housing: Stated income mortgage issue still brewing in Nevada - 10/02/07 07:10 AM
The updated consumer protection law that was put in the books earlier in the year is effective as of today. One of its stipulations is that a stated income mortgage loan can be a crime in the state, as interpreted by some legal experts. And that has caused thick smoke to come out of the ears of many in the residential real estate business, and for a good reason. There seems to be genuine ambiguity as to what the new law really means.
Critics feel that the stated income program is going to become nearly impossible to get from now on. And if … (63 comments)

housing: HUD official gives support to financial markets - 09/26/07 09:15 AM
Although the Fed's recent key interest rate cut has only a marginal effect on mortgage interest rates, it does signal the financial community that the government is now carefully monitoring the worrisome housing developments. It provides more liquidity to the overall system for one and also assures the banks that Washington seems to be willing to step in if really needed. It's clear that the marketplace is unable to alone navigate these hurricane-force winds.
The Assistant Secretary of the Housing and Urban Development, or HUD, spoke in the same supportive tone the other day. She is part of an obviously broader effort … (4 comments)

housing: Housing price declines in the forecast - 09/22/07 03:26 PM
According to the latest forecast by Moody's Economy.com, the nation's home price picture is going to be rather smudgy in the coming years. The study it conducted analyzed the high and low ends of real estate values in the targeted markets, a total of 379 of the largest ones. Only the median prices in the single-family category were used.
The survey came up with an above 10% drop in 86 of the cities, which is bad enough, and over a 1% slide in 290 other markets. That's just about all of the areas the study covered. When they averaged out the … (2 comments)

housing: Housing woes pinch new home size - 09/18/07 06:23 AM
 
Home builders have lately been on a steady course of constructing ever larger houses and condos for the consumer who was looking for a bigger place to live in, whether he really needed it or not. That was the trend for years. It, in fact, accelerated during the early years of this millennium when mortgages were inexpensive and easy to get. Life was good.
A responsible attitude toward the marketplace and how it truly functions were largely forgotten by many and it gradually germinated heavy overbuilding and increasing foreclosure rates and all that has brought us to today's stagnant residential real … (8 comments)

housing: Vegas housing market on the mend? - 09/15/07 11:13 AM
Southern Nevada real estate market has been battling a bad headache for a good while and weary industry experts are wondering when it might right itself. There are some positive signs now that the slide may be slowing down, and maybe even coming to a halt. Wouldn't that be something to cheer about?
Here is the proof. The MLS administered by the Greater Las Vegas Association of Realtors, or GLVAR, reports that the amount of homes for resale grew only 1.1% in August, to 24,341. This is smallest monthly uptick all year and it's a good reason to some optimism. Please click … (2 comments)

housing: Are real estate prices going up or down? - 09/14/07 06:36 AM
 
You would think that with the market as soft as it is in many sections of the nation prices would be heading south. And they are. At least that's what you keep reading in the media. And then two separate home price reports are released in the same week and all of a sudden the story gets real blurry.
Here is why. First Standard & Poor's Case-Shiller national home price index comes out telling us that values dropped 3.2% in the second quarter of 2007 from the same quarter a year ago. That goes along with common belief. The news immediately … (8 comments)

housing: ARM interest rate calculation made easy - 09/10/07 11:58 AM
Many borrowers today have ARMs, or adjustable rate mortgages, and it can be a good loan program in various situations. A lot of them were taken out around two to four years ago when the housing boom ruled the landscape. Those home loans are now in the process of resetting and a large majority of homeowners have very little idea what will happen to the interest rate. Will it go up? If so, by how much? Let's look at the four factors that determine the new rate and then you can easily figure it out yourself. So, pick up your mortgage … (0 comments)

housing: Southern Nevada housing a drag on overall economy - 09/08/07 10:59 AM
Metropolitan Las Vegas economy is moving along on a steady, slow course. In the last few months it has been up a little, then down a little, sort of trying to find a groove where to stay. The main reason to the moderate performance continues to be the weak residential real estate market that seems to be searching for something to grasp hold of to halt the slide.
The Southern Nevada Index of Leading Economic Indicators edged lower in August by a minuscule 0.11%, reports the Center for Business and Economic Research at UNLV. The major contributors to the modest drop … (2 comments)

housing: Mesquite housing market cools - 09/05/07 10:22 AM
Mesquite has lately been called a bedroom community of Las Vegas. And rightfully so. It's only about 90 miles away, a straight shot northeast up the freeway, and definitely has its own small-town aura that is coveted by so many. Pahrump to the west and over the mountain range is the other one.
What comes to real estate, it has been linked to the metropolis all too closely, too. And this one is easy to prove. When the housing market boomed here a few years ago, Mesquite's followed right behind it with the same type of over-heating. And now, as if on … (0 comments)

housing: Residential real estate becomes more affordable - 08/28/07 11:40 AM
It's a delight to be able to report some good news, for a change. So far it has been just about everything else but them, so let's get right down to it. Before the tide turns. The soft real estate market continues to keep us steady company in most regions of the land, but there actually is at least one benefit to it. It's a basic principle of real estate economics, namely that as prices fall, housing becomes more affordable.
A national study was done on the issue for the second quarter ending in June, 2007, and it found that the affordability … (7 comments)

