LAS VEGAS, NV – According to recent reports, the recent influx of high-profile professional sporting teams to Las Vegas – including the Raiders NFL team in 2020 – has created a unique atmosphere in the region for real estate salespeople; the idea of wealthy athletes looking to transplant themselves into their new home town, and looking to do it in (expensive) style, can make for good career ideas.

Realtors have been looking forward to the very real possibility of high-paid members of numerous sporting teams seeking to purchase multi-million-dollar homes in the Las Vegas area, even going so far as attending recent seminars giving insight on dealing with athletes and their unique – and at times, difficult – housing needs.

While some athletes are looking to spend millions of dollars on a fancy home, others – who may not have many years left on their contracts or are not as high-paid as others – are looking for something a bit easier to do away with once their time in Southern Nevada is up.

Nonetheless, the recent exodus of high-profile sports teams to Vegas has the potential to make Realtors serious money; reports indicate that with the Raiders taking up permanent residence in Vegas come their 2020 season, demand from players – already used to jet-setting lifestyles – for luxury homes and condos in proximity to the famed Las Vegas Strip will be high. Even the lowest-paid NFL player makes the league minimum of $500,000, so there will likely be money to burn on the part of the Raiders players once they arrive.

In addition, with the ongoing construction of the team’s corporate headquarters and practice facility in Henderson, the entire Raiders management and support staff will be making the move to Vegas as well, opening up even more high-cost housing needs that Realtors will need to satisfy. Raiders quarterback Derek Carr, coach Jon Gruden, and president Marc Badain, have all already purchased homes near the team’s Henderson practice facility, and more are sure to come in the months ahead.

Shelter Realty Property Management specializes in the areas of  Henderson, Las Vegas and North Las Vegas, NV. Feel free to give us a call at 702.376.7379 so we can answer any questions you may have.

LAS VEGAS, NV – According to reports, Las Vegas new home construction and sales have displayed its strongest quarter of activity since 2007, with developers currently on-track this year to equal their 2018 performance.

2,500 net sales of newly-built homes in the Las Vegas region were reported from the start of July throughout the end of September, which represents an increase of 8.5 percent over the same period one year ago. The previous high-water mark for sales was 2,760 in 2007, which was just prior to the burst of the housing bubble.

Factors that have been figuring into this continuing upward trend have been an influx of affordable homes into the marketplace – something which had been addressing home shortages and/or had been driving prices up until recently – not to mention assistance from lenders, who have lowered interest rates on loans to below four percent, down from five percent or more just one year ago. 

With more people still moving to the Southern Nevada region due to the skyrocketing economy and the influx of new businesses – and with them, jobs – it’s not at all surprising that new homes have been selling like they have. Moreover, reports say, the lowered interest rates, combined with increasing inventory, are helping to create a more stable, sustainable marketplace; until recently, dwindling supply had been driving home prices continuously upward, raising concerns about affordability. 

Sales of existing homes have also been healthy recently, with their prices approaching – but remaining well under – the prices of new homes; currently, the median sales price of an existing home has been about $299,000, as opposed to newly-built homes, which are fetching closer to $390,000 on the open market. Both of those numbers, respectively, are still well under the national average when compared to many other major marketplaces, such as New York or California.

Shelter Realty Property Management specializes in the areas of  Henderson, Las Vegas and North Las Vegas, NV. Feel free to give us a call at 702.376.7379 so we can answer any questions you may have.

LAS VEGAS, NV – American Homes 4 Rent®, a California-based company that renovates and leases single-family homes (it already owns over such 1,000 homes in Las Vegas alone) has made the move to up its game in Southern Nevada, announcing recently that they would be constructing rental homes from Vegas, a move they have already pulled off in 14 other markets, according to reports.

American Homes 4 Rent was established in 2012, and is one of the first large public companies to begin investing heavily in single-family homes, following the entry of The Blackstone Group into the field; as of 2018, it owned over 51,200 single-family homes in 21 states, many of which were acquired through the Multiple Listing Service and foreclosure homes via auction. 

According to Clark County records, American Homes 4 Rent recently applied for 14 new home permits, the first time they have done so in the Las Vegas area, located in multiple plots of land that the company purchased in 2018. These permits are intended to make up a community the company is designing that will be named Serene Park in the southwest valley, according to reports. Once completed, the community will consist of a total of 21 single-family homes, all of which will be designed for long-term rentals and will range from 2,000 to 2,200 square feet in size.

