Even though local money remains scarce, tech products and companies are becoming better developed than they were a year ago. Low-cost, startup-focused office space has opened and drawn hundreds of tenants, and companies are moving to Las Vegas whether or not they get money from the Zappos-linked investment fund, helping to boost the valley’s fragile economy.
The two worlds of Las Vegas retail: Thriving shopping hubs with brand-name stores on the outer rings of the valley and small, low-end strip malls with mom-and-pop stores and lots of vacancies in the inner core.
For the second time in three and a half years, Casino MonteLago is shutting its doors. The small gambling spot “suspended operations today pending resolution of lease issues.”
Near the back of a sprawling North Las Vegas warehouse, hundreds of stuffed animals are smashed and bound together, a 1,200-pound massacre of unwanted pandas, frogs and bunnies. Children once clutched the animals, cuddling them as they fell asleep. Now they’re being sold to a salvage dealer who will ship them to China, Mexico or some other far-off place. Just another day on the job at Goodwill of Southern Nevada. “We try to get every dollar we can, every penny, I should say, or every half a penny,” said Retail and Operations Director Chris Matlock. “Doesn’t matter what it is. We want to get something for it.”
With Las Vegas home prices much higher than last year, Wall Street investors have started to pull back and buy fewer properties. But overall, investor appetite is growing statewide. Institutional investors, or buyers who pick up at least 10 homes a year, accounted for 25 percent of all residential sales in Nevada last month, according to a new report from RealtyTrac.
Grand plans have come and gone for a wide area of southwest Henderson surrounding Bermuda Road. With a FedEx distribution center under construction off Executive Airport Drive and new plans being submitted for housing development in the area, is now the time for this mostly-desert land to finally be developed?
Real estate investors across the country are backing away from the house-flipping game. But it appears the practice continues to be a good bet in Las Vegas.
The past decade has been a horrible roller coaster ride for Las Vegas’ housing market, and now the market is expected to cool off as property values are on the rise. Every city and town in Southern Nevada went through a bell curve-shaped boom and bust.
The Las Vegas home construction market softened last month compared to August, but overall, things remain stronger than last year. Southern Nevada builders sold 626 new homes in September, down 18 percent from August but up 6 percent from September 2012.
Las Vegas home prices have soared at some of the fastest rates nationally, making it tough for many people to find an affordable place to live. But compared with the boom years, house hunting in the valley these days is like walking the aisles of a dollar store.
Flapjack fans who were hoping that the Original Pancake House on Charleston Boulevard would reopen after a fire destroyed it last summer may be in for a letdown. Franchisee Stephan Freudenberger said this week he heard “through the grapevine” that the property owner wants to build a Walgreens drugstore at the now-vacant Las Vegas site.
In the latest effort to lure patients with promises of a convenient ER, a Las Vegas Valley hospital group is letting emergency-room patients wait in the comfort of their own homes until they’re ready to be seen.
Nevada’s foreclosure rate almost doubled last month from a year ago as banks, facing new rules that could make it harder to seize distressed homes, cranked up pressure on delinquent borrowers.
A former Hostess Brands bakery in Henderson that closed after the Twinkies maker went bankrupt will soon be up and running under new owners. Flowers Foods said today it will begin production later this year at the plant at 501 Conestoga Way.
Las Vegas homeowners are getting greedy. With real estate prices soaring, many local residents are hoping to cash in and sell their homes for big dollars, in many cases more than they are worth. Homeowners should dial down their excitement, though.
After a nearly two-year hot streak, Las Vegas home prices have started to cool off. But only a little. The median price of previously owned single-family homes sold in Southern Nevada last month was $180,000, down 1.1 percent from August.
Nevada's "Homeowner's Bill of Rights" was pitched as a way to help underwater borrowers short sell their homes to family, friends or investors, then rent or buy them back. But now, some are questioning whether the law really gives homeowners the upper hand on banks, which frown upon such prearranged deals. Senate Bill 321, which took effect Oct. 1, was intended to ease the rules on "arm's length" agreements, which many financial institutions have required in recent years to ensure that owners retain no interest in their homes once they sell. But real estate lawyers disagree about how to interpret a key section of SB321, and many say it is vague and confusing. Critics argue it is ineffective.
Developers of Tivoli Village plan to start building the second phase of their stylish retail and office complex near Summerlin next week. IDB Group USA, part of an Israeli conglomerate, is expected to add about 199,000 square feet of retail and 68,000 square feet of offices just north of the first phase, which opened in spring 2011 at Rampart Boulevard and Alta Drive.
