Arizona Developer Planning to Break Ground This Year on North Las Vegas Rental Houses

LAS VEGAS, NV – North Las Vegas is set to receive a slew of new rentals homes soon to help address Southern Nevada’s intense housing demand, as an Arizona developer has announced that they are set to break ground on a tract of dwellings later this year.

Rental homes have made up a growing segment of the housing market in Las Vegas, as the booming economy and the slow-but-steady withdrawal of the COVID-19 pandemic have given rise once again to the need for affordable rental properties.

Avenue North, originally opening their doors for business in 2011, is looking to begin development of the 165-unit project –  which will be built on nearly 12 acres running along Simmons Street, just south of Ann Road – within the next three or four months, according to founder Ryan Hartman.

The property itself was purchased by Avenue North in late 2019, and Hartman notes that the development – which will be in partnership with Arizona real estate firm Harvard Investment – will be coming in at approximately $50 million in cost.

In addition to feature single-family homes with backyards, the project will also include such amenities as a clubhouse, fitness center and a pool, just like many high-end apartment buildings.

While most of the houses will be stand-alone, detached models, Hartman noted that 29 of them are planned to sit on top of a row of five parking garages, one garage going to the home sitting atop it, and the other four being made available to rent to other tenants in the development.

Hartman’s project is his first ground-up rental development in Southern Nevada, he said, adding he has multiple projects in Phoenix and is looking to buy land for more in the Las Vegas area.

Build-to-rent housing communities have been rising in popularity with renters, developers, and investors, with noted companies such as American Homes 4 Rent, The Calida Group, and Moderne Communities getting in on the action in Southern Nevada.

Shelter Realty is a Real Estate and Property Management Company specializing in the areas of Henderson, Las Vegas and North Las Vegas, NV. Feel free to give us a call at 702.376.7379 so we can answer any questions you may have.

LAS VEGAS, NV – The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia is expected to issue a ruling this week as to whether or not the recent eviction moratorium set in place by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) will be allowed to continue.

The new, limited moratorium was imposed by the CDC on August 3, 2021, covering areas with substantial and high transmission of COVID-19 – currently covering about 90 percent of the U.S. population – in response after a previous moratorium, originally set in place on September 4, 2020, had expired on July 31, 2021.

The Court of Appeals set an expedited schedule in response to a lower court’s ruling on Friday, when U.S. District Judge Dabney Friedrich declared the CDC’s eviction moratorium to be illegal, but nonetheless said that she was forced to allow it to stand for the time being, stating that her “hands are tied” by a previous decision handed down by an appellate court earlier in the year.

The Justice Department has been given by the Court of Appeals until 9 a.m. Tuesday to respond; the plaintiffs, made up of Alabama and Georgia realtors, have until Wednesday morning. Both parties have requested that the court issue its ruling on the matter by Thursday, with the realtors stating that “This Court should do what the district court thought it could not.”

If the Court of Appeals does not end the CDC’s eviction moratorium, the plaintiffs are expected to take the matter to the Supreme Court, who had previously ruled against the previous moratorium being ended before its July expiration date. However, Justice Brett Kavanaugh – who had voted not to end the eviction ban early – also noted that he would also reject any additional extensions without Congressional legislative action, which failed to take place.

Shelter Realty is a Real Estate and Property Management Company specializing in the areas of Henderson, Las Vegas and North Las Vegas, NV. Feel free to give us a call at 702.376.7379 so we can answer any questions you may have.

LAS VEGAS, NV – Since the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) issued their initial eviction moratorium in September of 2020, landlords have been unfortunately caught in a tug-of-war between the federal government and their tenants that reside in their rental properties, all due to the COVID-19 pandemic, a national malady that seems to refuse to go away.