The current slate of homes that American Homes 4 Rent already has on the rental market in Vegas range in price from $1,200 to $2,600 per month. The company has stated to media that the expansion into home construction – as opposed to just purchasing existing homes – came about due to an opportunity to build for approximately the same cost as acquiring structures that are already made, resulting in higher-quality rentals.

Once completed, the rent is expected be approximately $1,795 a month for a three-bedroom house and $1,950 a month for a four-bedroom house.

Shelter Realty Property Management specializes in the areas of  Henderson, Las Vegas and North Las Vegas, NV. Feel free to give us a call at 702.376.7379 so we can answer any questions you may have.

LAS VEGAS, NV – According to reports, the short-term vacation rental market is booming in Las Vegas, with Nevada becoming the fourth-highest such market in the country. Vegas has always been a destination city for a variety of reasons, but after the recovery of the city’s economy, the recent influx of money, jobs, businesses and the arrival of the recently-transplanted Raiders NFL team – tourism has reached a fever pitch in Southern Nevada. Enter the rental market. Tourists have been turning increasingly to short-term home rentals when visiting Las Vegas, and investors have sat up and taken notice. Within the span of the last ten years, the vacation home rental industry in Vegas has gone up a whopping 50 percent, reports say.

Some of the most popular areas to rent vacation homes locally include Henderson, due in part to it’s proximity to the famed Las Vegas Strip; after such rentals were made legal there, reports indicate that anywhere from a 200-300 percent increase in the number of investors who have purchased homes in order to rent them out to tourists. Home rentals for tourists are often more popular then hotels and other accommodations; this holds especially true for families with children, according to reports.

Home prices in Vegas, while still climbing at record rates due to the law of supply and demand, are still nonetheless much cheaper than the national average, especially when compared to neighboring states such as California. Some investors report seeing quick returns on their investment dollars, with some Airbnb users noting that it’s possible to make as much as $8,000 a week if your play your cards right.

However, the short-term vacation rental market comes with its caveats, among them the fact that it may see an increase in rent and traditional home-buyers being pushed out. Due to this, the rental business could end up making things more difficult for both type renters and buyers alike.

Shelter Realty Property Management specializes in the areas of  Henderson, Las Vegas and North Las Vegas, NV. Feel free to give us a call at 702.376.7379 so we can answer any questions you may have.

LAS VEGAS, NV – In the mid-2000’s Las Vegas housing market, prices reached their peak; in June of 2006, the median sales price of a single-family home hit an all-time high of $315,000, right before the recession hit and rendered the Southern Nevada market nearly inert for almost a decade.

Fast-forward to 2019, and real estate in Las Vegas has finally experienced something of a boom period once again. With the recovery of the economy and the influx of money and jobs into the region, experts began to notice the skyrocketing growth in the housing market. Inventory was scarce and prices were rising, but did they stand a chance of hitting the highs seen before the housing bubble burst? Some were skeptical, but none denied the record-setting growth.

But it appears to be happening, experts say; in September 2019, the median sales price of a single-family home hit $310,000. Closing the gap significantly between what is and what once was. Clearly, home prices – while their growth has finally started to slow recently – are on the cusp of reaching, and perhaps even surpassing, their previous mid-2000 levels.
However, experts say not to read too much into that milestone, as when taking inflation into consideration, the gap is not quite what it once was thought. Inflation means that, in 2019 currency, that peak 2006 home price of $315,000 would actually equate to 398,300. Also, while things have improved overall, they have yet to reach the point where lenders were practically giving loans away; from banks to developers, everyone touched by the real estate industry is playing it a little more safely these days, based on how badly they were burned last time around.

So while the symbolism of the new 2019 peak is a great way to bid farewell to the hardships that the recession forced upon Las Vegas – and indeed, the rest of the nation – it still indicates that there’s room for improvement, and illustrates just how bad things got when they were at their worst. But it also shows how far Vegas has come, and how far it’s still more than capable of going in the future.

Shelter Realty Property Management specializes in the areas of  Henderson, Las Vegas and North Las Vegas, NV. Feel free to give us a call at 702.376.7379 so we can answer any questions you may have.

