Las Vegas Homes, Condos, Land and Commercial Real Estate Blog

 Private home or condominium sellers have to compete with deep pocketed banks and other lenders to sell their property in Greater Las Vegas. Not only do these lenders have a great deal more money than a typical owner occupied home owner, any and all laws that have been passed by the congress so far in response to the foreclosure crises have been written to protect and help banks and mortgage holders and not the average home owner.

The biggest advantage that the lenders have over the private seller is the fact that they have less money invested in property than the owner. Even when home buyers needed 100% financing, the first mortgage holder would finance 80% and the second mortgage holder would finance the other 20%. In many instance the second mortgage holder will lose all or most of their money. Thus the bank would have a 20% advantage over the home owner. Another advantage which is rarely discussed is the Private Mortgage Insurance (PMI) which many buyers had who obtain if they put up less than 20% of the final sale price. PMI companies have to pay the banks if the home or condo is foreclosed on, thus cutting the bank’s loss further.

The president of Greater Las Vegas Realtor Association recently stated in an interview that

“Until we get rid of foreclosures, prices are going to keep on dropping, I don’t know how things are selling if it’s not a foreclosure.” Her statement is not totally accurate. To explain this I will use an extreme example. According to her, if we have an unlimited number of foreclosures the prices have to drop to unreasonable levels. Not true. The hard bottom for Las Vegas homes and condos are achieved when investors can get a nice positive cash flow for their purchases. This is why homes under $250,000 and condos for $60,000-120,000 are selling at or higher than the asking price in many instances.

Realtors sold 358 condos and townhomes in July, a 21.8 percent increase from the previous month and an 18.2 percent increase from the same month a year ago. The median price dipped to $135,000, compared with $137,500 in June. It’s down 30.8 percent from a year ago.

Related web-site links: Las Vegas homes, condominiums, land and commercial real estate, getting the best deal for a Las Vegas home or condo,

Las Vegas, Nevada Homes and Condos for Sale, Short Sales, Foreclosures, HUD Homes and Fixer-uppers