Las Vegas Real Estate

Keeping you up-to-date on the Las Vegas Real Estate Market and other interesting pieces of info

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March 2007

How to Improve Your Chances of Selling Your Home Quickly

Posted at 9:38 PM, Mar. 30, 2007

Most of us do not have the luxury of moving out while trying to sell our house. If you are still living in your home while it’s for sale here on some tips on helping it to show better:

Leave the house during open houses and showings. Buyers like to be able to look through the house without someone pointing everything out to them. With you there they will picture the house as ‘your’ house and not ‘their’ house. Realtors® are trained to point out all those special items and places for you.
Pick up all dirty clothes – no on wants to see them. Check your bedroom floors, bathrooms, and laundry room.
Don’t forget to make the beds.
Wash all the dirty dishes, or at least put them in the dishwasher. Clean counter tops create an illusion of more space.
Having a dusty/dirty house will only make prospective buyers wonder what else might be wrong with the house. Keep it picked up and dusted.
Odors from pets, left over food, garbage, smelly foods in refrigerator, and even dirty diapers can permeate your home. If you’re not sure how your home smells ask a friend to test it out. Don’t try and mask that smell with a spray, instead bake some cookies just before a showing. A good idea is to keep some cookie dough in the refrigerator, then just bake a half dozen or so when you know the house is going to be shown.
If it’s raining leave a mat or towel on the floor near the front door for people to wipe their shoes on (it will help from dragging leaves and gunk through your clean house)
Put up a sign at the front door asking everyone to remove his or her shoes. You can even provide a basket of booties for buyers and agents to use.
Empty Rooms? Leave them that way…don’t use them as a storage room.
Be sure to lock down your computer – kids (and even adults) have a tendency to get bored and may try out some games, or Internet searching while your gone.
Put away all personal information. Lock up expensive “easy to pocket” items such as jewelry, iPods, etc. Even lock up your bills, credit cards, bank info that you may normally keep sitting out. (Better yet purchase a small safe and rent a safe-deposit box for these items). Don’t leave money sitting around.
Turn all your lights on. People want to buy light, bright homes. It may cost you a couple of extra $$ to do this but a dark house won’t sell.

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Last Week in the News

Posted at 8:52 PM, Mar. 29, 2007

Sales of existing homes unexpectedly rose by 3.9% in February, the largest monthly gain in three years, the National Association of Realtors reported March 23. The price of a median home sold last month dropped to $212,800, down by 1.3% from the same month in 2006, marking a record seven straight months that the median home price has fallen.

Construction of new homes and apartments rose 9% in February to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1.53 million units, the Commerce Department reported March 20. Construction had fallen by 14.3% in January. Even with the better-than-expected rebound, construction activity remained 28.5% below last year's level.

Builders' applications for new permits, considered a reliable gauge of future activity, continued falling in February, dropping by 2.5% to an annual rate of 1.53 million units. That marked the 12th decline in the past 13 months in building permits.

Federal Reserve policymakers announced on March 21 that they would leave the central bank's key federal funds rate -- the rate that banks charge one another for overnight loans -- at 5.25%, where it has remained since June 2006.

The Conference Board's Composite Index of Leading Economic Indicators slipped 0.5% in February. The drop, while expected, was the steepest since February 2006. The index is important because it often foreshadows the performance of the economy over the next six to nine months.

This week look for updates on new home sales on March 26 and durable goods orders on March 28.

Kirk.Alexander@americanhm.com
American Home Mortgage

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Corn Beef

Posted at 8:35 PM, Mar. 15, 2007

With St. Patrick's Day upon us again I thought I'd do a little research on a traditional St. Patty's Day delight...the long time favorite - Corned Beef.

According to the information found in the "Wikpedia" (online encylopedia) the "Corned" in Corned Beef refers to the salt used to preserve the beef brisket for pickling.

