Category Archive : Economy

LAS VEGAS, NV – On Wednesday, December 13, a saga that has taken 23 years to unfold has finally come to fruition as the $3.7 billion Fontainebleau Las Vegas finally held its grand opening with a lavish VIP red carpet event that preceded the opening of its doors to the public just before midnight.

However, guests looking to join in on the grand opening event were required to park their vehicles at the Las Vegas Convention Center’s West Hall – which offered free parking – or use valet parking, as the Fontainebleau’s parking garage was not opened until 1 a.m. Thursday, and the venue’s rideshare drop-off was not opened until 2 a.m.

The event was a culmination of decades of effort in order to bring the Fontainebleau project to life, but the road there was wrought with numerous obstacles and setbacks, some so severe that at many points there was intense doubt that the venue would ever open.

Jeffrey Soffer, Fontainebleau Development’s chairman and CEO, first purchased the land for the resort back in 2000. Development later begun on the resort in 2007 – with its grand opening scheduled to take place in 2009 – but work was indefinitely halted two years later by the recession, forcing the project into bankruptcy.

In 2010, Icahn NV Gaming Acquisition LLC purchased the Fontainebleau for $150 million, and then sold it off to developer Steve Witkoff for $600 million in 2017. Witkoff originally envisioned a 2022 completion date; however, that was derailed by the COVID-19 pandemic.

From there, the Fontainebleau sat unfinished for years until Soffer and Fontainebleau Development re-acquired the project and resumed construction in 2021, following Soffer’s securement of $2.2 billion in new funding.

Now that the resort is finally open for business, it will be operated by the company’s subsidiary, Bowtie Hospitality LLC.

The Fontainebleau mostly adheres to the original vision that was laid out for it back when the project was first announced, consisting of a 67-story tower containing 3,780 hotel rooms and suites, 550,000 square feet of convention and meeting space, a casino, restaurants, retail, health and wellness spaces, and many other high-end amenities.

In addition, the resort will be providing approximately 6,000 full-time jobs, which will greatly add to Las Vegas’ already booming economy.

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 – According to a new report released on Wednesday by local industry association Las Vegas Realtors, home prices increased slightly in Southern Nevada during the month of November 2023, where the housing supply itself showed continued signs of shrinking. 

Last month, the median price for an existing single-family home in Las Vegas was $450,000; this amount represents a small increase from October’s median price, which was $449,000, and a 4.4 percent increase year-over-year, when that amount was $430,990. 

The median price for condominiums and townhomes sold in Vegas during the month of November 2023 was $275,000, which is a 5.8 percent increase from the same period of time in 2022. 

Lee Barrett, president of Las Vegas Realtors, noted in a statement that seasonal trends were being bucked in Southern Nevada due to a number of factors, including a limited number of homes on the market as well as increasing interest rates on home mortgages, which are currently hovering precariously close to 8 percent. 

Interest rates are higher now than in past years and our housing supply is about as low as it gets,” Barrett said “These factors seem to be propping up home prices and slowing down home sales.” 

At the end of November, 4,353 single family homes were available for sale in Las Vegas without any offers, which is a year over year decrease of 40 percent; when it comes to condos and townhomes listed without offers, that amount comes in at 1,261, a year-over-year decrease of 22.8 percent. 

1,894 existing homes, condos, and townhomes in Vegas were sold in November 2023; that number represents a 5.7 percent decrease for homes and a 0.6 percent decrease for condos/townhomes when compared to November 2022. 

Currently, Las Vegas has an approximate four-month supply of properties for sale, in contrast to the same period of time in 2022, when there was a four-month supply. 

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 – Serving as a testament to how hard-hit Las Vegas new home sales were in the third quarter of 2022 due to rising interest rates on home mortgage loans, sales showed a distinct surge during the third quarter of 2023, serving as a sign that things are improving in the Southern Nevada housing market. 

According to Andrew Smith, President of Las Vegas-based Home Builders Research, the third quarter of 2023 saw 2,383 net sales of new homes – not taking into consideration cancellations – as opposed to the third quarter of 2022, when there were only 1,385 net sales. 

Last year during the third quarter, home sales were slow,” Smith said. “Builders have adjusted their strategies. They have the ability to use in-house financing to offer incentives for new home sales. They can work with buyers on the loans in the way that resales can’t because they own the lending. They also are helped by a lack of resale inventory.” 

Clearly, experts say, developers have adjusted to the higher interest rates that impacted buyers especially hard during that period of time in 2022; while interest rates are still precariously high, both buyers and builders have had time to come to grips with them and adjust accordingly. 