LAS VEGAS, NV – While the growth of home prices on the real estate market has slowed as of late after a period of massive growth, Las Vegas is still outpacing the vast majority of large cities in the county; that is, except its neighboring city of Phoenix, Arizona, according to reports.

In Southern Nevada as of July 2019, median home prices have been recorded as increasing 4.7 percent since the same period in 2018; this runs in direct contrast with the national average of 3.2 percent, reports say.

However, Phoenix has jumped in the rankings, showing a 5.8 percent gain year-over-year for the second month in a row. Previously, Las Vegas had occupied the top of the price growth list for a full year; for the past two months, it’s had to settle for number two on that list, a no less impressive distinction.

Currently, the median price of a single-family home in Las Vegas is $305,000 as of September, which represents a 3.4 percent increase over the same period of time in 2018. Growth is still there, although demand has decreased as developers have addressed the city’s rampant housing shortage brought on by a booming economy and an influx of out-of-state transplants looking for good jobs. The number of homes on the market is slowly increasing, which is helping to stabilize the formerly skyrocketing rate of growth for new home prices in the region.

In contrast, the median sales price of a single-family home in Las Vegas in August of 2018 represented a 13.5 percent increase over the same period in 2017, reports say; a massive jump, indeed. 

The current growth of the Las Vegas real estate market is seen as more sustainable, according to experts, many of whom were worried that the previous rapid growth the city was experiencing would soon affect the region’s much-touted affordable cost of living.

Shelter Realty Property Management specializes in the areas of  Henderson, Las Vegas and North Las Vegas, NV. Feel free to give us a call at 702.376.7379 so we can answer any questions you may have.

LAS VEGAS, NV – According to reports, the Rio All-Suite Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas, Nevada has been sold by Caesars Entertainment to a real estate investment company for $516.3 million.

The buyer, controlled by the firm Imperial Companies, has agreed to acquire the Rio Casino-Hotel, which is located on the famed Las Vegas Strip. Under the terms of the announced agreement, Caesars will still operate the hotel/casino for at least the next two years, paying the new owners $45 million a year in rent. After two years, Caesars retains a $7 million option to continue managing the property for an additional year; further years of management are also possible after the expiration of the lease as well, according to the agreement.

Caesars CEO Tony Rodio noted in a released statement that the move to sell the Rio would enable the company to concentrate on their many other holdings in the Southern Nevada region and beyond.

“This deal allows Caesars Entertainment to focus our resources on strengthening our attractive portfolio of recently renovated Strip properties and is expected to result in incremental EBITDA at those properties,” he said.

Caesars Entertainment Chief Executive, Tony Rodio

First opening its doors for business on January 15, 1990, the Rio was the first all-suite resort in the Las Vegas area. It was named after the city of Rio de Janeiro and is influenced by Brazilian culture, and is the host casino for the World Series of Poker.

The hotel towers are covered in blue and red glass. The Rio hotel’s 2,522 suites range in size from 600 to 13,000 square feet and have floor to ceiling windows. There are several private villas on the property for high-rollers. In addition, the complex includes a wine cellar that has more than 50,000 bottles. The Rio Pavilion convention center has a total of 160,000 square feet of space. A Race and Sports Book is also available.

Shelter Realty Property Management specializes in the areas of  Henderson, Las Vegas and North Las Vegas, NV. Feel free to give us a call at 702.376.7379 so we can answer any questions you may have.

LAS VEGAS, NV – Many Las Vegas construction projects that are either in the planning stages or are currently in the works are facing the very real threat of skyrocketing costs in the face of trade tariffs brought on by the ongoing US/China Trade War, according to recent reports.

As previously announced by President Donald Trump, on October 1, 2019, new tariffs – ranging from 25 percent to 30 percent – will be placed on $250 billion worth of Chinese goods; in addition, $160 billion worth of Chinese goods will come under a new 15 percent tax due to be instituted on December 15.

How this affects construction in Las Vegas – and much of the United States, for that matter – is in steel, one of China’s main exports, which is also home to six of the 10 largest steel-producing companies headquartered there, according to reports. 