From the online encyclopedia "Wikpedia" comes this interesting information:

In the United States, corned beef is also associated with Saint Patrick's Day, when many Irish Americans eat a traditional meal of corned beef and cabbage. According to the History Channel [1], while cabbage has long been a traditional food item for the Irish, corned beef serving as a substitute for Irish bacon first became traditional in the late 1800s. Irish immigrants living in New York City's Lower East Side sought an equivalent in taste and texture to their traditional Irish bacon (similar to Canadian bacon), and learned about this cheaper alternative to bacon from their Jewish neighbors.

In the United Kingdom corned beef is commonly found in the canned form, and has next to nothing to do with the cured and boiled version.

In Denmark, corned beef is alternatively known as either saltkød or sprængt oksebryst. Traditional uses of the two are distinctive:

Saltkød (lit. "cured meat") is used as a cold cut (pålæg)
Sprængt oksebryst (lit. "lightly salted beef brisket"), on the other hand, is often served warm, as well as cold.

The most common way to cook corned beef in the Philippines is to sauté it with onions and diced potatoes. It can also be cooked as a soup, with chopped cabbage, or used as an ingredient in torta (omelet) or in Filipino spaghetti.

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Last Week in the News

Posted at 8:36 PM, Mar. 14, 2007

Last Week in the News

The nation's unemployment rate dipped to 4.5% in February, as employers added 97,000 jobs to their payrolls, close to economists' forecast for a gain of approximately 100,000, the Labor Department reported March 9. Unemployment fell despite bad winter weather that forced construction companies to slash 62,000 jobs, the most since 1991.

The Labor Department also reported that the number of laid-off workers filing unemployment claims fell by 10,000 for the week ended March 2. The decline provided a break from a recent rise in layoffs stemming from a weakness in the housing and auto sectors.

Former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan said there was a "one-third probability" of recession in the United States this year, according to a March 6 interview with Bloomberg news service. His comments contrasted with those of current Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke, who said that the Federal Reserve continues to foresee "moderate growth going forward."

The nation's trade deficit narrowed slightly to $59.1 billion in January, down 3.8% from a December deficit of $61.5 billion. Exports of goods and services rose by 1.1% to an all-time high of $126.7 billion in January, reflecting gains in sales of airplanes, computers and farm products.

Rates on 30-year mortgages fell to their lowest level since mid-December, as investors moved to the safety of bonds after last week's stock market turmoil. Typically, more money flowing into the bond market makes more money available for mortgage lending.

This week look for updates on producer prices on March 15 and consumer prices on March 16.

Kirk.Alexander@americanhm.com
American Home Mortgage

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Bits and Pieces, Here and There

Posted at 8:30 PM, Mar. 13, 2007

Few pieces of trivia I thought you might be interested in:

Another piece of Las Vegas history bit the dust last night when the Stardust Casino was imploded. The Stardust was one of the mainstays on the Las Vegas Strip, opening in 1958 and charging only $6 per night for a room, it was located on 63 acres of land off of Desert Inn and Las Vegas Blvd. It was imploded to make room for a new Boyd Gaming Corporation project, Echelon Place. Construction on Echelon Place is scheduled to start in 2007 and is projected to be completed by 2010. Plans are for it to be on 87 acres and is projected to be over 140,000 square feet with a cost of 4 BILLION dollars.

Today, March 13, broke a record with our high tempature. The weather topped out at 89 degrees. The highest tempature on record for March 13 was set in 1966 when the tempature hit 86 degrees. And spring is still 8 days away!

The longest highway in Nevada runs between Las Vegas and Reno. Innerstate 95 is 668 miles from one end to the other!

There are a total of 64 golf courses in Las Vegas. There's never been a better time to buy a round of golf in Vegas. Even in this golfer's paradise, there are a few tricks to having a perfect par day. When booking a tee time, Friday through Sunday are the busiest, so look mid-week for more availability and better deals. For seasonal bargains, winter (65 degree days and sunshine) and summer in Vegas are ideal. Just remember, morning and evening tee times in summer fill up early so book in advance.

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