Many landlords are understanding of the financial issues that their tenants may have encountered as a result of the pandemic, but at this point the CDC’s eviction moratorium has been ongoing in one form or another for nearly a year. The latest ban on evicting tenants for failure to pay rent for reasons related to COVID-19 is slated to expire on October 3, but who’s to say it won’t be extended yet again?

In the meantime, a recent article has laid bare what landlords are going through in Las Vegas – many of them small mom-and-pop operations who rely on rent money for their livelihoods or retirement – and the feelings that they are expressing can be summed up in one word- “enough.”

In the article – a commentary by Susy Vasquez, executive director of the Nevada State Apartment Association – it is pointed out that the burden of the economic issues being faced by so many in this country today are unfairly – and solely – being placed on the backs of landlords.

“No other industry has been asked to give away its goods and services for free during this global pandemic,” she said. “No other industry has had a cap placed on its ability to charge a fair market price for its products or services. And no other industry facing this situation provides one of the basic human necessities: housing.”

“Rental housing providers in Nevada and nationwide have been forced by our federal government to house everyone for free, if needed, only to learn months later that not all renters would qualify for government-provided rent assistance,” she continued.

Vasquez points out that landlords had been previously assured that eviction bans would not be extended again… only to discover that was not true, as evidenced by the CDC’s new moratorium, issued on August 3. The author also notes that it is highly likely that the CDC’s current eviction ban is illegal and is already being challenged in the courts, but the trust between landlords and the federal government is already tarnished.

Vasquez states that the CDC eviction ban was more about buying time to distribute federal rental assistance funds than anything else – a process that has been slow to roll out at the state level – and points out that the longer this process goes on, the worse it will be for all parties involved.

“The CDC’s eviction order leaves renters facing insurmountable debt and jeopardizes the ability of rental housing providers to provide safe, sustainable and affordable housing,” she said. “The distribution of critical rental assistance has been painfully slow. Renters and rental housing providers desperately need these funds to catch up on their bills.”

If landlords are forced to shoulder this burden much longer, Vasquez says, many will soon be in the same situation that many of their tenants face… or worse.

“The bottom line is that eviction is always our last resort. The housing industry is in the business of housing people and trying to find another tenant means additional lost rent and more hassle for housing providers,” she said. “Enough is enough. Rent assistance needs to be made a top priority and be distributed to those in need at a much faster pace, making landlords and tenants whole.”

Shelter Realty is a Real Estate and Property Management Company specializing in the areas of Henderson, Las Vegas and North Las Vegas, NV. Feel free to give us a call at 702.376.7379 so we can answer any questions you may have.

LAS VEGAS, NV – The Las Vegas housing market continues to astound, as a unique, all-time record was set last month; the price of previously owned single-family homes shot past the $400,000 mark, a boon for sellers but a sign that has some buyers worrying that they may be priced out of the market if this trend continues.

In July, the median sales price of pre-owned, single-family houses in Las Vegas – making up the vast majority of the real estate marketplace – hit $405,000, which represents a 2.5 percent increase from the last record high achieved in June, and a 22.7 percent jump from July 2020, reports say.

3,352 houses were sold in July, which was a drop of 5.4 percent from the month before, but a small increase of 0.8 percent from July 2020. And while the amount of available homes on the market increased from June to July, the overall inventory remained low, leading to a continuing increase in prices.

Reports indicate that 3.007 houses were available for sale on the open market at the end of July, representing a 22.5 percent increase from the previous month but a 37.4 percent decrease year-to-year.

The housing market in Las Vegas has been a hotbed of activity in recent months, with demand essentially outstripping inventory and leading to skyrocketing prices, fueled by low interest rates on home loans that have allowed buyers to indulge themselves at times. Competition has been fierce as a result, with interested parties – many coming from neighboring states – dog-piling on attractive home prospects and routinely paying over the asking price in order to get the upper hand on other potential buyers.

As a result of this activity, home builders and sellers alike have regularly been increasing their prices in order to take advantage of the intense demand, often putting interested buyers on waiting lists and sometimes even accepting bids for properties, experts say.

