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I am interested to hear people thoughts on the Las Vegas market. We have many new factors to consider when predicting the market in the upcoming future. Some of the topics I was looking to get more info on are: -New legislation passed here in NV AB300, SB321, also the new law that will allow underwater homeowners to short sell their homes to themselves without an "arms-length" transaction disclosure being required. -Hedge funds leaving Vegas -New/higher home prices combined with lower rental rates causing lower CAP rates and cashflow -The 80,000+ homeowners that are in default -The spike in NOD's being filed (Las Vegas is currently the 2nd leading city for NOD's being filed. These are just a few of the factors our local market is currently facing. Due to these factors it is hard to predict the market going out further than then next 6 months. I would expect prices to rise over the next 6 months. After 6 months it gets tricky as there are so many factors that will come into play. It will be interesting to see how it all plays out. I am looking forward to hearing everyone's input on these and other topics concerning Las Vegas. READ THE ENTIRE ARTICLE HERE: http://www.biggerpockets.com/forums/99/topics/92124-las-vegas-market-going-through-changes?page=1#p578713 Best Regards, She was a three unit small apartment located in a great location, with stable tenants, and an ugly paint job. This triplex, which I call “Cherry Street” was close to becoming the newest addition to my growing rental portfolio, but with Cherry Street I was about to do something I had never done before: Take out an investment property loan. You see, before Cherry Street, I had only used conventional home mortgages, seller financing, and hard money lenders to invest in real estate. However, Cherry Street was purely a cash flow beast that I was hoping to buy, re-paint (please!) and hold on to for retirement. However, as I began shopping around for a mortgage, I quickly realized that the process was not going to be the exact same as it had been in the past. What I soon realized was that investment property loans are slightly different than your typical home mortgage in several ways (but similar in several ways as well.) The information below contains a lot of the things I learned in my quest for the best investment property loan, and enabled me to get a great loan, with a great rate, from a great lender. It is my hope that this article does the same for you. This article is going to look at exactly what an investment property loan is, the difference between and investment loan and a typical mortgage, tips for qualifying for an investment loan, and where to find the best loan for your real estate investment. READ THE ENTIRE ARTICLE HERE: http://www.biggerpockets.com/renewsblog/2013/06/21/investment-property-loans/ Best Regards, There are a lot of factors that can sway the range of these utilities bills. Age of the home, pool, number of people living in the home, type of insulation, type of windows, etc. But to give you a rough estimate my house is 4100 sqft with a pool and I pay: Hope this is helpful. READ THE ENTIRE ARTICLE HERE: http://www.trulia.com/voices/Home_Buying/What_is_the_typical_monthly_utility_bill_for_a_sq-540965-p_1-recent?answerId=1897874#left_content Best Regards, I Have a Condo to Rent... Question is, Nightly, Weekly, Monthly, or Yearly the Best Way to Go?6/27/2013 I recommend you check with your HOA as many HOA's have restrictions on short term rentals. If you would like to have a free, no obligation discussion about your property and the best way to maximize your profits, what we feel it should rent for, how long until we can get a tenant in there for you, etc then please contact me directly below or feel free to fill out the property management request form for more info here: http://lvrealestatehelp.weebly.com/property-management--rent… I look forward to hearing from you. READ THE ENTIRE ARTICLE HERE: http://www.trulia.com/voices/Investment_Properties/I_have_a_condo_to_rent_question_is_Nightly_We-540939-p_1-recent?answerId=1897859#left_content Best Regards, If you send me info regarding the type of home you are looking for I would be happy to assist you with find a home to purchase. The easiest way to get this info to me is to fill out our "Buyer's Form on our website here: If you have specific address you are interested in you can read below to check recent crimes and school ratings in that area. Please see the following links to check crimes that have occurred recently around addresses that you plug in. The Las Vegas Metropolitan Police website covering Clark County and the City of Las Vegas, has a page where you can search crime statistics. We've included the link below. For areas covered by N. Las Vegas police: For the City of Henderson: This is the link to the Clark County School District. Again, you can enter in the address you are interested in and it will pull up the schools zoned for that specific house. There are reports and ratings on each school, this will give you a better idea of how well that each school is performing. Once you enter the address, you can click on the school name, then click on the school website and on their front page look for the "Accountability Report". This will give you very detailed information on each school and how they are performing. Let me know if you are interested in this NW condo. 