Las Vegas Homes News

Nov. 11, 2006
Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal

By HUBBLE SMITH
REVIEW-JOURNAL

With 7,885 new residents a month, 5.5 percent job growth and strong tourism numbers, Las Vegas’ economy keeps trudging through a downturn in the local housing market.

The Southern Nevada Index of Leading Economic Indicators moved modestly upward to 132.59 in October, compared with 132.3 the previous month and 131.75 in October 2005, according to the UNLV research center that compiles the index.

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Nov. 08, 2006
Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal

Hudson & Marshall will offer nine LV dwellings on Nov. 19

By HUBBLE SMITH
REVIEW-JOURNAL

Looking for an affordable home? Your chance to buy a foreclosed home at below-market value in Las Vegas comes Nov. 19 at the JW Marriott.

Hudson & Marshall, a Dallas-based real estate auction company, is offering nine Las Vegas homes valued from $275,000 to $460,000. They’re among more than 100 homes on the block in the foreclosure-battered states of Colorado and Nevada.

Rising foreclosures nationwide could translate into a huge opportunity for home buyers in a declining real estate market, Hudson & Marshall principal Dave Webb said.

The homes are “real estate owned,” or REO, property taken back by national lending institutions and asset management companies after every effort was made to work with the borrower.

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Nov. 05, 2006
Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal

Panelists say future savings make upfront costs for environmentally conscious building worthwhile

BY HUBBLE SMITH
REVIEW-JOURNAL

Commercial developers and home builders are behind the curve on green building because they’re focused on the selling price today rather than cost savings for years to come, a panel of building and design experts said.

Most developers are of the mind-set that it costs more to build green, the panelists said, but it’s important to analyze both the initial cost and operating cost for the next 30 years.

The additional 3 percent to 5 percent construction cost for bringing a building to Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design certification can be recouped in three years or less, architectural consultant Lynn Simon of California-based Simon & Associates said Oct. 27 at a presentation sponsored by the Southern Nevada chapter of National Association of Industrial and Office Properties.

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Nov. 05, 2006
Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal
The Southern Nevada Home Builders Association, in a partnership with Portland, Ore.-based Green Building Initiative, has developed 10 pages of voluntary requirements that will help home builders be more environmentally sensitive in production of local housing.

New-home buyers in Las Vegas will likely see certified “green homes” by late 2007, Southern Nevada Home Builders Association Executive Director Irene Porter said.

Local green building requirements are based on guidelines from the National Association of Home Builders, customized to meet special environmental conditions of Southern Nevada. The partnership spent more than a year researching and developing the program requirements.

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Oct. 29, 2006
Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal

Softening housing market, exotic loans may mean some homeowners owe more on mortgages than homes are worth

Many homeowners in Las Vegas are “upside down” on their home mortgages, owing more than their home is worth, largely because lenders came to rely on inexperienced appraisers who predicated their business on speed and fees in the past few years, a local real estate appraiser said.

Lender pressure, a major problem in the residential field, has been passed on to the homeowner in some markets, said Ronald James, principal of James & Associates and president of the Las Vegas chapter of the Appraisal Institute

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