I have the pleasure of working with more than 1,200 real estate professionals and their teams in Southern Nevada, and have lived and worked here for 30 years. Even though my company has grown to operate in other markets, Nevada will always be home, and our corporate headquarters.
I’m a “glass half full” kind of guy, so when I was asked to write about my thoughts on living and working in Southern Nevada, it made me think of all the things that are right with our community. In particular, I think our pro-business environment is one of the best I have seen.
Mark Stark
I’m a believer that you can do a lot to help a community, but if people aren’t working and succeeding in supporting their families and moving themselves forward financially, it’s hard to focus on anything else. That’s important for any community, and I think our pro-growth and pro-business environment is unparalleled. In fact, there were 24,000 more jobs in Clark County in the first eight months of this year compared with the same period last year, according to Bill Anderson, chief economist at the Nevada Department of Employment, Training and Rehabilitation. We have seen year-over-year growth in jobs state-wide for the past 68 months, Anderson says. There is no doubt our economy has been through tough times, but positive things are happening in Southern Nevada.
The residential real estate market is a great example. Home prices are up 22.6 percent since 2013, from an average price of $214,117 to $266,026. The steady yearly increase is what experts like to see when assessing the stability of a city’s economy.
Additionally, the number of homes sold is steadily increasing this year. In 2015, home sales were up 6.3 percent over 2014, and so far this year, home sales are up an additional 6.6 percent over the same period last year.
Diversification is key to moving our business community forward. I am especially impressed at Southern Nevada’s emphasis on bringing new, diversified businesses to town. We don’t always win in getting them, but we use the right tools and work hard to diversify our business community.
We want to continue the trend of attracting companies to bring their headquarters here, even though they may not do all their business in Southern Nevada, because it would benefit our community in numerous ways. Switch Communications is a great example of this.
Though I have lived and worked here a long time, I am still learning best practices to continue my company’s growth. In the past five years, I’ve started operating in the Phoenix and Southern California markets and have learned a few things that make my business here stronger.
We have modified our business operations in all three states to model California’s aggressive guidelines for business. This has increased our standards and rules company-wide, and particularly in our policies and procedures, employee policies and legal dealings.
Nevada does a lot right. Its sensitivity to the importance of growth and a renewed economy is making a difference. We want to attract good-paying jobs so our residents are building their incomes to support themselves and their families.
For people who don’t know our community, it can get a bad rap. They don’t realize we have vibrant, clean, healthy communities. It’s a beautiful place to live. I love Las Vegas. It’s home.
Mark Stark is CEO of Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices Nevada Properties.