2 bd, 2 bath, 1 car garage. http://www.postlets.com/repb/8989900 READ THE ENTIRE ARTICLE HERE: http://www.trulia.com/voices/Home_Buying/Is_Summerlin_a_good_neighborhood_to_buy_a_condo_in-540935-p_1-recent?answerId=1897847#left_content Best Regards, Great question. Difficult to answer and here is why. On one hand NOD's are on the rise (Las Vegas is currently second in the nation) and some say the REO/foreclosure supply to increase. The last numbers I heard, there were around 80,000+ homeowners that are currently not paying their payments. Also, some hedge funds/investors have started to pull away from the Las Vegas market as rising prices and decreasing rental rates are diminishing cash flow and CAP rates. This will decrease demand, however, there are a lot of people that are looking for primary residences that could not buy before due to the investor buzz so now will be a better time for those people. Prices are still relatively low compared to the national average. So this and low rates, and low taxes will continue to attract buyers from elsewhere. You also have to factor in that new homes sales are on the rise and builders are building again. There is not only AB300 that needs to be considered but SB321 which is going to drag out the foreclosure process for lien holders some say. There is also another new law that passed that will allow underwater home owners to short sale their homes back to themselves allowing them to remain in the home. An "arms-length" transaction disclosure will no longer be required. This will decrease the short sale inventory hitting the market. These are just a few of the factors our local market is currently facing. So to answer your question, AB300 being amended will help inventory but due to several other factors it is hard to predict the market going out further than then next 6 months. I would expect prices to rise over the next 6 months. After 6 months it gets tricky as there are so many factors that will come into play. It will be interesting to see how it all plays out. If you would like to discuss the market further please feel free to contact me directly anytime! SEE THE ENTIRE ARTICLE HERE: http://www.trulia.com/voices/Home_Buying/Now_that_AB_had_passed_will_prices_fall_and_will_-537308-p_1-recent?answerId=1897831#left_content Best Regards, The HOA fees are $195 mo. This property is not available. The last time this property was listed for sale on the MLS was back in 2011 for $65k. It sold 3-7-2011 for $65k. If you would like me to send you properties that are available and match what you are looking for please contact me directly at the info below or you can send me your search criteria via my buyer's form here if it is easier:http://lvrealestatehelp.weebly.com/buying-real-estate.html I look forward to hearing from you. READ THE ENTIRE ARTICLE HERE: http://www.trulia.com/voices/Property_QandA/what_assos_is_in_this_complex_-540919-p_1-recent?answerId=1897824#left_content Best Regards, Home Buying: If I Made a 50% Down Payment Will the Bank Require Me to Show Proof of Employment?6/27/2013 Email me and I will send you the contact info to the lenders we work with. If it is possible they can tell you. My direct contact info is below. READ THE ENTIRE ARTICLE HERE: http://www.trulia.com/voices/Home_Buying/If_I_made_a_down_payment_will_the_bank_requires_-541187-p_1-recent?answerId=1897787#left_content Best Regards, Las Vegas is once again a hotspot of the housing market. Home prices in Sin City have surged more than 20% in the past year, in part because Wall Street institutions have poured billions into the area’s distressed inventory, snapping up single-family homes and converting them to rentals. As demand has soared for foreclosures, prices among that bottom-tier price point have jumped, pushing up the median sales price for the entire area. The rapid price gains have triggered worries that a new bubble could be inflating in the hard-hit desert city. But bubble talk may be premature – even completely wrong, according to Fitch Ratings. Despite the dramatic recovery, the New York-based ratings agency says homes in the Las Vegas metropolitan area are still underpriced – in fact it ranks Las Vegas among the five most