a factor.

This recent article in from the DQ News website even attributes the modest rise in the median home price in Las Vegas to the decline of foreclosure inventory over the past several months, meaning that we have past the worst in troubled properties.

Although no one is predicting a sharp rise in home prices until the demand for new homes begins to outweigh the current drip of homes coming back onto to the market each month, or until the economy in Las Vegas begins to grow again, it is safe to say that we have already reached the "flat bottom" in Las Vegas that many cities have been waiting for.  This leads us to believe that Las Vegas may in fact be a bellwether city, meaning we could be the first to truly rebound from the whole crisis.

I guess everything truly does happen faster in Las Vegas.

If you are interested in Las Vegas, Henderson, Green Valley, North Las Vegas, Summerlin, Seven Hills, Lake Las Vegas, or Southern Highlands real estate, contact:

Michelle Natale
The Natale Team
Prudential Americana Group

www.natalesellsvegas.com

Michelle Natale leads a top 25 ranked team of agents for Las Vegas based Prudential Americana Group, the largest real estate brokerage in the state of Nevada. Michelle started her career in real estate over 10 years ago, and is ranked in the top 1% nationally in Prudential's national network since 2000.

One of the North West Las Vegas's newest amenities, the 370,000 square foot luxury mall complex called Tivoli Village is set to open in March of 2011.  The village styled mall was once on hold due to the lagging economy in Las Vegas but has recently restarted into full development, a sign that things may be turning around at least in the best locations of Las Vegas.

Tivoli Village borders Summerlin in North Western Greater Las Vegas, and is part of the Queensridge / Boca Park / Badlands district along Rampart between Summerlin Parkway and Charleston Blvd.  The Village is expected to open with 30 to 40 retailers and will at one time include a number if condo properties infused into the new-urban design.  The center is designed to resemble a European style Village and will include a number of eateries and shops.

According to PR Newswire, "Among the distinctive list of tenants who have committed to Tivoli Village are family activities center Kidville, gourmet Mexican restaurant Cantina Laredo, contemporary Italian restaurant Brio Tuscan Grille, Mark DiMartino's authentic German eatery Ratskeller and specialty retailer CORSA Collections."

If you are interested in properties in or around this unique new village center near Summerlin, contact:

Michelle Natale
The Natale Team
Prudential Americana Group

www.natalesellsvegas.com

Michelle Natale leads a top 25 ranked team of agents for Las Vegas based Prudential Americana Group, the largest real estate brokerage in the state of Nevada. Michelle started her career in real estate over 10 years ago, and is ranked in the top 1% nationally in Prudential's national network since 2000.

The median price of existing home closings rose to $126,000, the highest level since March 2009 when it was $134,000, according to reports released by SalesTraq.  That price was $6,000 higher than March of 2010.

Analysts have been expecting the home prices to rise as the rate of foreclosures drop throughout the valley.  In April of 2010, there were 4,323 existing home sales, of which 1,636 were foreclosures.  This means that foreclosures represented only 38% of all sales, half of the percentage witnesses during the peak of foreclosures.

This news is exciting as it appears we are working our way out of the distressed market very quickly.  In fact, this year Las Vegas has experienced a little over 5,000 homes that the banks have foreclosed upon.  This may seem like a lot, but compared to the more than 20,000 homes the banks foreclosed upon by this time last year it appears that we are really through the worst of it.

Source:  Buck Wargo, Las Vegas Sun
Report: Home prices at highest level since March 2009

If you are interested in Las Vegas, Henderson, Green Valley, North Las Vegas, Summerlin, Seven Hills, Lake Las Vegas, or Southern Highlands real estate, contact:

Michelle Natale
The Natale Team
Prudential Americana Group

www.natalesellsvegas.com

Michelle Natale leads a top 25 ranked team of agents for Las Vegas based Prudential Americana Group, the largest real estate brokerage in the state of Nevada. Michelle started her career in real estate over 10 years ago, and is ranked in the top 1% nationally in Prudential's national network since 2000.

According to uHaul, thousands of Americans are still moving to Southern Nevada a recent report states.

The national moving company just released its list of "2009 Top 50 U.S. Destination Cities" and Las Vegas was ranked 2nd behind Houston and in front of Chicago, San Antonio, and Orlando.

The rankings were compiled using millions of transactions during 2009.

If you are interested in Las Vegas, Henderson, Green Valley, North Las Vegas, Summerlin, Seven Hills, Lake Las Vegas, or Southern Highlands real estate, contact:

Michelle Natale
The Natale Team
Prudential Americana Group

www.natalesellsvegas.com

Michelle Natale leads a top 25 ranked team of agents for Las Vegas based Prudential Americana Group, the largest real estate brokerage in the state of Nevada. Michelle started her career in real estate over 10 years ago, and is ranked in the top 1% nationally in Prudential's national network since 2000.

The Greater Las Vegas Association of Realtors has recently reported the first year-over-year increase in home prices since 2007, which was the peak of the real estate boom in Las Vegas.

Rick Shelton, president of the GLVAR stated that the median price of single family home in Las Vegas was $142,000 in April, a 4.4 percent increase from March 2010 ($136,000) and a .2 percent increase over April of last year ($141,720).

Shelton said that the last time the GLVAR was able to report a year over year price increase was February of 2007, when the median price of a home was $310,000.  April's median sales price was also the highest average monthly price since April of 2009.

Short sales are continuing to rise as a percentage of local sales, up to 27% in April as opposed to 22% in February of this year.  At the same time, bank owned homes (foreclosures) are dropping each month down almost 10% this year and down to 43% of all transactions.  This is due to government programs encouraging banks to accept short sales over foreclosures to keep the housing market more stable.

The total number of single family homes sold in April was 2,951, a high rate that continues each month and should continue to rapidly bring recovery in this market.

Source:  GLVAR

If you are interested in Las Vegas, Henderson, Green Valley, North Las Vegas, Summerlin, Seven Hills, Lake Las Vegas, or Southern Highlands real estate, contact:

Michelle Natale
The Natale Team
Prudential Americana Group

www.natalesellsvegas.com

Michelle Natale leads a top 25 ranked team of agents for Las Vegas based Prudential Americana Group, the largest real estate brokerage in the state of Nevada. Michelle started her career in real estate over 10 years ago, and is ranked in the top 1% nationally in Prudentials national network since 2000.