In the News… “Housing Market at Bottom”

Jun. 04, 2008
Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal
Homeowners, you can almost touch bottom

By JENNIFER ROBISON
REVIEW-JOURNAL

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Are we there yet? Are we there yet? Are we there yet?

That’s not just an endless series of queries from road-weary kids on summer vacation. It’s also become the plaintive cry of local homeowners desperately seeking the bottom of a housing market that has shed more than 20 percent of its value in the last year.

Las Vegas homeowners could have their answer soon.

A Monday report, plus a few springtime indicators thrown in for good measure, hints that the city’s housing market may be at or near its nadir.

TOP 7 DEALS IN LAS VEGAS

INVESTORS ADVANTAGE TOP 7 DEALS IN LAS VEGAS

05.21.08 >>> I will post here each week the top 7 deals in the Las Vegas real estate market. How does a listing make the spot? Under $120 a square foot and under $250,000 in the best areas for cash flows and long-term appreciation. If you would like to get notified immediately of the newest top deals, e-mail me and I’ll help you avoid the competition!

Click the following link for this week’s top 7: top_7_deals-5-21-08

Best Time to Buy is Passing You By

THE TIME IS PASSING…

By Shawn Cunningham – 05.16.08 >>> I speak regularly to investors – usually daily. And over the past six months, what I have told you about the Las Vegas market has steadily evolved. In January, we discussed that a housing shortage was coming, and the market was either at or very near its bottom based on inventory trends and activity at the bottom of the market. I likely discussed with you the importance of watching new home inventory as buyers were already unable to buy new homes they would rush back to the resale market.

In February as new homes standing inventory disappeared and bank repos were in bidding wars, I shared my perspective with you that the bottom of the market was likely already here. When multiple buyers are bidding on a property that means it is priced too low, and this was widespread in late winter.

In April, prices started to show some “buoyancy” as the very low prices available in the winter were disappearing. For many of you, I spoke of the need to focus on finding an underpriced investment in a strong area, and look for a strong rate of return/monthly cash flow.

Today as we are about to enter the summer, it is clear

Top 7 Deals of the Week

INVESTORS ADVANTAGE TOP 7 DEALS IN LAS VEGAS

05.14.08 >>> I will post here each week the top 7 deals in the Las Vegas real estate market. How does a listing make the spot? Under $120 a square foot and under $250,000 in the best areas for cash flows and long-term appreciation. If you would like to get notified immediately of the newest top deals, e-mail me and I’ll help you avoid the competition!

Click the following link for this week’s top 7: top_7_deals-5-14-08

In the News… “Home buyers capitalize on falling prices, rates”

Use this link to see the following article from In Business Las Vegas: http://www.inbusinesslv.com/2008/05/09/feature2.html

Home buyers capitalize on falling prices, rates

By Brian Wargo / Staff Writer

As home prices and interest rates keep falling in the Las Vegas Valley, more and more buyers are snatching up houses.

The Greater Las Vegas Association of Realtors reported May 6 that 1,794 homes were sold in April, a 21 percent jump over March’s 1,478 home sales. The sales are 30 percent higher than April 2007.

In addition, 7 percent more condos and town houses on the Multiple Listing Service were sold in April, compared with March.

“We continue to see this as a good sign for the local housing market,” the Realtor group’s president, Patty Kelley, said. “With four months in a row of month-over-month gains in homes sold, we see this as a positive trend.”

Properties owned by banks and other lenders accounted for more than half of the homes sold in April and that has created bargains since those homes are being sold below market prices, Kelley said.
The increase in sales comes as prices continue to fall. The median price of single-family homes sold in April was $235,875, down 3 percent from $243,169 in March. Prices are down 23 percent from April 2007.

Las Vegas housing analyst Steve Bottfeld said the valley will have to deal with thousands of foreclosures in 2008, but the increase in sales is a good sign. The Federal Reserve’s reduction in interest rates has been the difference, he added.

In the News: “First Hint of Housing Turnaround”

First Hint of Housing Turnaround

It may only be a small boost driven by warmer weather, but after two months of some of the weakest new-home sales in Las Vegas since the mid-1990s, surpassing 1,000 sales in March felt like a thaw after a frigid winter for some builders.

Many aren’t expecting a quick recovery for the Las Vegas housing market, but traffic is up and so are sales per subdivision. That sparks hope that the new-home market has seen its bottom and only has one direction to go – up, albeit slowly.

Astoria Homes reported its March sales were better than January and February combined. The last week of March was probably the best month the builder has had in more than a year, company President Tom McCormick said. The builder is launching a luxury home division and hiring staff despite the housing slowdown.

“Through 2006 and 2007 it felt like head winds, but now it feels like tail winds,” McCormick said. “It is hard for me not to think that the new-home market isn’t improving by the second half of the year.”

Credit remains tight but people with jobs, a down payment and good credit are able to get loans. The cancellation rate of 28 percent in March was the lowest since February 2007, according to Home Builders Research.

Some analysts and builders have suggested that the best time to buy a new home may have already passed.

FOR MORE, CLICK HERE TO VISIT In Business Las Vegas Website

Why We Are At the Bottom

By Shawn Cunningham – 05.02.08 >>> Many of you reading this article invested in the boom market of 2003-2005 here in Las Vegas. This was a time when the market was on steroids – growing at untenable levels (nearly 55% in one year) and in part creating the foreclosure crisis we now have in Nevada and across the country. Despite all the turmoil and money made, we are in fact back to where we started – prices are at 2004 levels again.

Before the boom, homes could easily be found for $100 a square foot or less, and now with homes in upscale locations like Southern Highlands, Aliante and Seven Hills, going for less than $100 a square foot, we’ve officially gone back time.

The Story on Short Sales

Story on Short Sales

By Shawn Cunningham – 04.25.08 >>> A short sale is a listing where the seller owes more money on their loan(s) than the house is worth. The number of short sales in the MLS has grown considerably over the past 24 months as the declining real estate values have put more sellers into a negative equity position on their homes. The only alternative to foreclosure (if the bank won’t modify the loan) is a short sale.

The big question is – should You Buy One? ► From an investor standpoint, short sales can seem attractive, as they are usually priced far below market. However it’s important to keep 5 things in mind about a short sale…

Top 7 Deals of the Week!

INVESTORS ADVANTAGE TOP 7 DEALS IN LAS VEGAS

04.23.08 >>> I will post here each week the top 7 deals in the Las Vegas real estate market. How does a listing make the spot? Under $120 a square foot and under $300,000 in the best areas for cash flows and long-term appreciation. If you would like to get notified immediately of the newest top deals, e-mail me and I’ll help you avoid the competition!

Click the following link for this week’s top 7: top_7_deals_of_the_week_04-23-08

What’s Happened to Condo Conversions?

What Happened to Condo Conversions? – By Shawn Cunningham – 04.11.08 >>>  I’ve been advising investors for years to steer clear of condos for rental properties – the cash flow just doesn’t make sense.  This reason applies in any market, but in today’s market we are seeing a truly stunning inventory of condos on the resale market that is due entirely to the over exuberance of deep pocketed investors who came to Las Vegas in 2003 and 2004 and saw a new opportunity: apartment complexes. 

The lack of new apartment buildings in Las Vegas along with the skyrocketing real estate prices made conversions an attractive way to flip and make maximum profit.  Initially, real estate investors and first time home buyers snapped up these conversions for high prices (some for more than $300,000) and the earliest developers to the party made some money.  Unfortunately, the good times did not last long.