undervalued housing markets in the U.S. “In places like Las Vegas, prices fell so far below their historical levels, that the price increases are appropriate and sustainable,” says Suzanne Mistretta, senior director of Fitch’s U.S. residential mortgage-backed securities group. Fitch compiled a list for FORBES of the five most overvalued and undervalued housing markets in the country based on its quarterly Sustainable Home Price model, which weighs home price trends against the economic fundamentals of the local market, including income growth, unemployment rates, population growth, mortgage rates, rental prices, buyer demand and inventory levels. If home prices grow faster than the rest of the local economy, then housing is becoming overvalued; if homes are trading for prices lower than the local economy can sustain, then housing is undervalued. Fitch looked at the country’s largest metropolitan statistical areas, which are urban regions defined by the U.S. Office of Management and Budget that generally include a core city and its surrounding suburbs. Las Vegas was one of the most pummeled housing markets in the post-bubble recession. Home prices tumbled more than 60% from their 2006 peak through their 2011 bottom, with a foreclosure rate that topped the nation. Values plunged so dramatically they overcorrected, creating a deluge of housing stock (much of it recently constructed in the boom) that could be had for significantly less than replacement costs. The economic environment made it very attractive to investors who saw an opportunity to pick up homes for pennies on the dollar, fix them up and lease them out to a burgeoning pool of foreclosure survivors in need of rental homes. As investors, many backed by Wall Street capital, scooped up properties, the market stabilized, fueling consumers’ confidence that the worst was over. More buyers jumped into the market and prices have continued their ascent. In March, the median sales price was $108,360, according to the S&P/Case-Shiller Home Price Index. Yet Fitch’s Sustainable Home Price model indicates that the local economy could support higher prices. When adjusted for inflation and compared to the market’s pre-bubble 1998 performance, Las Vegas home prices are — despite double-digit percent gains over the past year — still 20% below their pre-bubble healthy market norm. Fitch also rates as undervalued several other markets where prices have risen sharply in the past year amid heavy investor buying: Atlanta, Chicago and Orlando, Fla. Home prices are up 19% since last year in Atlanta, which has seen an onslaught of institutional investors like the Blackstone Group. Yet, adjusted for inflation, the current median sales price is 19% below its historic norm, according to Fitch. In Orlando, prices are still 3% below their historic norms, by Fitch’s reckoning. “Chicago is actually one of the hardest-hit markets in the country and nobody talks about it, but it was as hard-hit as Phoenix, Las Vegas or Florida,” John Burns, chief executive of Irvine, Calif.-based John Burns Real Estate Consulting, recently told FORBES. Adjusted for inflation, Chicagoland home prices are 8% lower than they were in 1998. The area’s home prices fell nearly 40% through 2012 from their 2007 peak (and more than 60% for distressed homes) and it has one of the highest foreclosure rates in the country. All of this has contributed to undervalued real estate. Perhaps the most interesting case is Detroit — despite a tepid local economy plagued by high unemployment and an exodus of residents, homes there are worth more than they’re selling for, according to Fitch. Motor City home prices are 35% lower than in 1998 after taking inflation into account. “Detroit never really benefitted from price run-up in the 2000s. Prices increased but far less than other areas because its economy had been structurally changing since the late 1990s with the population declining and employment dropping,” says Stefan Hilts, a director in Fitch’s U.S. RMBS group. “Yet it was still near the top of the list for [home price] declines: price levels fell well below where they had ever been.” Prices fell roughly 50% from their 2006 peak, but are up about 18% from a year ago. Some buyers apparently agree with Fitch that Detroit real estate is undervalued: the area has been seen an influx of cash-toting investors willing to shoulder high risk for the possibility of high rewards. On the other end of the spectrum, some markets truly have begun to reinflate. Of the five most overvalued, by Fitch’s reckoning, four lie in sunny California: San Diego, San Jose, Los Angeles and San Francisco. “Many California markets saw their prices double from 2000 to 2006 but as prices unwound they never fully corrected,” says Hilts. Home prices have risen by double-digit percentages in each of the