The country is in a recession, Las Vegas Casinos are seeing earnings drop from years past, but yet MGM Mirage is still moving forward with their 8 billion dollar project, City Center. Las Vegas continues to reinvent itself even during economic downturns. Project City Center is a project that consists of condos, hotels, casinos and retail district sitting within a 76 acre area.  You can easily say that Project City Center is a city within a city.

According to City Center’s website:

“CityCenter is a cutting-edge destination, with an urban core that will blend world-class residential, hospitality, retail, gaming and entertainment elements into a synergistic hub of distinctive character.  The $8 billion CityCenter – the largest single privately funded development in U.S. history – will catapult Las Vegas to new status among the most sophisticated cities of the world.”

Project City Center will be the ultimate destination in Las Vegas and all future projects will be compared to City Center.

Update:  As of 2015, CityCenter has been re-branded as “Aria”.

I have been following the news and reading the newspaper about so many Las Vegas real estate agents having to get part time jobs just so they can survive. Many Las Vegas agents have given up on a career in real estate all together.

 So what’s my point? 

Well, I have been trying to hire new agents for the last 2 months and it’s like trying to find a needle in a haystack. I am very active online and participate in many real estate forums and it appears that many real estate agents all over the country are looking for leads.

But if that’s the case, why I am having such a hard time finding agents to give business? I have personally emailed them, posted on craigslist, posted in real estate forums and sent out bulletins on Myspace.  Can you believe I have had only 1 Vegas agent contact me?

I guess maybe the agents that are still working are doing very well and don’t need any extra business or maybe the just don’t want to work with me?  Nah, that can’t be it?

Your adjustable rate mortgage that you signed for a few years ago has just doubled, what do you do?  Well one Las Vegas man decided to sue his lender because his mortgage payment doubled when his adjustable rate mortgage adjusted.

The lawsuit claims he was talked into an adjustable rate mortgage that he could not afford and that documents were falsified by those that were involved in the transaction.

The mans attorney is claiming that Countrywide “took advantage of his lack of education, training, skill and ability”.

So let me get this straight; you sign for a loan, your payment goes up and then you sue and claim “they took advantage of your lack of education, training, skill and ability?” 

Now if loan documents were falsified in order for him to get approved then absolutely he was taking advantage of.  But if after all facts come out and there is no proof that loan documents were falsified then I just don’t see how he can sue because someone else is more educated than him.

Anyone that is paying any attention to the economy knows that the real estate market is in a slump all across the United States.  But the question remains, whose to blame?  Some say it is Wall Street for creating these investment portfolios for the banks and lenders.  Some say it’s the banks and lenders allowing anyone with a social security number to get qualified for a home loan that they could not afford.  Some say it’s the loan officers who pushed their clients into these loan programs only to line their pockets with more money.

But when you think about it, there has to be more to it?

I do believe that many of the above mentioned contributed to the real estate crash, but I also believe that the Media played even a bigger role!  Back in 2004 when the real estate market was taking off, it was the media that informed the public how hot the real estate market was and how investors are flocking to hot markets to make a buck.  That’s like telling a child, there is candy on the top shelf, you know the child is going to do whatever it takes to get the candy.  So now you have the media informing the public about the hot market and how investors are making money, so now you have uneducated so called investors buying “investment properties”.  They don’t want to be left behind, Harvey down the street is buying investment properties!

Fast forward a few years later and the media begins to inform the public that the real estate markets aren’t doing as well, now lenders are filing bankruptcy because they can’t get Wall Street to buy their portfolios.  Poeple are panicking, what are they going to do?  People that would normally be buying their first home or a second home are now hesitant because of everything they are seeing and reading on TV and newspapers.

So next time you hear of someone that lost their home to foreclosure and you think, “man they got screwed by their lender”, take a second to think how the media played a role.

For the 4th straight month, Las Vegas Home Sales are up. We have seen an increase in home sales over the same month from the previous year for the first time since September 2005.

Are these signs that the Las Vegas real estate market might be turning around? 

Let’s not get to excited just yet; we still need to see how the rest of spring and summer goes before we can really access indications that the market might be rebounding.

We should continue to see a rise in Las Vegas Foreclosures as the adjustable rate mortgages continue to – well – adjust.  As more foreclosures enter the market, home prices will continue to fall as banks drop the prices to move inventory off their books. So there is a good chance Las Vegas Home prices will continue to fall.

However, the Las Vegas Strip is expected to create over 113,000 jobs over the next 5 years starting with the opening of Project City Center in 2010. With the creation of these jobs, we will begin to see an influx of people moving to Las Vegas filling these new job opportunities.  This will help the Las Vegas Housing Market as the influx of people relocating here will need housing. It will be interesting to watch how the Las Vegas real estate market evolves over the next 9 – 12 months.

It’s rarely difficult to determine which homes in a neighborhood are in foreclosure; as you are driving through the neighborhood homes that have brown grass, dying plants and weeds are very likely in the midst of foreclosure proceedings.

Is it possible that these foreclosed homes have a negative effect on the rest of the neighborhood?

Absolutely.

Not only do foreclosed homes drive down value as banks price them lower to get them off their books, but the visual look of the property also affects the neighborhood. The visual effect of the neighborhood is a significant aspect in the buying process for potential home buyers.  If a neighborhood has numerous foreclosed homes, the neighborhood is going to look poorly kept causing buyers to possibly look elsewhere.

So who is responsible for cleaning up these homes? 

Once the bank forecloses on the home, they are now responsible for the up keep of the property especially if the home is located in a home owner’s association.  Homeowner’s Associations will often send letters to the bank to clean up the property and if they fail to handle the problems, the homeowner’s associations will levy fines.

So next time you find yourself home-hunting in a local Las Vegas neighborhood and you see what looks to be eyesore, yep, you guessed it; it’s probably a foreclosure.

Are you home-hunting in the Las Vegas real estate market? Looking for home values or rental information or other relocation information? Feel free to call at 702.376.7379 for assistance.