housing: Is the financial bailout plan addressing the wrong issue? - 10/16/08 03:24 PM
The extensive financial, or housing and mortgage, rescue program in its present form is clearly designed to first lift Wall Street off the mat. Details are still being worked out in Washington on it but that's where its main focus is. Some say that this direction is ill-advised, though. Among the heavy hitters supporting that is the Chairman of FDIC, or Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., Sheila Bair who just voiced her displeasure the other day.
In the center of the dispute is the belief that the key problem now is the number of foreclosures that still keep on rising in many … (8 comments)

housing: Las Vegas ought to learn from a past real estate fiasco in California - 10/11/08 12:25 PM
As the U.S. Treasury, according to the recently approved bailout plan, prepares to purchase distressed real estate assets to help the faltering financial and mortgage sectors get back on their feet, a real danger lurks in the shadows for Las Vegas. And other communities across the land. The example of what happened in California some 20 years ago will shed light on how the state's agony was prolonged for years.
That time the federal government's Resolution Trust Corporation was tasked with fixing the savings-and-loan meltdown, many still remember that, and it went ahead and executed an aggressive sales program of troubled … (10 comments)

housing: Las Vegas resales are up while prices are down in September - 10/09/08 03:54 PM
Single-family houses continued selling well in Southern Nevada in September, as was reported by the Greater Las Vegas Association of Realtors, or GLVAR, that used the MLS for its statistics. All in all 2,783 single-family homes were closed, a nice increase from 2,545 done in August and a considerable improvement from a year ago when only 990 homes were sold. Sales numbers have steadily moved up all year, a hopeful sign of better days ahead.  
The main reason to the accelerating sales is declining price levels that in turn are largely influenced by the record number of foreclosures. Median values … (6 comments)

housing: Las Vegas high-end real estate market inviting, explains The Robb Report - 09/30/08 02:02 PM
It is really nice to hear upbeat news for a change. The attention lately in Southern Nevada has been trained on the mortgage industry struggling with a load of foreclosures and the housing market trying hard to get its supply and demand in balance that would then stop prices from sliding any further. Those are generally the big issues of the day in the valley that people talk about.
But bring in The Robb Report Vacation Homes and change the topic, at least for a while. The magazine conducted hours of research on over 50 international destinations in an effort to … (10 comments)

housing: Las Vegas benefits from Nevada Energy Star Partners' efforts - 09/20/08 03:45 PM
Energy Star is a program put together by EPA, Environmental Protection Agency, to promote the use of energy-efficient products practically everywhere, from homes to work places and everything in between. It covers a lot of territory. Energy Star designation requirements have evolved over the years as technology has advanced. In the housing industry today, its specifications for instance entail the setup of high-efficiency A/C systems that are sized correctly, the installation of windows that at least meet, preferably go above, current Energy Star standards and the use of energy-efficient appliances and lighting fixtures.
Nevada Energy Star Partners is the driving force of … (0 comments)

housing: Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac thoughts - 09/09/08 02:46 PM
For a while it looked like the two main players in the secondary mortgage market just might be able to somehow successfully navigate the rough seas they were caught in the middle of. But it wasn't to be. When large investors, among them many foreign central banks, began unloading bonds issued by Fannie and Freddie because they were fast losing value, the writing was on the wall. That trend seemingly convinced Washington that it was time to act decisively and a rather swift takeover was engineered over the past weekend.
Thus far the effect of the major move has been positive. … (12 comments)

housing: Las Vegas housing projects in outlying areas slowing down - 09/04/08 04:03 PM
A few years ago when the real estate boom was happily chugging along home prices in town were breaking records month after month. The predictable result was that many home buyers were beginning to be priced out. Smaller, established communities like Mesquite and Pahrump where land cost a lot less could offer affordable housing and they began growing steadily.
Besides them, developers were also drawing plans for new master-planned communities in the outlying areas, like Coyote Springs straight north from Las Vegas and White Hills in northern Arizona. Again, the key attraction with them was that housing out there would be … (0 comments)

housing: Real estate appraisers continue to feel the heat - 08/23/08 04:07 PM
Very little appears to have changed with appraisers over the last several months when it comes to the value they establish on a home that's up for sale or refinance. Many of them feel pressured by someone involved in the transaction to come up with the right price, or hit the number, usually meaning it should be inflated to satisfy their needs, says the Appraisal Institute. It could be a mortgage originator doing it, a real estate agent or even the nice lady whose flower beds are immaculate. Or another source. Anyone who could benefit from a higher valuation.
Inflated appraisals … (16 comments)

housing: Southern Nevada resales stellar, new home sales lacking - 08/21/08 03:14 PM
The Las Vegas real estate market has turned into a rather disjointed spectacle. As the July stats show, compiled by local housing specialist SalesTraq, existing home sales continued on its recent accelerating pace by recording 3,173 closed transactions in July, which is a nice 56.5% jump from July of last year. What's important to keep in mind, however, is that around 60% of these sales were foreclosure-related. Banks have been pricing their REOs, real estate owned, with passion just to get rid of the non-performing inventory and that is one large reason why resales are doing so well now.
On the other … (4 comments)

housing: Foreign real estate buyers more prudent now - 08/16/08 02:37 PM
Now is a good time to buy residential real estate in the U.S. as prices are softening nicely in many regions and there is plenty of inventory to choose from. Mortgage money still remains affordable, although several loan products have been tossed and underwriting guidelines have become tougher. This development has been also noticed abroad and those aspiring to own property here have made a serious move to get something.
According to a NAR, or National Association of Realtors, study in which it surveyed 4,000 agents 26% of them had a minimum of one foreign customer and roughly a half of … (8 comments)