However, this highly-competitive marketplace is unfortunately serving to price some first-time buyers out of the running for home purchases, forcing them to make do with rentals homes or lower-priced condos.

Shelter Realty is a Real Estate and Property Management Company specializing in the areas of Henderson, Las Vegas and North Las Vegas, NV. Feel free to give us a call at 702.376.7379 so we can answer any questions you may have.

LAS VEGAS, NV – It seems that that real estate in Las Vegas is getting so in-demand that even the shell of a burnt-out house will sell in near record-setting time. A scorched and gutted one-story home, located off Cheyenne Avenue east of Interstate 15,  features numerous boarded-up windows and no roof, back door, or many walls to speak of, but that didn’t stop a buyer from swooping right on in and picking it up as if it was a brand-new luxury condo.

After the (former) residence was listed on the open market on July 22, six buyers almost immediately submitted offers for it, and while four of them attempted to low-ball the owner – who listed the property as an “investment opportunity” – two agreed to his asking price of $90,000 for the burnt-out wreck of a house. Currently, the owner is under contract to sell to one of the investors.

Thanks to low interest rate home loans, investors have been snapping up homes in the Southern Nevada region for months, with 3,000 having been sold in the second quarter of 2021; this represents a whopping increase of 280 percent from the second quarter of 2020, when sales dropped during the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The owner of the burnt-out house, which was constructed in 1963, had originally acquired the property last September several months after it had burnt down due to a fire. Originally, the man planned on using the remains of the home – which are still in usable condition, and building a new home upon them. However, the owner said he found himself with too many other projects at the time, coupled with the fact that contractors are in high demand right now.

Finding himself on a waiting list for rebuilding the home that could have taken months, he instead decided to take his chances on listing it in hopes that individuals who specialize in rebuilding homes would be interested in picking it up, which is exactly what happened.

Shelter Realty is a Real Estate and Property Management Company specializing in the areas of Henderson, Las Vegas and North Las Vegas, NV. Feel free to give us a call at 702.376.7379 so we can answer any questions you may have.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) issued a new national eviction moratorium on Tuesday – after the previous one had expired over the weekend – with this one not taking the form of a “blanket” ban on evictions, but instead targeting counties in the United States with high infection rates of COVID-19.

And while the CDC’s announcement was initially met with waves of confusion over what areas in the country would be affected by it, the question for our readers was quite obviously “will the new eviction ban impact Nevada landlords – especially those in Clark County – yet again?” And, after a few days of waiting, we finally have our answer: yes, it will.

Nevada Health Response indicates that 12 of Nevada’s 17 counties qualify as “substantial” or “high” transmission rate areas, and as a result, those 12 counties are now under the mandate of the CDC’s moratorium not to evict tenants who are unable to make rent payments due to financial hardships brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic. “Substantial” transmission is 50 to 100 cases per 100,000, or a positivity rate between 8 percent and 10 percent, and “high” transmission is 100 or more cases per 100,000 people or a positivity rate of 10 percent or higher.

The new eviction moratorium, slated to expire on October 3, currently affects the following counties in Nevada: Carson, Churchill, Clark, Douglas, Elko, Lincoln, Lyon, Mineral, Nye, Storey, Washoe, and White Pine.

The CDC has stated that the purpose of the new moratorium is to give time to U.S. residents to access billions of dollars in federal rental assistance funds, funds that have been proven to be notoriously slow to distribute.

However, many experts have opined that the CDC’s new eviction moratorium is almost certainly illegal. This may be especially true in light of a recent Supreme Court ruling that the previous eviction ban could not continue beyond July without legislative action on the part of Congress, which failed to happen. In fact, the Biden Administration has already received a legal challenge to the CDC’s new ban, which a U.S. District Judge decreed must be responded to by August 6.

