Las Vegas real estate market has undoubtedly seen better days. Anyone who knows something about the timely topic is well aware of that. Now there is an altogether new, bizarre twist to the notion.
National Association of Home Builders, or NAHB, convention comes to Southern Nevada every January to showcase the latest in their product lineup. It really is an impressive event and usually draws huge crowds year after year. One of the annual must-see displays is a model house, called The New American Home, which introduces the hottest new technologies available in home building. Domanico Custom Homes from Las Vegas is currently constructing this year's home, a 6,800 sq. ft. affair, using many energy efficiency features in it as well.
The project, however, has run into some mortgage loan trouble of late. Being about halfway done, the private finance source recently bowed out and no bank so far has been willing, or capable, to step in.
Usually mortgage lenders are more than eager to compete for a loan like this, as it gives them great exposure. This time things obviously are different. Most are still licking their wounds from the Wall Street meltdown, their books splattered with toxic home loan entries. Yet, thinking about it, this is not the average borrower who nowadays has to go through all the various underwriting hoops to get anywhere. This, if anything, is high profile.
Las Vegas valley - including Anthem, Sunrise Manor, Whitney, Henderson and Summerlin - also continues to top the chart for mortgage foreclosures, which of course casts a shadow on this case. In addition, the home is a custom effort, appraised a short time ago for $3.5 million, and values in the luxury segment here are very soft, so that, too, is a negative factor in the scheme of things. When this model was planned, perhaps a smaller version with fewer features should've been considered, knowing how volatile the local housing market still is.
Nevertheless, the builder is determined to finish it by early fall, and has also listed it for sale at $3.39 million.
Comments(4)