There’s an old saying, “What goes up, must come down.” And most everyone knows that adage has held true in the past few years in real estate, but nowhere has it been truer than in Las Vegas, a market where home prices soared, then crashed, and which has consistently held reign as the No. 1 area for foreclosures in the nation.

But where there are foreclosures, there are also good home values. Industry experts say the market is continuing to grow and is (hopefully) poised for an upturn.

“Las Vegas is a different kind of town,” says Chad Hyams, a team leader at Keller Williams Realty in Las Vegas. “Because of the way the town is run, we still have people moving here on a regular basis for job opportunities with casinos and other companies that have come to Las Vegas. With that growth, it is only natural that the market will turn.” Hyams says the area was hit hard with foreclosures and more are on the horizon. Nevada was one of the first states to realize the boom in real estate prices, one of the first to fall and fell the hardest. But he predicts that because of its strong industry and steady influx of relocators, it will become one of the quickest to rebound.

The website RealtyTrac reported in January 2009 that there had been 274,399foreclosures in Nevada. Because of these high rates, home prices have drastically lowered, and Dan Means, the branch
manager for Las Vegas’ National City Mortgage, says that if home prices haven’t hit rock bottom, they are pretty close.

HousingTracker.net tracks and compiles the asking prices of real estate agents from MLS listings. According to the site, the median home price in Las Vegas in March 2009 was $160,000, down more than 40 percent from the same time the previous year.

“It is a great time to buy right now in Las Vegas,” Hyams says, particularly in relation to nearby areas like California (where he says prices are too high) and Phoenix (which he says doesn’t have as much to offer homeowners).

Home prices are turning back to where they were in 2003 before the boom, selling for about $100 per square foot. Means says he sees a lot of brand new three-bedroom, two-bathroom homes in the high $190,000s.

“The average price is close to $200,000 and it would have been $350,000 three years ago,” Means says. “Sales are picking up and foreclosures are slowing.”

He predicts the market will stabilize and turn by the end of the year. He says his company’s home loan applications were up more than 40 percent in November and were from people from all over the world. The population is expected to double over the next 15 years and then continue to grow.

Means says the lending market is also beginning to turn around. Though it may not be as easy to borrow money for a home as it was during the housing boom, he says loans on conventional lending are available in the low 5s. FHA loans require 3.5 percent upfront and are available with an interest rate in the low 5s. All in all, purchases have increased 100 percent from all around the country because of the low percentages, he says. National City Mortgage is working on rolling out new programs to make it easier and less expensive to borrow.

While condominiums and mixed-use developments are popular, one of the biggest sellers right now is the master-plannedcommunity, according to Hyams. Green Valley Ranch, Mountain’s Edge, Aliante and Providence are all in different areas of town but are loaded with shops, parks and a sense of community. He says these areas were some of the hardest hit initially but will likely be the first to turn around.  

top