And the increased steel prices that the tariffs are causing are making many developers think twice about going forward with – or scaling back – numerous planned projects in the Southern Nevada region due to the ballooning costs involved. For example, a proposed sports and entertainment complex for the Las Vegas Strip headed up by former NBA star Jackie Robinson has raised its estimated costs from $2.7 billion to nearly $3 billion as a result of increased steel costs, reports say. In addition, the developers of the MSG Sphere at The Venetian have increased their initial estimate from $1.2 billion to $1.7 billion.

However, an equal number of developers are pressing forward and taking on the extra costs as they come, while others are managing to remain on-budget as pre-existing purchase contracts with exporters have rendered them temporarily immune to the rising costs brought about by the US/Chine trade war. Projects that report no significant cost overruns due to the conflict include the Las Vegas Raiders Stadium and the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority (LVCVA) convention center expansion.

According to the LVCVA, there are ongoing or currently planned projects scheduled to open through 2022 totaling in the amount of $15.2 billion within the confines of the city.

Shelter Realty Property Management specializes in the areas of  Henderson, Las Vegas and North Las Vegas, NV. Feel free to give us a call at 702.376.7379 so we can answer any questions you may have.

LAS VEGAS, NV – The Las Vegas Sphere, a 400,000-square-foot, 18,000-seat, 360-foot-tall globe-shaped arena slated to be constructed on 63 acres of property located behind the Venetian Resort Hotel Casino on the Las Vegas Strip, is currently running over initial cost estimates. As a result, the ambitious project – helmed by developer Madison Square Garden Co. – may cost upwards of $500 million more than first projected, inflating its final price tag to as much as $1.7 billion, reports say.

Originally, Madison Square Garden Co. – in conjunction with partner Las Vegas Sands Corp. – had estimated the cost of the high-tech stadium at $1.2 billion, which was contrasted recently when the contractor of the project, AECOM, announced that costs are more likely in the range of $1.7 billion.

The discrepancy, according to reports, may come from the difference between initial budgeting and forecasting based on schematic designs available at the start of construction – ground was officially broken one year ago – and high costs that AECOM has noted they are encountering throughout the process of physically bringing the complex designs to life. Madison Square Garden Co. has reportedly stated that they feel this new $1.7 billion estimate is too high, and is “in the process of reviewing and challenging those assumptions.”

The Sphere will cater to musical performances and concerts, as well as potentially occasional boxing or MMA contests. Once completed, the interior of will feature a 180,000-square-foot ceiling with massive video screens for attendees to watch, as well as floor-based bass speaker system to appeal to concert and club-goers on evenings when electronic dance music acts take the MSG Sphere stage, giving the music venue a multi-genre and event capability. The Sphere is expected to be completed in 2021.

Shelter Realty Property Management specializes in the areas of  Henderson, Las Vegas and North Las Vegas, NV. Feel free to give us a call at 702.376.7379 so we can answer any questions you may have.

LAS VEGAS, NV – According to reports, despite the fact that rental prices for apartments in the Las Vegas area have increased over the past 12 months more than any other major U.S. metropolitan area in the United States, the market is nonetheless still considered by experts as remaining quite healthy and affordable, especially compared to neighboring states such as California.

In a recently-released Zillow report, the median rent in Las Vegas for all property types was $1,435, which represents a 10 percent jump from the same period one year prior. However, local realtors are disputing this figure, noting that the median rental price is more around $1,100; this price is made possible by the fact that developers have been working long and hard over the past year to construct more apartments and condos to satisfy the rapidly-growing demand for affordable housing options in Vegas.

However, reports note, developers have not quite met housing demands as of yet; Clark County occupancy is currently at 95 percent, which is considered the hallmark of a healthy rental market, and further stability of the market would be ensured if more building was completed.

Experts say that Las Vegas’ prices are still considered a bargain, especially when compared to regions where rental prices have increased to points where the cost of living has become prohibitive, such as Seattle, Washington or California’s Bay Area.

Recognizing Las Vegas’ need to expand its rental options in order to further lower prices, developers have been hiring in droves in order to bolster their workforces; experts note that apartments can’t be built fast enough, and that the market has yet to completely recover from the lack of construction activity that took place in Vegas during the recession, a time when numerous projects where either abandoned or outright cancelled. 