housing: Las Vegas land prices soften up, except on resort corridor - 08/15/08 11:43 AM
The way the residential real estate market today is going in Southern Nevada it's no surprise that raw land values here are heading south. Demand for land is way down as the housing sector struggles with a large inventory of new and resale homes. Even if a builder wanted to purchase acreage for a project, getting financing now would be a challenge in this lending environment. The slowing economy doesn't help much either. 
In the second quarter median vacant land price stood at $570,279 per acre which turns out to be $148,232 less than at the same time last year, or a … (9 comments)

housing: Las Vegas second home buying could be affected by new housing bill - 08/02/08 05:48 PM
The mammoth recent housing bill has gazillion provisions in it, covered in detail on about 600 plus pages of fine print. There is the potential mortgage refinance assistance for those in payment distress, there is the tax credit for first-time homebuyers who qualify and so on. Lots of material that when all of it is implemented and working in the months ahead it is expected to provide a helping layer of stability to the still wobbly mortgage and real estate markets.
One of the new stipulations touches on vacation properties and it can have an unknown effect on Las Vegas where … (10 comments)

housing: Will mortgage lenders embrace the new housing bill? - 07/29/08 03:02 PM
The ink on the new housing rescue bill isn't dry yet, but Washington is already leaning hard on regulators and mortgage bankers to get their full attention focused on it and act as soon as it goes into effect on October 1, 2008. If all goes as planned, it would help some 400,000 homeowners refinance their existing costly home loans into more affordable FHA programs. 400,000 seems to be a large figure. In light of that, RealtyTrac just released a report according to which almost 740,000 homes were mailed foreclosure-related notices in the second quarter of this year alone and now, … (30 comments)

housing: Housing rescue bill almost a reality - 07/24/08 04:59 PM
Washington has been hard at work for a while on this huge housing rescue legislation - it'll provide $300 billion to distressed homeowners who face a possible foreclosure - and it passed the House this week. Once it gets the blessings of the Senate and the White House, it'll become law, which it is expected to do soon. Besides coming to the aid of financially-hurting homeowners, it'll also extend a helping hand to the ailing mortgage heavyweights Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, something they both badly need.
The bill includes a lot of rules about all sorts of things, as it … (14 comments)

housing: New housing bill component gets an earful - 07/08/08 03:35 PM
U.S. Congress has been busy wrangling with the Housing and Economic Recovery Act for a long time and understandably so. It's a mammoth undertaking and requires lots of debate and compromises and just good old-fashioned work. The midnight oil type of stuff. It's designed to help the struggling real estate and mortgage markets in particular, but also the overall economy to get back on two solid feet.
At least one provision in it is causing heart palpitations in those who are seeking more help for homeowners facing foreclosure.
The issue in question is the tax credit that would give home buyers … (12 comments)

housing: Where is Las Vegas on this affordable markets list? - 07/04/08 05:54 AM
A few weeks ago MSN gave Sperling's Best Places a call and asked them to put together a ranking of most affordable places to live right now. The survey is officially called the 2008 MSN Real Estate Most-livable Bargain Markets list. Okay, kind of long but we'll take a look at it anyway. The criteria was as follows; concentrate on the 100 largest metro areas, find the most affordable ones by using the median income to median home price ratio, then take into account unemployment rate, commute times and the availability of decent entertainment and recreation.
Here are the top nine … (8 comments)

housing: Green building to the rescue - 07/01/08 03:43 PM
A lot of exhaustive debate is going on around the country about how to start resolving our worsening energy crisis. Well, that's good. In reality, though, this same topic has been discussed in U.S. Congress, college campuses, energy conventions, just about everywhere really, for a couple of decades now and nothing concrete has been done about it. Talk is cheap, meaningful action is what the nation needs.
Help is on the way, although on a small scale at this point. The housing industry has taken some steps in the right direction to make homes more energy-efficient. One of the bright stars … (6 comments)

housing: Real estate rip-offs on the move - 06/29/08 03:10 PM
The housing and mortgage markets are having a less than robust time these days and that is like an invitation to scam artists who know a thing or two about the real estate business. They generally go for the homeowners struggling with their finances, in other words the ones who are rather susceptible to any sort of a solution that could bail them out. But they also increasingly seek out those who are just plain, payment-making homeowners, preferably with plenty of equity on the property.
One of the latest tricks according to the FBI is house stealing. The whole sequence begins … (12 comments)

housing: Long-term U.S. housing forecast positive - 06/24/08 05:13 PM
Most of the U.S. is still mired in a real estate slump, in a deep one in some areas and in a little shallower one in others. Las Vegas probably belongs to the deeper customer type, although it's now trying to lift itself off the gutter. Sales numbers here are up and price declines are stabilizing which make for the good news. Inventories do remain too high, though, accounting for the bad news. Anyway, that's the less-than-rosy picture in the summer of 2008.
Let's look ahead to the next decade, from 2010 to 2020, and see what might happen then with … (25 comments)

housing: Buying foreclosures the prudent way - 06/22/08 06:08 AM
Las Vegas real estate market is bursting with bank REOs, real estate owned in industry talk, and many of these are listed at prices that were unthinkable just a few months ago. Single-family houses, condominiums, townhomes, they all are represented in this one large housing bazaar teeming with activity in our desert valley. Of course there are regular listings as well that could offer good value, but the REOs are the hot ticket right now.
To make it easier to snap up one of these REOs, following some basic rules will usually yield the right result.
Start your search on the Internet. … (4 comments)