Aug. 25, 2006 - Single Story Family Homes Near Extinction????

I have read two articles in the past two weeks asking if single story family homes are going to become extinct.  WOW I never thought about that before.   With the costs of building and land prices having gone up in the Las Vegas valley the talk around town centers on buzz words such as mid-level, high rise, low rises, and condo conversions.  Even our detatched homes are becoming three story.  Consider that a single story home is somewhat limited as far as building is concerned.  Lot sizes and it generally costs more to build a single story home. You have to consider things like the concrete slab, roof area, and the truss area.

The other article I read speculated that in 7-10 years the tradional subdivision as we see all over this valley right now will be the thing of the past.  Clark County's Multispecies Habitat Conservation Plan ( now thats a mouthful and where did they come up with that name?) has capped future development in the county at 78,000 acres.  The builders in the valley build on about 7,000 to 9,000 acres a year, leaving enough land for 8-10 years. 

But the article went on to say price and land aside, more and more people have a preference for the vertical lifestyle.  Lets look at the home buying pool, single women were second behind married couples and had a 21% overall purchase, with single men buying 9%.  Single women have very specific housing demands.  They want security, proximity to neighbors they know and a lock and leave lifestyle that allows them to travel and do things without worrying about a lawn.  

Also the oldest of the boomers are turning 60, as consumers gray, they are demanding a streamline lifesyle.  The expansive suburban home with all it entails made sense when they had growing families, now are a burden.  

Will the single family home just disappear?  I know that there are many vertical masterplans in the work but I don't think the tradional subdivison builder will just take their tools and go else where.   

Aug. 25, 2006 - Realtor® vs Real Estate Agent What the deal?

                      VS      Real Estate Agent

A Realtor® adheres to a strick code of eithics.  More training is involved and I believe, that someone with that training and that mindset, someone who goes the extra mile and spends more time and more money getting prepared is better equipped to help you with the most important and costly purchase of your life.

Anyone can be a real estate agent, all they have to do is pass the course and pass the licencing test.  I would never say that they were unethical but most are under trained to deal with the workings of a real estate transaction.  Finding the home for you to purchase is the easy part.  The real work begins when escrow is opened.  It then becomes a balancing act that your agent will handle behind the scenes keeping you up to date with every phase.  There will be numerous items that will need to be taken care of.

In my humble opinion you are better off working with a Realtor®.

Aug. 19, 2006 - What does the orange alert mean for the airport????

                          McCarran International Airport

On August 10, due to the discovery of a possible terrorist attack at Heathrow Airport in London, the U.S. Government raised the nation's threat level to Severe, or Red, for commercial flights originating in the U.K. bound for the U.S. and raised the threat level to High, or Orange, for all commercial aviation operating in or destined for the U.S. As a result, increased security measures have been implemented at airports across the United States.

For your convenience, we are providing you an overview of some of the measures put in place by the Department of Homeland Security (HDS) and the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) that may affect you in your travels, as well as some guidelines on how every passenger can assist in security.

Increased Aviation Screening Procedures:

Aug. 19, 2006 - Twilight at the Oasis in Nevada

                                                 
If you look close in front of the Nectarine tree you will see a tiny bunny.  All summer she would come and eat the fruit, and then it was gone.  For the last few weeks we have put out fruit and she has come to look for us in the evening. We keep putting the fruit just a little closer every evening and someday maybe someday she will let us pet her???  I think the geraniums look nice too.

The is a bird called a  Great-Tailed Grackle.  I guess they are really considered trash birds but they are so funny to watch.  The male of the species is a polygamous and very stuck up.  When there are two males in the same area, they strut around with their beaks up in the air.  We feed them bread and they come and dip the pieces in the water fountain.  The babies are the funniest, they squawk and squawk until their mother stuffs something in their mouth.  She is trying to teach them how to get their own bread and dip it. 

This is a baby male, even as a baby he is bigger than his mom.  He is smart though, at least he learned how to dip his bread, not all of them are this brilliant.

My mom and I live on the golf course in Sun City Summerlin.  We have a beautiful view of the mountains.  Twilight is my favorite time of the day.  All of the harshness of the day melts away and a softness lays over the golf course.  Then we have beautiful sunsets that have after glow all across the valley.  AAAAWWWW twilight in the desert. 

Aug. 15, 2006 - Some analysts SAY!!!!!!!!

The Feds did not raise rates again, yet people are not buying.  Why? While the rates have gone up some they are still at record lows.  I just checked the MLS here in Las Vegas.  We have 1,320 Townhouses, 2,939, Conds, and 17,421 Single Family Residences.  WOW, that is a lot of properties.  Could some of the problem be the newspapers, television, and radio talking about how no one is buying and the bubble getting ready to burst?   If you were thinking about buying, I think I would go ahead and do it.  Do you want to wait until the rates get up to 14% or higher?  I am doing some investing myself now is a GREAT time to buy in Las Vegas.