Just one day before a law kicked in making it easier to avoid foreclosure, banks unleashed a torrent of filings to seize homes from delinquent Las Vegas borrowers.
Banking regulators have eased their scrutiny of First Security Bank of Nevada after the lender, nearing collapse a few years ago, turned itself around.
Nevadans who are late on their mortgage payments could find it easier to deal with their bank and possibly avoid foreclosure under a law that takes effect today.
For years, builders, investors and others flocked to Pahrump to snatch up property. A similar rush took place in other cities on the outskirts of Las Vegas: Boulder City, Mesquite and Laughlin.
Las Vegas home values continue soaring faster than the country at large and should outpace the nation for the next year. The valley’s median home value last month was $156,600, up 2.8 percent from July and up 30.6 percent from August 2012, according to a new report from Zillow.
The Hughes Center is being sold for $347 million to a Wall Street investment firm, in one of the most lucrative Las Vegas office deals in years. The Blackstone Group is expected to close the deal today for the 68-acre office park near the Strip. Crescent Real Estate Equities, an investment firm owned by Barclays Capital and Goff Capital, is selling the property.
A former Internet-search executive has been hired to lead the Gay and Lesbian Community Center of Southern Nevada. The Las Vegas nonprofit said it hired Bob Elkins as its new chief executive officer. He starts work today.
Few people can say they heard their own neck break, but Frank J. Glankler III can. He was walking to his kitchen to get water bottles when he tripped over a baby gate, slammed his head into the countertop and snapped two vertebrae. He was paralyzed instantly. He fell limp, face down onto the ground, blood pouring from his forehead.
One in every 359 housing units statewide had a foreclosure-related filing last month, more than double the rate in July and up 11 percent from August 2012, according to a new report from Irvine, Calif., research firm RealtyTrac.
Southern Nevada home prices keep steadily marching higher. But some owners, hoping to cash in on the upswing, are pricing too high and are having trouble selling.
When Las Vegas’ housing market crashed, wealthy investors pounced on the downturn and started buying cheap homes in bulk to turn into rentals. But the very recovery they sparked now is scaring them off. Prices have climbed so high that some Wall Street heavyweights are looking elsewhere for better real estate deals. For some firms, the days of buying as many houses as possible in Las Vegas are waning.
During the fat, happy years of Las Vegas real estate, almost anyone could become a real estate agent and do well — strippers, blackjack dealers, busboys, you name it. Deals were so plentiful and easy to land, little expertise was required. Not anymore.
At a sprawling home for sale near Flamingo Road, you can golf, barbecue, swim, relax in a hot tub, dance under a starry sky and make breakfast while gazing at the mountains. All while 26 feet underground. The two-bedroom, three-bathroom house at 3970 Spencer St. might be the most peculiar in Las Vegas. It is buried 26 feet underground, underneath a typical suburban two-story house. A few miles east of the Strip, it was built in the 1970s to give people a place to safely retreat if the Soviets wiped out humanity with a nuclear missile strike.
After several dismal years brought on by the recession, sales and prices at luxury high-rises on or near the Strip are rising. The market, while far from booming, is rebounding thanks to drastically lower prices and an improved economy.
You may have noticed an old, familiar sight around the Las Vegas Valley these days: hammers and hard hats. Southern Nevada homebuilders, who suffered huge job losses in recent years, have been ramping up work. Sales and prices are soaring as builders pull more permits for future projects.
Despite improvements in the housing market, Las Vegas remains well underwater. Some 48.4 percent of valley homeowners with mortgages were underwater in the quarter ending June 30.
During the boom years, casino mogul Bill Boyd shelled out $35 million for a stretch of North Las Vegas desert to build a locals gambling spot. With the go-go days gone, though, his company has now sold the untouched property — for an 85 percent loss.
The past few months have been rough for the Cowabunga Bay Water Park in Henderson. First, developers said the attraction would open a year late. Now, they’ve sold the property at a 50 percent discount, less than a year after buying it.
When Las Vegans open their wallets to give charity, often the first thing they wonder is: How will my money be spent? They likely want their hard-earned cash going directly to a charity’s cause, not to pay for bloated salaries or excessive overhead.
A trio of Las Vegas master-planned communities are again some of the top-selling nationwide this year. Leading the way locally is the 3,500-acre Mountain’s Edge development in the southwest valley.