Shelter Realty is a Real Estate and Property Management Company specializing in the areas of Henderson, Las Vegas and North Las Vegas, NV. Feel free to give us a call at 702.376.7379 so we can answer any questions you may have.

LAS VEGAS, NV – As the COVID-19 pandemic continues to wind down as vaccination rates increase, the Las Vegas housing market has been skyrocketing, with inventory continuing to shrink as prices correspondingly continue to climb higher and higher. It’s a matter of supply and demand, and currently the demand is outpacing the supply.

It’s a situation that’s starting to prove to be problematic – median home prices in Las Vegas have increased more than 20 percent from 2020 – and many first-time and entry-level homebuyers are finding themselves being priced out of the market.

However, real estate experts are predicting that the end of the federal eviction moratorium – which occurred on July 31 – and the resulting repercussions could result in a stabilizing effect upon housing supply and prices.

The end of the moratorium – which was keeping people behind on their rent in their homes during the height of the pandemic – means that potentially scores of tenants may be facing eviction proceedings for failure to pay rent. As a result, experts say, numerous homes will eventually be making their way into the Southern Nevada marketplace.

However, it will take some time – at least 30 to 90 days, if not more – for the effect of these new homes joining the Las Vegas inventory to be truly felt, as evictions can take some time to play out. In addition, a new law passed by the Nevada legislature will put evictions on-hold if tenants have applied for federal rental assistance money, and the process of awaiting the approval or denial of those funds can take months.

A big shift could be seen by the end of 2021, experts say, as many evictions will have been completed by that time, coinciding with the time of year when FHA loan limits are increased. Currently, FHA loans are limited to $378,000, and the median price for a single-family home in Las Vegas is $420,000; by the end of the year, however, that could all change in the buyer’s favor, opening the doors for a more stable, affordable Las Vegas housing market.

Shelter Realty is a Real Estate and Property Management Company specializing in the areas of Henderson, Las Vegas and North Las Vegas, NV. Feel free to give us a call at 702.376.7379 so we can answer any questions you may have.

LAS VEGAS, NV – After several controversial extensions since it was originally instituted in the fall by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to prevent homelessness during the COVID-19 pandemic, the federal eviction moratorium finally came to an end on July 31, and now thousands of households in Nevada are facing potential eviction for nonpayment of rent.

In order to help in the only way he currently has available to him, Governor Steve Sisolak is now urging Nevada residents who are behind on their rent and anticipate being evicted in the very near future to do their best to seek out rental assistance programs that are available to them.

“I want to be clear, if you are a renter you must apply for this assistance,” Sisolak said. “Filling out and submitting an application is the best thing you can do right now if you fear you may be evicted for nonpayment of rent.”

Sisolak, during a virtual news conference held this weekend, continuously urged residents to apply for rental assistance, since the recently-passed Assembly Bill 486 temporarily halts the eviction process for renters until the aid applicant is notified of the outcome. The bill also allows landlords to apply for aid on behalf of tenants who are behind on rent but for whatever reason have not applied for aid themselves.

“We have plenty of rental assistance money available through funds from the federal government,” Sisolak said. “There are dedicated people through all levels of government working to process those payments as quickly as possible.”

Applying for rental assistance from the CARES Housing Assistance Program – both by tenants and landlords – can be done by clicking here. Eligible applicants must be able to show how they have been financially impacted by the pandemic and meet income requirements.

Shelter Realty is a Real Estate and Property Management Company specializing in the areas of Henderson, Las Vegas and North Las Vegas, NV. Feel free to give us a call at 702.376.7379 so we can answer any questions you may have.

LAS VEGAS, NV – The eviction moratorium instituted and extended by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is finally slated to come to an end on August 1, and while it will likely result in thousands of eviction cases for Nevada residents – as well as residents nationwide – what exactly will it mean for the landlords who have been chomping at the bit for over a year to finally get their properties back in their possession?