Aug. 11, 2006 - Nevada Politics

SOME THINGS NEVER CHANGE

Nevada has their primaries early and I am so sick of signs, tv ads, radio ads, magazine and newspaper ads.  It has gotten ugly early and we are just getting warmed up for the rest of it up to Nov.  We had a candidate here that died.  (her death is still being investigated.)  Polls show she is still way ahead and with early voting people are voting for her. 

Things have really also gotten nasty here, and the pictures they are using to show each other look like something out of the Enquirer.  Calling each other names and liars.  I think it is sick and wrong.

I have an idea, I think I am going to check out the Libertarian Party and see what they have to say.  More after I check into them.

Aug. 4, 2006 - Appraisers: NOT TOO LIBERAL

Appraisers are being tighten up by the lending institutions.  When the market was steamy hot and appraisers were working 24/7 to keep up with the home sales they were being a little liberal and the comps were changing so fast that it was hard to tell fair market value or not.  Now things have slowed waaaaay down and the lenders are changing some of the the criteria here in Las Vegas.  They are not giving as much value for things that they did in the past.  They are not allowed to factor in builders upgrades that can add $10,000-$50,000 dollars to the price of a home.

It is harder for a home to be appraised for what the prices were at a year ago.

As if the home sellers are not having a hard enough time.

Aug. 4, 2006 - Las Vegas on the CNN Money List

Las Vegas made the CNN money list as one the 100 overpriced markets.  I tend to agree with the evaluation, however it does not seem to stop people from buying.  I will say though we have the highest number of homes in our MLS than has ever been there before.  Homes are also taking 4-5 months to sell.  So we may see the prices come down some as sellers get anxious.

Of course while our housing maybe overpriced, we were also on the top 100 as a good place to live.  Below are the statistics from CNN:

Las Vegas, NV
Financial
	City stats	Best places average
Median family income (per year)	$59,195	$76,893
Family purchasing power (annual, cost-of-living adjusted)	$44,845	$68,109
Sales tax	7.75%	6.55%
State income tax rate (highest bracket)	n/a	6.46%
State income tax rate (lowest bracket)	n/a	2.74%
Auto insurance premiums (Average for the state)	$2,557	$2,207
Job growth % (2000-2005)	19.68%	10.97%
Housing
	City stats	Best places average
Median home price	$260,000	$259,566
Home price gain (2004-2005)	11.20%	9.26%
Education
	City stats	Best places average
Colleges, universities and professional schools	3	8
Junior colleges and technical institutes	0	0
Test scores reading (% +/- state average)	-15.9%	13.3%
Test scores math (% +/- state average)	-9.2%	16.9%
% students attending public/private schools	91.1/8.90	88.4/11.59
Quality of life
	City stats	Best places average
Air quality index (% of days AQI ranked as good)	46.8%	71.9%
Personal crime risk (100 is nat'l average; lower is better)	323	45
Property crime risk (100 is nat'l average; lower is better)	267	74
Personal crime incidents (per 100,000)	789	228
Property crime incidents (per 100,000)	4,812	3,105
Median commute time (in minutes)	22.4	20.8
% population with commute 45 mins. or longer	9.8%	13.4%
Leisure and culture
	City stats	Best places average
Movie theaters (within 15 miles)	23	22
Restaurants (within 15 miles)	3,377	2,268
Bars (within 15 miles)	397	127
Public golf courses (within 30 miles)	62	74
Libraries (within 15 miles)	23	43
Museums (accredited by AAM within 30 miles)	1	7
Ski resorts (within 100 miles)	1	10
Weather
	City stats	Best places average
Annual precipitation (inches)	4.05	36.00
Clear days	210	107
High temp in July ° F	107.5°	87.7°
Low temp in Jan ° F	28.0°	23.5°
Health*
	City stats	Best places average
Has health plan (% of residents)	82.0%	88.2%
Body mass index (avg. for residents)	27	27
Cancer mortality (per 100,000, age-adjusted)	190.7	191.3
Cardiac mortality (per 100,000)	174.2	202.0
Meet the neighbors
	City stats	Best places average
Median age	34.2	34.5
Completed at least some college (% of residents)	50.2%	63.9%
Married	48.5%	54.3%
Divorced	14.0%	9.3%
Amount spent on vacations (domestic and foreign, household avg. per year)	$6,910	$7,549

Aug. 4, 2006 - Caesars Place turns 40

Caesars Palace turns 40 years old on Aug 5th.

They will have great celebrations and everyone has to dress in toga's.

Caesars was in the fore front of bringing themed casinos to the Las Vegas strip.  It raised the bar for luxury on the strip.  It has continually redefined the Las Vegas experiance and continues to do so today.

It has always had the best in entertainment with the likes of Frank and Sammy, continues today with Celine and Elton today.