Las Vegas Real Estate Blog

Located in the northwestern valley at Torrey Pines Drive and Rome Boulevard, Silver Creek, designed by Miami-based builder Lennar is a intimate, gated neighborhood of 20 luxury residences on home sites measuring one-third to one-half an acre.

Buyers have four four plans to choose from:  the Palisades, Thousand Oaks, Coronado, Morro Bay and Turtle Bay. 

The neighborhood features two story designs, four to five bedrooms, and 3 to 4 1/2 baths.  Each are quite spacious ranging in size from 4,401 to 5,000 square feet.

For more information on any of these beautiful homes, contact MillionSaverHomes.

Popularity: 12%

A recent USA Today article highlights the growing trend among more and more Baby Boomers who are choosing to retire closer to home.  An AARP analysis of Census figures from 1990 and 2000 seems to also back this up.  It showed that 9 of every 10 Americans 60 and older were living in the same county they’d lived in five years before the surveys were taken; more than three-quarters even stayed in the same house.

Why are Baby Boomers staying put?

1. Putting family first
2. Cutting costs
3. Strong community ties

Developers are beginning to respond to this growing tend as well.  They are building socially centered, amenity-filled retirement villages throughout the country, including in urban and rural pockets from Colorado to Philadelphia.

Popularity: 12%

It appears as if the Las Vegas real estate market will not improve until late next year, but it could take as many as four years to recover. Those are the findings of researchers at the University of Nevada Las Vegas in their mid-year economic report.

Researchers at UNLV say excess supply is hurting the market.  They believe that LV currently has approximately 14-15,000 housing units more than is needed and that it is depressing home building and home building has slowed significantly.

The Greater Las Vegas Association of Realtors reported that the median sales price of a single-family home was just over $301,000 in May, down 1% from April and down nearly 3% from last year.  Also in May, the number of homes listed for sale increased by more than 3% from April.

Popularity: 12%

On June 1, the National Association of Realtors (NAR) released data related to the Pending Home Sales Index (PHSI) which is a forward-looking indicator based on pending home sales.  The index based on contracts signed in April, stood at 101.4, down 3.2 percent from an upwardly revised March reading of 104.8, and is 10.2 percent lower than April 2006 when it registered 112.9.  The revised March index was 10.0 percent below a year earlier.

Senioar NAR economist, Lawrence Yun, said the current index appears to be a fair representation of overall housing market conditions.  “It looks like we may be leaving a period of market disruptions, and for the past two months the pending home sales index has been similar in year-ago comparisons, which means home sales might ease but should be fairly stable in the months ahead,” he said.

The PHSI by region: 

• In the Midwest rose 2.3 percent in April to 98.1 but was 4.4 percent below a year ago. 
• In the South increased 0.7 percent from March to 116.0, but was 10.4 percent below April 2006.  
• In the West fell 10.2 percent in April to 91.4 and was 11.7 percent lower than a year ago. 
• In the Northeast, the index dropped 10.4 percent from March to 89.3 and was 15.4 percent below April 2006.

Popularity: 11%

Summerlin’s the Vista Village is offering its final two developments:  Altessa and Kingwood.  The Altessa development is a European-inspired, 280-unit, condo development offering 10 floor plan variations.  Units range from 684 to 1,390 square feet and are priced beginning in the low $200,000s.

The Kingwood neighborhood features three home collections by three home builders.  The Crown Series offers four floor plans from 2,426 to 3,158 square feet with prices starting in the low $500,000s.

Kingwood Crossing offers four floor plans from 1,948 to 2,737 square feet, priced from the low $400,000s.  Kingwood Knoll offers seven floor plans that range from 1,515 to 2,224 square feet.   These homes are priced from the mid-$300,000s.

For more information on these designs and availability, contact MillionSaverHomes at 702-212-3513.

Popularity: 10%

Only three custom home sites remain available at Falcon Ridge in The Ridges.  Those available sites measure less than an acre and are priced from the mid-$600,000s to the mid-$700,000s.

Falcon Ridge is the sixth custom neighborhood to develop in The Ridges and includes a total of just 60 custom home sites.  The Ridges is one of Summerlin’s most exclusive luxury village located at the far western end of Desert Inn Road, and is being built around Jack Nicklaus’ Bear’s Best Las Vegas golf course that features replications of signature holes from his courses throughout the Southwestern United States.

Popularity: 9%

Centex Homes’ Mesa Verde, a gated neighborhood of attached homes in North Las Vegas is offering potential home buyers a variety of incentive programs. Qualified buyers can take advantage of several options such as a flexible introductory incentive to assist with closing costs or an interest rate buy down. There are also incentive programs geared specifically to educators, healthcare providers, firefighters and law enforcement personnel as well as active, reserve, retired or veteran military members.

Mesa Verde offers 7 floor plans ranging from 1,490 to 2,392 square feet, priced from the $225,000s to the $305,000s.  The two-story layouts include up to three bedrooms and three full baths with as many as four living areas. 

Popularity: 8%

Las Vegas analyst Dennis Smith’s latest report showed that 6,772 home sold through April, which is 44% above the first four months of 2006. With the median price of resale homes standing at $285,000 (same as March), potential buyers can continue to enjoy finding a few good deals.

Homebuilders are also doing their part to reduce inventory levels by offering huge incentives.  In fact, Smith talks of how Lennar Homes recently sent a letter to companies they do business with offering a 30% discount on their standing inventory of homes if they closed escrow by the end of May.

That would mean that a buyer saved $150,000 on a $500,000 home or $250,000 on a  $750,000 home.  Definitely nothing to sneeze at if you were in the market for a new home. 

Smith says that prices have begun to level off, but have not drop even as some builder inventories have decreased.  Smith believes this is due in large part to a continued shortage of current land on which to build new developments. 

Popularity: 8%

In April 2007, the website Housefront.com launched.  So what, you say…what’s the big deal?  Well, if you’re big on gathering information on the fly, you may think it is. With Housefront.com, you can access home-value, property and sales-history information online or via cellphone through text messaging.

Let’s say, you are housing hunting and drive past a home for sale that really interests you and you want more information.  Just pick up your cell phone text the home’s address to 46873 (”HOUSE”)  and you’ll receive information on the property’s potential sales price, size and number of bedrooms and bathrooms, etc. Housefront.com also shows sale date(s) and price(s) paid. 

The best part is its free.  The site doesn’t charge fees for its text-message service; your mobile-phone carrier’s normal rates apply.   If you sign up for a free account with the Web site and give a cellphone number, any Housefront.com report received via text message will be saved to your online account — along with your previous queries — so they can be viewed later on a computer.

Popularity: 8%

Home sellers often hesitate to accept a contingent-sale offer.  Why?  Because if the buyer’s house doesn’t sell, the deal falls through and the seller is forced to spend more time and energy looking for another buyer. 

If you are a buyer wanting to include a contingent-sale clause, try and see things from the seller’s perspective and remain reasonable in your expectations and in presenting your offer.  Also, be prepared to address their concerns such as:

1. How salable is your property?
2. Will you price it right for the market?
3. Will you negotiate reasonably to sell your home as quickly as possible?

Bottom line is if you want a particular house and you still need to sell the one you have, then you need to work harder to prove to that seller that you yourself are a realistic seller and will do all you can to sell your current home quickly at a reasonable price.

Popularity: 8%