Friday, August 31, 2012

I'm not a bit surprised! AB284 Las Vegas



LAS VEGAS -- Southern Nevada is ground zero for the foreclosure crisis and there is a debate raging about the so-called shadow inventory.

The term refers to the number of bank owned homes that haven't been put up for sale yet. Real estate agents and home buyers are anxious to find out if the banks are holding back, and when the market could be flooded with a new wave of foreclosed homes.

The National Association of Hispanic real estate professionals discussed the topic of shadow inventory in an effort to find out if the banks are just sitting on foreclosed properties.

"There's a lot of talk that we're holding off, that the banks are holding off on properties in order for them to sell them, and we wanted to clarify those points," said Omar Lopez, president of the Las Vegas Chapter and National Association of Hispanic Real Estate Professionals.



Real estate agents and lenders pressed for answers about a possible foreclosure tidal wave.

"Right now, Wells Fargo has 134 properties in the state of Nevada. Our job is to rehab those properties, get them ready, and put them out as quickly as possible, " said Joel Sarmiento, regional servicing director of Wells Fargo.

The recession has been crippling to the Las Vegas markets and some fear more homes will go into foreclosure.

"The myth is actually there are tens of thousands of homes on the shadow inventory and they're all coming to the market, so we're hearing the numbers in terms of tens of thousands, but we haven't seen that," said Paul Murad of the Nevada Real Estate Commission.

Wells Fargo officials say its their goal to work with their customers so more homeowners don't face foreclosure.

It is currently a seller's market with homes getting multiple offers and selling faster.

Tuesday, August 14, 2012

Vegas Apartments Continue to Struggle


It’s been a couple quarters or so since we’ve shined the spotlight on the Las Vegas apartment market. There’s still not much that’s good to say here. But maybe a look at some ugly numbers will make us feel even better about the really healthy stats seen almost everywhere else.
Getting the ugliest piece of info out of the way right off the bat, effective rents for new leases in Las Vegas as of 1st quarter 2012 still were roughly 16 percent below the rates seen in the pre-recession days of late 2007. That hole is more than twice as deep as the challenge faced in Phoenix, the market with the second-biggest rent decline. The best spin you can put on this is that pricing finally has stabilized. Average effective rents in early 2012 exactly matched early 2011 results, and the minor quarterly shift of -0.2 percent also showed basically flat pricing.
Slicing and dicing the rent performance data doesn’t show much of interest. There’s just not a product niche or individual neighborhood where the annual rent change level strays too far from zero.
Las Vegas apartment occupancy now stands at 91.9 percent, still quite low. In this measure, however, at least some progress is being made. Occupancy improved 0.6 percentage points on a quarterly basis and 1.9 points annually. Since bottoming in late 2007 at 89 percent, occupancy has climbed nearly 3 full points.
There’s a very distinct pattern in occupancy by product sector in Las Vegas, with the best properties in better shape than the less desirable communities. Occupancy registers at 93.8 percent in developments built since 2000, 92.6 percent in the 1990s-era stock, 91.1 percent in the 1980s-vintage inventory, 89.9 percent in the units from the 1970s, and 83.4 percent in the handful of projects completed prior to 1970.
With that pattern in occupancy by product age so pronounced, occupancy by neighborhood for the most part just reflects the age concentration of the stock within the specific submarkets.  At the top of the list, then, are more upscale areas like Henderson, Green Valley, and both South and Southwest Las Vegas, all with occupancy a little over 94 percent.
Since top-tier product in Las Vegas is approaching the occupancy performance that should allow some rent growth to kick in, MPF Research anticipates that the metro’s overall rent change figure finally will shift into positive territory during the next few months.  The rent growth number almost certainly won’t be big, but the pricing change at least should be moving in the right direction.
greg.willett@propertymanagementinsider.com

Friday, August 3, 2012

Buying vs. renting pays off in shorter time in Las Vegas than national average

Break-even Horizon
How many years it will take before owning a home becomes more financially advantageous than renting the same home.

MetroBreak-even horizon
Miami-Fort Lauderdale1.6 years
Tampa, Fla.1.6 years
Las Vegas1.7 years
Orlando, Fla.1.7 years
Phoenix1.7 years
Detroit1.7 years
Riverside, Calif.2.0 years
Dallas-Fort Worth2.1 years
Cincinnati2.1 years
Pittsburgh, Pa.2.1 years
Columbus, Ohio2.4 years
Cleveland2.4 years

Source: Zillow