past four quarters in these cities. If nascent bubble fears warrant a discussion anywhere, it’s in these markets. “If we see prices rising by 15% year-over-year in these areas, it rivals the run-up in the 2000s. We need to see economic factors behind that and in a number of these cities, income is growing but not very fast,” notes Hilts. Adjusted for inflation, homes in these markets are going for 41% to 57% more than their pre-bubble levels. One of the biggest factors driving California home prices higher is a dearth of supply, due to a delayed pipeline of so-called shadow inventory (distressed homes not yet listed for sale) coupled with a deluge of investors including institutions and foreign buyers. Interestingly, in the traditionally domestic buyer-heavy Silicon Valley (which includes San Jose), foreign investors have fueled bidding wars. As luxury real estate broker Ken Deleon explained to FORBES, Chinese buyers have been comprising about one-third of all winning offers: “They are here one week, view 10 homes and put an immediate cash offer, non-contingent, in on their favorite. They want to win that one and a $100,000 to $200,000 counter offer will not get in their way.” The fifth most over-valued market is, perhaps unsurprisingly, Washington, D.C. A large government-fueled economy helped buffer the country’s capital in the downturn. Compared to inflation-adjusted prices of the 1990s, homes currently sell for 54% more. “The main point is we do believe housing is recovering. We just think some areas are recovering faster than the fundamentals indicate,” stresses Mistretta. “That’s why we are more cautious on these markets.” She adds that overvaluation doesn’t necessarily mean a market like D.C. or San Jose is poised for a correction. Rather, the rate of home price appreciation may begin to slow as other economic fundamentals begin to catch up. This could be especially true as mortgage interest rates rise, making the cost of homeownership more expensive. READ THE ENTIRE ARTICLE HERE: http://www.forbes.com/sites/morganbrennan/2013/06/13/the-most-overvalued-and-undervalued-housing-markets-in-the-u-s/ Best Regards, Are you still looking for another investment property here in Las Vegas? I would be happy to help you find a property that matches your investment goals. Please tell me a little more about the type of home you would like to purchase so I can better assist you. Once I have the info I can send you properties that match what you are looking for and set up showings to view the homes. If you are not in town currently we can preview the homes for you, send additional pictures and info, and help handle the entire deal remotely. You can contact me directly at the info below to send me this info or you can fill out our "Buyer's Form" at this link: http://lvrealestatehelp.weebly.com/buying-real-estate.html I look forward to hearing from you. READ THE ENTIRE ARTICLE HERE: http://www.trulia.com/voices/Home_Buying/My_husband_is_looking_for_another_investment_prope-539758-p_1-recent?answerId=1896438#left_content Best Regards, Tight inventory favors sellers in the Southwest, while buyers have the upper hand in some Midwestern and Eastern cities. If you're considering buying a home, you might want to know whether we're in a buyers or sellers market. The answer depends very much on where you are. Just as the real-estate bust played out differently in different cities, so does the recovery. If you’re in Chicago, you’re in a buyers market. If you’re in Las Vegas, you’re in a sellers market, according to the latest research by Zillow. To reach its conclusions, Zillow compared asking prices, sale prices, the number of days homes were on the market and the percentage of homes with price cuts in the 30 largest U.S. metro areas. Whether you're in a buyers or sellers market doesn’t reflect whether prices or rising or falling, but it can affect your negotiating power. •Number of improving markets hits new high "Many of the strongest sellers markets are in areas that were hardest hit by the housing bust, places like California, Nevada and Arizona, which may seem counterintuitive," Stan Humphries, Zillow’s chief economist, said at the Zillow blog. "But much of that strength is likely driven by investor interest, as many distressed and nondistressed homes are purchased in bulk and transformed into rentals. This investor activity is contributing to very low inventory levels, which increases demand and helps drive up prices for all homes in these markets." •Best and worst housing markets in the next 5 years A shortage of inventory in many cities — including Las Vegas and Phoenix, where investors have scooped up many bargain-priced homes — is also making those communities sellers markets. •Home prices continue rising The top buyers markets, according to Zillow’s analysis: •Chicago The top sellers markets: •San Jose, Calif. Even if you live in an area that is dubbed a buyers market, you may not have as much leverage as you think. Each metro area is made up of micromarkets, and popular neighborhoods may still be sellers markets, with few homes for sale and great demand. READ THE ENTIRE ARTICLE HERE: http://realestate.msn.com/blogs/listedblogpost.aspx?post=9a5cb394-95c0-4ce5-902a-826f427a40c9&sharedfrom=scpshrjwlinkedin Best Regards, Freddie Mac Green Lights Fed Tapering Mortgage rates have risen sharply over the last month and Freddie Mac, in its monthly Economic and Housing Market Outlook for June, focuses on what happens to the housing market recovery if those increases continue. Recent movements have raised rates from the 3.5 percent range where they have been for most of 2013 to just over 4.0 percent. While many market participants are concerned about the impact of higher rates on the economy and the chance that Fed tapering could take them higher, Freddie's research suggests moderately higher rates are livable, even if they have some downside risks. Whether intentional or not, the tacit implication is that the economy may well be able to endure QE3 tapering. According to Freddie Mac's Office of the Chief Economist, low rates have helped fuel the recent good news in housing where home prices have been rising in most areas of the country. While it is true, the report says, that prices and rates work together to drive up the cost of buying homes, rates remain at near 60-year lows. At today's home prices and income levels, mortgage rates would have to reach 7 percent before the median priced home would be unaffordable to families making the median income in most parts of the country. However Freddie Mac says, in some areas of the country affordable homes are already out of reach of a typical family. It cites Los Angeles as an area where families are already falling short at 4 percent interest rates and Riverside, Denver, and Washington DC as metro areas where 5 percent rates would leave a lot of typical families on the wrong side of affordability. Certain high cost areas aside, most parts of the country have high affordability and can absorb a further increase in rates before housing activity should slow substantially. Rather rising rates will have only a small, slowing effect on the home purchase market. The capital markets are signaling that rates are likely to move gradually higher in the coming year and this may spur renters and other first-time homebuyers with the financial capacity to get off the fence and buy before costs rise higher. However, the economists say we can expect refinancing to fall quickly and sharply. The Bureau of Economic Analysis reports that in the first quarter the average effective interest rate on mortgages was 4.7 percent, less than one percentage point above Freddie Mac's 30-year fixed-rate mortgage in June. History shows that a gap of 0.5 percentage points implies a refinance share of about 50 percent. HARP will keep levels a bit higher than historical averages but refinancing will still fall. Freddie Mac projects that rising interest rates could have the following effect on the affordability of Top 30 U.S. Metro Markets. READ THE ENTIRE ARTICLE HERE: http://www.mortgagenewsdaily.com/06182013_freddie_mac_forecast.asp Best Regards, Home sales and prices continued to climb in May, raising the prospect of a new housing bubble unless there is a significant increase in home building. "The home price growth is too fast, and only additional supply from new homebuilding can moderate future price growth," said Lawrence Yun, the chief economist for the National Association of Realtors. He said there needs to be a 50% increase in home building. The median home price jumped 8% from the previous month to $208,000, according to NAR. While month-to-month price swings are not unusual, the year-over-year rise is now 15%, and prices are at levels last seen in the summer of 2008, just before the bursting of the housing bubble. May marked the 15th straight month of annual price increases, the first time that happened since May 2006. Related:Home prices post biggest gain in 7 years Home prices have been driven higher partly by a drop in foreclosures. Only 18% of home sales in the month were so-called distressed sales, which typically sell at a discount to market prices. A year ago 25% of sales were distressed sales. Overall sales rose 4% from April and 13% from a year earlier to an annual rate of 5.18 million homes in the month. Related:Venezuela money fuels Miami housing boom There are differences between this run-up in prices and the housing bubble that preceded the financial crisis, said Gary Thomas, the Realtors' president. "The boom period was marked by easy credit and overbuilding, but today we have tight mortgage