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

Las Vegas real estate market for homes and condos that are prices less than $300,000 is on fire.  Any listing that is reasonably priced gets multiple offers. Making offers based on COMPS which are same homes or condominiums which have sold in the last three months in the same community is the road to nowhere. For example, we have made 12 offers for homes that are priced below $135,000 for one customer, these offers are $10,000-$25,000 over COMPS and none have been accepted.

In August, 42 percent of residential real estate deals were cash transactions, 23 percent were financed through conventional loan and 5% were VA loan; also 92% percent were priced below $300,000.

Even though much of the run on Las Vegas residential properties have been attributed to the US Government tax credit for first time home buyers, this is not the only factor in the run on Las Vegas homes and condominiums. Most of the real estate investors which are responsible for the 42% cash deals will not benefit from the tax credit. Some of the investors have actually financed their deal and not all homes or condo buyers are owner occupied first time home buyers, so the effect of the tax credit on the homes and condo market in Las Vegas is probably less than 20%. For example investors who invest in Las Vegas high rise condominiums like the Signature at MGM Grand Las Vegas will not benefit from the tax credit.

Below are the answers that we get from Las Vegas REO agents, the first one is for a home that we made an offer on for the aforementioned client when Karen wanted to confirm that they received our offer.

Attached is an offer on above property. Please confirm receipt. Thanks, Karen
Las Vegas foreclosure agent’s Answer: Your offer is received along w/ 25+ other offers.

Buy the Signature at MGM Grand condo before it is too late

Offers on MGM Grand: I wrote in my blog that MGM Grand is where Meridian Condos were 4 months ago and there is going to be a run on MGM Grand condos. Well the run has started, forget about further price cuts at MGM Grand for the near future and things will get worse from now on. 520 square foot studios that were selling for less than $125,000 are getting multiple offers at $150,000 or more. I called the listing agents for the 5 least expensive studio suits in MGM Grand, they were priced at $129,000-$169,000, and every single one had multiple offers on it. Below is the response from my inquiry about whether or not she has any offers on a 520 square foot condo at MGM Grand which was listed for $179,000.

Her answer: 3 and counting. Just called in 2 more agents

Buying a condo at Signature at MGM Grand Las Vegas will become very difficult, if you want to buy, the time is now.

I do not have a crystal ball and every time I have written about the Las Vegas real estate market, I have enumerated my reasons. No one can say what is going to happen to the Las Vegas real estate market in six months or a year or five years. However based on the past performance of the real estate market, one can take an educated guess at the future direction of the market.

If the same interest in the Las Vegas real estate market continues and the market is as active as it is now, look for true double digit increases in Las Vegas homes and condo prices in terms of comparables and this is the true measure of real estate market performance and not the meaningless median price.

Disclaimer: I don’t know the future behavior of investors as it is impossible to predict.