Spring home buying season -- old rules, new tools

Here's how to put yourself in the best position as you start eyeing homes.

It's that time of year again: After the long, cold winter, when shopping for new homes grinds nearly to a halt, the warm weather brings people out and into real estate offices.

But this year, shoppers face a changed environment...

Full Story - CNNMoney.com

2005 Was a Very Good Year for Home Owners

(March 2, 2006) -- Home prices rose an average of 13 percent last year, according to a report released by the Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight, the agency that manages mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.The report pointed out that home prices grew far more rapidly last year than the prices of other goods and services included in the Consumer Price Index (12.95 percent vs. 4.3 percent, respectively).

Full Story - Realtor Magazine Online

LV home prices stabilizing

The Las Vegas housing market has cooled from its feverish pace over the last couple of years and most experts agree that's a good thing.
Houses that were selling at 10 percent above asking price a year ago are now being reduced and are staying on the market for nearly two months.
The median price of a new home in Las Vegas dropped to $303,751 in January from $309,900 in December, Dennis Smith of Home Builders Research reported. The price is up 7.5 percent, or $21,203, from the same month a year ago.
Excluding 795 apartment conversions, which accounted for 27.8 percent of the 2,862 recorded new home sales in January, the median price was $343,198, an 11.6 percent increase from a year ago.
See Full Story...Las Vegas Review Journal

Southern Nevada Continues to Grow

NEVADA -- Boosted by strong construction and employment numbers, Southern Nevada's leading economic indicators suggest continued expansion and prosperity into early 2007, a local economist said.

Full Story - CasinoCityTimes.com

Don't Give Up on Real Estate

Most of us have watched in amazement as the residential real estate market in the U.S. has gone through the roof. Almost all of the homebuilding stocks have reflected the positive environment... More

NAR: Home Appreciation Still Hot in Most Areas

Strong annual increases in median existing-home prices were common in most metropolitan areas during the third quarter, according to the latest report by the NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF REALTORS®.

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The much ballyhooed housing bubble isn't happening Las Vegas, a real estate consultant said Tuesday.

At a housing seminar at the Four Seasons, Tim Sullivan, principal of San Diego-based Sullivan Group Real Estate Advisors, said a housing bubble would defy all fundamentals of the local market.

"The market's not going to hell in a hand basket, and our safety net is California," he said.

Sullivan said Las Vegas can't have a housing bubble with this kind of job growth and in-migration and when land is hard to find and there's not much housing inventory. Any talk of a housing bubble is probably coming from outside the market, he said.

See Full Story...Las Vegas Review Journal

Are You Ready for 13 SEER?

The Department of Energy (DOE) measures efficiency in numbers called SEER ratings (Seasonal Energy Efficiency Ratio). For several years, the minimum efficiency standard for newly-manufactured HVAC equipment has been 10 SEER. On January 23, 2006, the law will require manufacturers to stop producing anything less than a 13 SEER. Therefore, homeowners will be frustrated when they face a possible system upgrade instead of standard repair.
In order to explain the implications of 13 SEER, real estate professionals will need to understand the possible system upgrades and costs associated with the new standard.
A scenario that poses risk to the real estate professional is a home warranty provider that doesn't address 13 SEER. Certain manufacturers and service providers such as NAR's REALTOR BenefitsSM partner, American Home Shield, are preparing to help agents prepare for the new standards.
"We work very closely with the real estate community, and understand their frustrations and constraints," said Steve Burnett, Chief Marketing Officer at American Home Shield. "We're going to supply easy-to-understand learning tools for agents to share with their clients and also make sure our field team is knowledgeable on 13 SEER."
For more information, visit http://nar.ed10.net/h/YS0U/33A4/7V/XIYDF.

Las Vegas lots at all time high

A report from Applied Analysis showed the average price at $601,600 an acre, or $13.81 a square foot, based on 416 transactions involving nearly 2,300 acres.
The comparable period from a year ago included the Bureau of Land Management sale of 1,940 acres in Henderson to Focus Property for about $550 million. Excluding that transaction, land values were up 81 percent.
Parcels ranging in size from 20 acres to 50 acres, suitable for residential development, averaged $890,000 an acre and represented 12 percent of land transactions during the quarter. Property close to the Strip, especially along Tropicana and Harmon avenues, is going for more than $3 million an acre.
"It just confirms the amount of investment and speculation that's taking place in the market," said Brian Gordon, principal of Applied Analysis. "It's just driving property values north, and developers are willing to pay premiums to get in the game."
See Full Story....Las Vegas Review Journ

Developers maximize tax breaks before conversion

Scott Henniger and his wife Tracey's apartment has been gutted.
When work is complete, the place will be expanded with new floors, new rooms and added amenities. In fact, it won't be an apartment anymore at all -- it'll be a condominium.
After six years as renters in the Shrine Building, the Hennigers faced the question to buy or not to buy. It's a question facing a growing number of Downtown renters, as one apartment building after another makes the conversion to condos to meet a seemingly insatiable demand for private residential property in the city's core.
See Full Story...MSN Money

Sept. 12 (Bloomberg) -- What if U.S. housing bears are wrong and the home market is not peaking?

Let's assume for a moment that homebuyers and investors will not be too chastened by high energy bills and mortgage rates will stay about the same.
If the boom hangs in there, thank local economic growth and job creation, low mortgage rates and demographics.
Housing is still appreciating, and U.S. home prices rose 13.4 percent as of June 30 from the same period a year earlier, according to the Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight, the agency regulating the mortgage corporations Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. That was the largest annual increase recorded by Ofheo in 25 years. New home sales also set a record in July.
See Full Story...Bloomberg.com

NAR: $2.2 Million Raised for Hurricane Relief

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Latest pricing information

Looks like the average home price in Las Vegas Nevada is still climbing. Through June 2005, the average price for a single family home rose to $344,650, and the average condominium price rose to $200,166.