Las Vegas Real Estate News

Consumer spending falls, lifting retail vacancy rates

The national credit and housing crisis along with the recession have taken their toll on the Las Vegas retail market. The vacancy rate increased sharply during the fourth quarter to 9.9 percent, said Patricia Nooney, managing director with CB Richard Ellis, a commercial brokerage. That’s more than double what it was in the fourth quarter of 2007.

16 January 2009
By Buck Wargo

Industrial tenants hold upper hand as vacancies rise

Industrial lease rates are expected to remain low in the first half of this year, but one brokerage predicts they will rise in 2010 when vacancy rates start to come down. Lease rates started moving down in mid-2008 as landlords aggressively offered concessions to entice new tenants. And starting off 2009, the feeling among tenants and landlords is uncertainty, said Dave Dworkin, a research analyst for Grubb & Ellis. Many of the tenants who leased space at the height of the market in 2006 or early 2007 are paying higher rents than what is being offered today, he said.

16 January 2009
By Buck Wargo

Industrial land shortage could have adverse effect on Las Vegas economy

The declining availability of land suitable for industrial development will harm Southern Nevada’s economy and its job growth over time, according to a report released this week by a Las Vegas commercial development real estate association. The lack of industrial land for warehouses and distribution has long been a concern in Las Vegas and was even highlighted in 2006 at a round table discussion by the Lied Institute for Real Estate Studies at UNLV.

16 January 2009
By Buck Wargo

Mark Stark

Turning it around: Mark Stark, owner, broker and chief executive of Prudential Americana Group, in front of the company's office.

No one knows how challenging the downturn in the Las Vegas housing market has been more than Mark Stark. The chief executive of Prudential Americana Group, one of the largest real estate brokerages in Las Vegas, had to file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in November 2007 to save his company.

16 January 2009
By Buck Wargo

Once wary, executives pin hopes on Barack Obama

Some in the real estate community were alarmed during the presidential campaign last summer, fearing a Barack Obama victory would substantially raise taxes and harm their investments. Some developers even sold properties or listed them for sale because of concerns the capital gains tax would increase from 15 percent to 25 percent to 28 percent. That one-time angst over tax policy has since shifted to the economy and their fears have turned into hope that an Obama administration can lift the country out of its recession.

16 January 2009
By Buck Wargo

Lake Las Vegas can abandon golf course, judge says

The Falls is one of three golf courses at Lake Las Vegas facing financial difficulties.

Lake Las Vegas owners will be allowed to abandon one of the resort's three golf courses, a federal bankruptcy court judge decided today. In a complex ruling, Judge Linda B. Riegle also ordered that the resort will maintain its rights to an incomplete pumping station that sits on course. That could allow the resort to recover some funds when the station is completed.

15 January 2009
By Jeremy Twitchell

Las Vegas No. 2 last year in rate of foreclosures

The Las Vegas metropolitan area ranked second in the nation last year for its rate of foreclosures. A foreclosure listing firm said 67,223 properties in the area had foreclosure filings, which is 8.89 percent of all properties.

15 January 2009
Staff and wire reports

A year for foreclosures

2008 was not a good year for homeowners in the Las Vegas Valley.

12 January 2009
By Alex Richards

More homes becoming negative equity casualties

Thousands of homes in the Las Vegas Valley are in foreclosure, as was this one in Henderson, and growth has slowed considerably. The median price of homes in the region has plummeted $100,000 in 18 months.

Adjustable rate mortgages and investors counting on appreciation fueled Nevada’s rise to its spot as the foreclosure capital of the country the past two years. By the time the final 2008 statistics are calculated, the Las Vegas Valley is expected to have more than 25,000 foreclosures, according to SalesTraq’s count.

9 January 2009
By Buck Wargo

Home prices continue to tumble

Las Vegas home sales were brisk in December, but they came at a price. The median price of homes sold on the Multiple Listing Service in December fell $11,000 to $175,000, according to the Greater Las Vegas Association of Realtors. That’s a 33 percent drop since December 2007.

8 January 2009
By Buck Wargo

Report: Home prices down 32 percent

Homes in Las Vegas have lost nearly a third of their value in the past year, according to a new report. Homes have lost about 40 percent of their value in the valley since prices peaked in the summer of 2006.

A closely watched index released today shows home prices in Las Vegas dropped at an annual rate of nearly 32 percent in October. The housing index showed only Phoenix had a higher rate of decline in the 12 months ending in October.

30 December 2008
By Tim Richardson

Slowdown offers Nevada a chance to look inward, plan for long term

Thousands of homes in the Las Vegas Valley are in foreclosure, as was this one in Henderson, and growth has slowed considerably this year. Several policymakers are suggesting now is the time for Nevada to look for ways to diversify its economy outside of growth and gaming.

That big sigh you hear is Nevada catching its breath.

27 December 2008
By Michael Mishak

Identities of 16,000 Pulte Homes customers compromised

Computer tapes holding private customer information including names, addresses, driver's license numbers and financial account numbers were stolen from a Pulte Homes office in Las Vegas last month, and the developer is cautioning home buyers to take precautions to protect their identity.

25 December 2008
By Jean Reid Norman

Las Vegas home prices drop to August 2003 levels

While prices of new homes held steady in the Las Vegas area last month, existing homes saw another steep drop in their median sales price in November -- down to levels not seen since summer 2003.

The price of existing homes sold in Las Vegas in November plummeted to their lowest level since August 2003 and the new-home and condominium market continued its dismal performance, according to statistics released by SalesTraq.

23 December 2008
By Buck Wargo

Builders below $100 a square foot

Carpenters Procoro Espejo, left, and Moises Cuevas work on a single-family home for Pulte Homes in Henderson. As the recession deepens, builders in the Las Vegas Valley are changing their focus to smaller, more affordable homes -- and they are building far fewer of them.

The competition from foreclosures continues to force Las Vegas homebuilders to cut prices and build smaller, more affordable homes and in some cases not build any. Eighteen builders have more than 100 models priced under $100 per square foot, said Larry Murphy, president of SalesTraq, which tracks the Las Vegas housing market. The price per square foot of new homes sold through October was $126.01 — a 30 percent decline from $180.17 in 2007.

21 December 2008
By Buck Wargo
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