For landlords who are finally hoping for things to go back to pre-pandemic “normal,” they may find that they have a bit longer to wait due to actions by Nevada Governor Steve Sisolak and the State Legislature.

According to the Nevada State Apartment Association, courts have already processed large amounts of eviction paperwork filed in anticipation of the end of the CDC eviction ban, but landlords should expect the process of getting their soon-to-be former tenants out of their rentals to take some time and potentially, serious effort.

Simply put, every eviction will require constables to proceed with locking out the former tenants, and the massive tidal wave of evictions that are anticipated to come in August will stretch both the resources of said constables – as well as their ability to communicate with landlords over what units need attention – very thin.

With that being the case, the actual process of evicting everyone that requires it will already take an extended period of time over and above the norm; however a new law signed by Governor Sisolak could make that process take even longer to carry out.

The law – Assembly Bill 486 – protects tenants from eviction who have submitted an application for federal rental assistance until their application has been approved or denied by Clark County’s CARES Housing Assistance Program, a process which could take months.

In addition, renters are under no obligation to inform landlords that they have applied for rental assistance – or the status of their application – unless they are in the process of being evicted.

And finally, Nevada Assemblyman Howard Watts’ new law – Assembly Bill 141 – seals all eviction records due to non-payment of rent caused by pandemic-related financial hardship, making it more difficult for landlords to properly vet prospective new tenants.

While landlords may finally be seeing a light at the end of the tunnel in terms of the pandemic, they unfortunately may still have a ways yet to go before things get back to normal.

Shelter Realty is a Real Estate and Property Management Company specializing in the areas of Henderson, Las Vegas and North Las Vegas, NV. Feel free to give us a call at 702.376.7379 so we can answer any questions you may have.

LAS VEGAS, NV – Amid a white-hot real estate marketplace, one of the fastest-growing areas of the Las Vegas rental business is turning out to be newly built single-family houses, and a local developer is jumping into it with both feet.

With plans for two projects already drawn up for a total of approximately 450 homes, The Calida Group is planning on constructing these rentals in the Cadence community, located in Henderson. Just over 400 of the homes are slated to be free-standing, while the remaining ones will be attached to townhouses, according to city records.

Calida has plans to break ground on the projects in Cadence – a 2,200-acre community off Lake Mead Parkway east of Boulder Highway – in the third quarter of 2022, and the planned homes will represent the company’s first-ever foray into newly-built, single-family rental tracts in the Southern Nevada region, with more to come in the future, co-founder Eric Cohen noted.

“We are planning many more,” he said.

With the recovery of Las Vegas’ economy and housing market after the mid-2000’s recession, the local rental marketplace exploded, and investors snapped up as many low-cost single-family houses as they could to turn into rental units. The market stalled temporarily during the COVID-19 pandemic, but as vaccination rates steadily grow the economy has continued to bounce back, making the demand for rentals in Vegas stronger than ever.

To satiate rental demand, developers such as Calida have been erecting as many apartments as they can; however, newly built single-family homes have been growing in popularity, and several companies have been jumping on the bandwagon as of late; Cohen noted that they are “one of the biggest requests we received” from his renters.

The demand for rental homes has – along with the rest of Las Vegas’ rental market – driven up rent prices across the board; according to reports, the average rent of a Vegas-based house jumped 17 percent from May 2020 to May 2021, and only continues to grow as more people flock to Nevada for an overall cheaper lifestyle.

Shelter Realty is a Real Estate and Property Management Company specializing in the areas of Henderson, Las Vegas and North Las Vegas, NV. Feel free to give us a call at 702.376.7379 so we can answer any questions you may have.

LAS VEGAS, NV – Shaquille O’Neal, legendary professional basketball player, actor, and current sports analyst on TNT’s Inside the NBA has purchased a private 1-acre estate in the southeast valley for nearly $2 million, right after previously having sold the Southern Highlands residence he had bought prior to the COVID-19 pandemic.