credit and widespread shortages of homes for sale," he said. The improved housing market and mortgage rates still near record lows, despite a recent rise in rates, is pulling buyers back in the market faster than it's prompting sellers to put homes on the market. Buyer traffic 29% above a year ago, but the supply of homes for sale is actually down 10%. That's caused homes to sell much more quickly -- only 41 days on the market on average in May, about a month faster than a year ago, with nearly half the homes being sold in less than a month. The warnings about prices rising too fast were a stark change from the Realtors' position during the heyday of the housing bubble, when the statement from officials generally cheered the steady rise in prices. READ THE ENTIRE ARTICLE HERE:http://money.cnn.com/2013/06/20/news/economy/home-prices-sales-bubble/index.html?section=money_realestate READ THE POST ON LINKEDIN:https://www.linkedin.com/today/article?articleId=5753493299616837699&loadAction=share&trk=eml-ced-b-share-N-3&fromEmail&ut=1bCA9CVhgkZRM1 Best Regards, WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) — Existing-home sales rose in May to the highest pace since November 2009, when buyers were rushing to make a tax-credit deadline, pointing to a continuing recovery, the National Association of Realtors reported Thursday. Existing-home sales rose 4.2% in May to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 5.18 million. These sales were 12.9% higher than during the same period in the prior year. Economists polled by MarketWatch had expected the pace of existing-home sales to hit a rate of 5 million in May, compared with an April rate of 4.97 million. “This report provides further evidence that the housing market is on a firmly improving trend,” wrote analysts at RDQ Economics in a research note. Meanwhile, the median existing-home price hit $208,000 in May, the highest since 2008, with low inventory supporting prices. The median price is up 15.4% from the same period in the prior year, the largest growth since 2005. Inventories rose 3.3% in May to 2.22 million existing homes for sale. The supply of existing homes declined to 5.1 months at May’s sales pace from 5.2 months at April’s sales pace. The share of the sales accounted for by distressed properties and first-time buyers remained low in May. Analysts say the housing market’s gains over the past year could have been even larger if inventories were greater. Still, economists expect housing demand to continue to grow along with the U.S. economy. As home prices continue to rise, more buyers are likely to be able and willing to put their homes on the market. Rising prices also induce buyers to bid before prices get too high. However, NAR said prices are rising too quickly and more construction is needed. Low interest rates have been fueling demand. In recent weeks these rates have trended higher, though there was a recent decline. While rising rates will curb demand among some buyers, they could also spur others to quickly enter the market to take advantage of high affordability. “Given the massive rise in mortgage rates in recent weeks, we expect the pace of positive momentum will likely slow in the coming months, though the initial reaction could be for some buyers to move into the market as they try to lock-in the lower mortgage rates,” wrote Millan Mulraine, director of U.S. research and strategy at TD Securities. Despite their recent climb, rates remain relatively low, as Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke pointed out Wednesday. “In terms of monthly payments on an average house, the change in mortgage rates we’ve seen so far is not all that dramatic,” Bernanke said at a press conference following the central bank’s decision to leave policy unchanged. Indeed, Americans’ views on the housing market recently hit a multiyear high, with large shares saying that now is a good time to buy and sell homes. However, recent price gains don’t necessarily signal that real estate is a good long-term investment, according to Yale economist and housing expert Robert Shiller. READ THE ENTIRE ARTICLE HERE: http://www.marketwatch.com/story/existing-home-sales-highest-since-2009-2013-06-20 Best Regards, I tell people all the time not to rely on these "Zestimates" as they are often times inaccurate. Have a Realtor run a free CMA for you. also have them explain the local market. Ask a lot of questions. Are homes closing below, at, or above appraisal value. etc Ask several agents if you like. See who you feel the most comfortable with. READ THE ENTIRE ARTICLE HERE: http://www.zillow.com/advice-thread/Zillows-zestimate/498673/?utm_source=email&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=emo-advicethreadalert-view Best Regards, |
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