housing: Reduce housing expenses with eco-friendly steps - 08/17/07 03:13 PM
Saving money usually is close to everyone's heart. It certainly is to mine. And if it can be done so that it also helps the environment, then it could be called double savings. It gives your wallet a break and does the same to the earth.
Let's look at some of the easy yet often overlooked ways to achieve savings that can make a difference. Compact florescent light bulb, or CFL, is coming on strong nowadays. Installing five of them in place of the regular incandescent bulbs can easily save you about 50% per year in you power bill. That would definitely … (11 comments)

housing: Las Vegas land prices soft - 08/13/07 04:20 PM
It wasn't too long ago when Southern Nevada land prices were trotting along nicely. Every quarterly report from those who keep tabs on these things showed another shattered record for an acre of this dusty dirt. When you have about 5,500 new residents moving in every month, they need housing and services. That means demand, and it was running high then.
The second quarter report for 2007, though, tells you that the median vacant land price per acre was down to $718,500, which is $90,600 less than a year ago. This according to Applied Analysis, a local economic research firm. To read the … (2 comments)

housing: Las Vegas housing affordability challenge - 08/13/07 02:46 PM
For the lower middle-class home buyer the good old days here were the 80's and 90's when he could afford to buy a nice residence fronting a wide street and had a decent-sized backyard. Maybe even a pool if he had saved diligently. Newspapers across the land were writing about that. But in the early 2000's things started to turn for the worse. Mortgage guidelines by then had become increasingly lenient, allowing home buyers to borrow money way more than they could actually afford, fueling artificial demand. Then real estate speculators moved in and fanned the flames even further. Prices surged … (8 comments)

housing: Micro real estate markets flourish - 08/11/07 04:12 PM
 
Most of the large metro areas around the country are wallowing in stagnant or sliding housing markets. Home prices and sales are struggling mightily to maintain any type of momentum. The industry is truly facing a nice challenge.
Yet, according to national real estate experts, just about every major city has within its limits so called micro markets that are performing well above average. These neighborhoods and ZIP codes typically exhibit rather strong economic fundamentals that keep them in demand among buyers.
One of the key advantages these micro heavens have going for them is that they are well-established communities close to cultural … (10 comments)

housing: Union Park, Las Vegas, will go green - 08/10/07 04:04 PM
The City of Las Vegas owns a 61-acre parcel of land just west of downtown that was a former rail yard. It's aptly called Union Park. It has been vacant for years while the city has tried to attract developers to put something useful there. Plenty of ideas have been tossed around, but with little traction and it still is vacant. But now things are stirring up over there. Now they are talking about something that might hold water.
The major news is that the site has been approved to be a participant in the U.S. Green Building Council's LEED for Neighborhood … (8 comments)

housing: U.S. real estate attracts foreign buyers - 08/03/07 11:43 AM
 
Our housing market is soft, everyone agrees with that statement. There are a couple of pockets that are still doing well, like New York, Seattle and Salt Lake City, but the rest of the large metro areas have turned into nice buyer's markets. Some a little more so than others. This downturn has also been noticed abroad and that spurred the National Association of Realtors, or NAR, to conduct a study on the scale of foreign involvement in our real estate.
What the research discovered was that roughly one in five U.S. agents sold a second home to a purchaser from abroad. So, … (4 comments)

housing: Las Vegas suburbs on the march - 07/24/07 12:25 PM
 
Las Vegas valley still has a good amount of land available for residential development and eventually it'll be graded for more houses and condos and townhouses. But real estate is getting so expensive here that the future homes will be priced out of reach for many buyers. Another housing solution has to be found. Home builders have their finger on the pulse, of course, and are gradually shifting some operations into the outlying towns like Mesquite, Pahrump and Coyote Springs, each about an hour's drive from the Strip.
Prices over in these bedroom communities can be 20% to 50% less than here, … (2 comments)

housing: Las Vegas housing expensive - 06/28/07 01:24 PM
 
It is if you look at the report that the National Association of Home Builders, or NAHB, and Wells Fargo just published. The study took into account the median family income and the median sales price of a sample metro area during the first quarter of 2007 and then arrived at an affordability index. According to its findings, Las Vegas ranks 186 with only 18.9% of households able to purchase a median-priced home. That is a worrisome number.
I don't know what the index was before the residential real estate boom started early this decade, but it must've been much higher than the above … (0 comments)

housing: Summerlin development going green - 06/26/07 04:49 PM
 
Summerlin has been famous for years for being one of the top-selling master-planned housing communities in the nation. Which has partly helped Las Vegas carve a favorable niche for itself as a livable city. Besides that, it has top finishes on other lists, too. It was the first local developer to introduce extensive desert landscaping in its common areas and it did something in 2003 that was thought unthinkable only a few years ago, namely doing away with lawns in front of new homes. Summerlin has earned the image of blazing the way to innovative and somewhat untested solutions.
Now Summerlin is at it again. It is selling 300 … (4 comments)

housing: Mortgage foreclosure rescue scams - 06/23/07 01:34 PM
It was only a matter of time before the news started surfacing about unsavory operations preying on foreclosure victims. That business is now in full swing across the land. As the housing troubles deepen, the legitimate, mostly non-profit, companies are forced to compete with the scam artists for the ear of the homeowner in distress. The one who is the most convincing gets to help, or to rip off. 
The scammer's plan has one basic aim, get his hands on the homeowner's equity. To pull that off, his first job is to find a house against which a mortgage lender has filed a notice of trustee … (7 comments)