Another factor that real estate experts say will be affecting the market in the near future is the impact that professional sports will have upon rentals in Las Vegas; once the Las Vegas Raiders NFL Football team begins hosting home games in the city at the start of their 2020 season, demand for rental units – which are typically cheaper than renting hotel suites for ten or more games per year – will likely increase even more as fans of the team flood the city on a regular basis.

Shelter Realty Property Management specializes in the areas of  Henderson, Las Vegas and North Las Vegas, NV. Feel free to give us a call at 702.376.7379 so we can answer any questions you may have.

LAS VEGAS, NV – According to reports, Bleutech Park Properties, Inc. recently announced a truly ambitious project that is slated to break ground in the Las Vegas Valley in December 2019 – Bleutech Park, a so-called “smart mini-city” that will combine cutting-edge tech with new design principles which the developer claims will influence future construction.

Its description certainly makes Bleutech Park sound like something out of “Star Wars,” or “The Jetsons” with the developer noting that the $7.5 billion project will feature renewable energy source-powered “net-zero” buildings, meaning buildings with zero net energy consumption; the total amount of energy used by the buildings on an annual basis will be roughly equal to the amount of renewable energy created on the site, reports say.

In addition, Bleutech Park will have automated multi-functional designs, autonomous vehicles, artificial intelligence, augmented reality, robotics, self-healing concrete structures and more. Environmentally-friendly “green” technology will be at the forefront of design principles, including water purification, energy generation and storage, waste-heat recovery, and more. A network of “supertrees” is slated to help reduce imported water consumption by 95 percent.

With zero carbon emissions the project’s stated goals, according to reports, the outside surfaces of all buildings will utilize photo-voltaic glass, essentially turning them all into giant solar panels capable of generating significant amounts of electrical power.

The project is privately funded and is expected to take approximately six years for construction to be completed; once finished, it will offer mixed-use space combining worker housing, office and retail space, in addition to luxury hotel and entertainment options for residents and guests.

More details on the Bleutech Park project – which is expected to create more than 25,000 jobs – are expected to be announced shortly. But the degree of technology that is being talked about – much of the tech is still early in development, but progressing at a steady pace – could truly make Bleutech Park a beacon for community design for all developers in the future – if the project is successfully pulled off.

Shelter Realty Property Management specializes in the areas of  Henderson, Las Vegas and North Las Vegas, NV. Feel free to give us a call at 702.376.7379 so we can answer any questions you may have.

WASHINGTON – On July 31, the Federal Reserve cut interest rates by 25 points, making it the first time they have done so since the national recession in 2008. In addition, the central bank also ended quantitative tightening – a process of shrinking its balance sheet – two months ahead of schedule.

The interest rate cut changes the target benchmark rate to a range of 2 percent to 2.25 percent amid concerns of a possible slowing of the nation’s economy, citing “implications of global developments for the economic outlook as well as muted inflation pressures” .

According to a statement by the Federal Open Market Committee, business fixed investment is considered “soft” and inflationary pressures “remain low.” Job gains are considered “solid” by the Fed, with 224,000 added according to the June jobs report; unemployment currently is at 3.7 percent nationally, representing a slight increase.

The consumer market has shown continued improvement, however, with household spending increasing across the board.

Fed Chair Jay Powell initially did not indicate that there would be any further interest rate decreases in the near future, stating that the cut was simply a “midcycle adjustment” and that the economy was not in such a state of slowdown as to make necessary a longer rate-cutting cycle.

Powell’s lack of indication of future cuts drew the ire of President Donald Trump, who has been critical of the actions taken by the Federal Reserve recently as it pertains to the economy.

“As usual, Powell let us down, but at least he is ending quantitative tightening, which shouldn’t have started in the first place – no inflation,” Trump wrote on Twitter. “We are winning anyway, but I am certainly not getting much help from the Federal Reserve!”

It is perhaps this backlash from the President that caused the Fed to issue a follow-up statement, noting that it will “act as appropriate to sustain the expansion,” and that the committee will contemplate “the future path of the target range for the federal funds rate,” thus leaving the door open for potential future cuts.

Expectations were high in economic markets that the Federal Reserve would be making a 25 point cut, and some were even anticipating a potential 50 point cut.

Shelter Realty Property Management specializes in the areas of  Henderson, Las Vegas and North Las Vegas, NV. Feel free to give us a call at 702.376.7379 so we can answer any questions you may have.