O’Neal, regarded as one of the greatest basketball players and centers of all time, has business dealings in Las Vegas, so owning a home in the region makes perfect sense. However, confusion surrounded the sale after the listing agent, Zar Zanganeh, initially issued a Facebook post on July 9 congratulating O’Neal and his realtor on the acquisition, only to turn around and later delete the post.

Upon being contacted by local Southern Nevada media, Zanganeh reportedly said that she was unable to disclose the buyer of the property, only saying that it was a long-time client and friend; however, neither she nor O’Neal’s personal realtor would deny that the basketball great was the buyer when asked.

The home, a 5,980 square-foot, two-story, five bedroom residence located east of Sunset Park, closed on July 9 for $1.95 million, and according to Clark County records, the buyer was Lester J. Knispel Trust and Chexy Trust, which has been previously utilized for Las Vegas real estate deals by O’Neal.

Meanwhile, O’Neal’s Turnberry Place condo – which was also listed under the trust’s name – was sold in February 2020 for $677,000, after previously being purchased for $670,000 in January 2019, records say.

While O’Neal spends the majority of his time working in Atlanta, Georgia on TNT’s Inside the NBA, the listing agent did note that her client intends to live in the southeast valley residence, confirming that it was not purchased for a relative or as a rental.

Other real estate deals that can be attributed O’Neal include a two-story, 5,440-square-foot Southern Highlands home that he bought in September $765,000, featuring a swim-up bar; Clark County property records listed the Shaquille O’Neal Revocable Trust as the owner, and the home was later sold on June 28 for $1 million.

O’Neal’s other dealings in Las Vegas include co-ownership of Big Chicken sandwich shop east of the Strip.

Photo: Shaquille “Shaq” O’Neal at the ‘Killer Bees’ New York Special Screening at Landmark 57 Theater on November 12, 2018 in New York City. File: Ron Adar, Shutterstock.com, licensed.

Shelter Realty is a Real Estate and Property Management Company specializing in the areas of Henderson, Las Vegas and North Las Vegas, NV. Feel free to give us a call at 702.376.7379 so we can answer any questions you may have.

LAS VEGAS, NV – Thrive, a new townhouse complex in Summerlin, has exemplified the massive demand for housing options in Southern Nevada in a very eye-opening way- by completely selling out of all its units before the project has even broken ground.

Developer Edward Homes notes that Thrive isn’t actually slated to begin construction until August 1, which is situated along Charleston Boulevard, less than a mile west of Red Rock Resort. The project is anticipated to be finished by the first quarter of 2023, owner Brock Metzka says, but that still hasn’t stopped people from putting their hard-earned money down well in advance of move-in day.

“It was really fast,” Metzka said, noting that prior to the recent real estate boom in Las Vegas, he’s never completely sold out a planned development before it was even built.

The development was originally slated to be completed in phases, with the initial phase consisting of model homes to show off to prospective buyers. However, given the fact that all of the townhome units sold out in less than 90 days, such an approach was no longer necessary; instead, full-up construction of the entire community is now planned to commence in August.

Thrive, which will consist of 43 homes, sits on 2.6 acres of land in the Las Vegas Valley, sold out so quickly due to the massive demand for housing options in Southern Nevada these days, coupled with cheap loan options and a huge influx of out-of-state buyers who are flocking to the region for its blossoming economy, vibrant job market, and low cost of living when compared to many other parts of the country.

Located at the southwest corner of Charleston Boulevard and Plaza Centre Drive near the 215 Beltway, Thrive’s townhouses range in price from $440,000 to $550,000, with the higher-end residences coming in at three-stories. Many of the buyers hail from nearby California, according to Metzka, and most of them are paying cash.

Shelter Realty is a Real Estate and Property Management Company specializing in the areas of Henderson, Las Vegas and North Las Vegas, NV. Feel free to give us a call at 702.376.7379 so we can answer any questions you may have.