Sales are also being helped by the fact that mortgage rates have been seeing some minute drops as of late, with buyer and builder confidence both being bolstered by the fact that expectations are beginning to build that the Federal Reserve may no longer be raising interest rates to combat inflation going forward. 

In the middle of this week, the interest rate on the average 30-year fixed-rate home mortgage loan dropped to 7.4 percent; while this does provide some degree of relief considering that rate had risen above 8 percent in the middle of October, it’s still the highest it’s been in over 20 years.  

Still, experts are predicting that interest rates will continue to drop and may reach as low as 6 percent by spring; this will represent a vast improvement, despite the fact that rates will still be twice as high as they were in 2021 when mortgage interest rates were at record-breaking lows. 

It is anticipated that if interest rates do indeed reach 6 percent, home sales will surge even more in 2024, both in Las Vegas and nationwide. 

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 – Realtors in Las Vegas have noted that sales of high-rise condominiums have gone through numerous ups and downs since the mid-2000’s recession. However, the latest surge in the market has been driven by something taking many by surprise: the phenomenon known as sports tourism, with the latest example being driven by an intense and unprecedented level of demand for high-rise apartments along the Las Vegas Strip due to the ongoing Vegas Grand Prix Formula 1 race. 

Heidi Williams, a Las Vegas realtor specializing in selling high-rise condos out of The Signature at MGM Grand, said that prices for luxury units at the complex “have increased anywhere from 30 percent to 50 percent depending on the type of unit” due to the Las Vegas F1, which runs along the Strip this week. 

I don’t think a lot of people understood how much money there was in F1 and how much money there is in the sport, in the backing (of fans),” Williams said. “I think that people are very excited about F1, and I think a lot of these people just want to be a part of it.” 

The 30-floor Signature at MGM Grand boasts 1,750 suites and offers condos ranging from 520-square-foot properties listed for $320,000 to 1,394-square-foot properties priced as high as $800,000. 

Williams noted that she began seeing purchases at the property related to the F1 race starting approximately nine months ago, with approximately 25 to 30 percent of her clients indicating to her that their condo purchases were specifically due to wanting to be in proximity to the race. 

The F1, running from November 16-19, has been anticipated to draw as many as 170,000 people to Las Vegas. The racecourse runs at the Formula One Pit Building across the street from the Signature off Harmon. From there, it heads down Koval Lane, circles around the MSG Sphere and then goes on Sands Avenue before turning onto Las Vegas Boulevard for a mile; from there, the course turns onto Harmon Avenue and then finally back toward the Pit Building. 

That being said, it’s no wonder units are being snapped up at The Signature at MGM Grand, as the building offers unique views of the racecourse that aren’t available to most spectators. Williams noted that many of the condos being sold at the facility are being purchased by people who solely wish to use them each year just to view the F1 race; The Signature at MGM Grand has a policy that allows units to be rented out when they are not “owner occupied,” thus allowing tourists to purchase them to generate income during the remainder of the year they are not residing there. 

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 – A new report released by H&R Block reveals that more middle-class Americans are moving out of state in search of affordable lifestyles, and that Las Vegas, Nevada is among the top destinations for families and individuals looking to get more bang for their hard-earned buck. 

Cities in Arizona, Nevada, Florida, and Texas are the top places in the country budget conscious members of the middle-class are moving to, according to 2022 tax data utilized by H&R block for their report. And the number two city on that list is Las Vegas, with the tax preparation company noting it is an up-and-coming destination for those seeking to relocate to a region in the country where taxes are lower and homes are more affordable. 

Andrew Arevalo, a real estate agent who is licensed in both Nevada and Colorado, said that in recent years Las Vegas has been stealing the thunder from other parts of the country that had previously been considered financially friendly to the middle-class. 

It’s weird to say this out loud, but I feel like Vegas is the new Colorado,” Arevalo said. “It has shifted from Denver getting a lot of people from out of town to Vegas. It has now officially taken over.” 

According to metrics from H&R block, the American middle-class is made up of those with an adjusted median household income ranging between $45,000 and $145,000 a year. The company based this on guidelines provided by the Pew Research Center as well as anonymously collected data from those who had filed taxes with them within that income bracket in 2022, coming in at 4.6 million people. 

Arevalo noted that – according to the Multiple Listing Service – there are presently over 13,000 homes listed in Clark County, which is where Las Vegas is situated; a number of properties on the market is currently assisting in keeping it affordable, with the median sales price of a Las Vegas home in September being $410,000, according to residential real estate brokerage and mortgage origination services company Redfin. 

In contrast, Arevalo noted that in Denver the median sales price of a home is $568,500, with currently only 4,700 homes available on the market. It is this reason, he said, that the cash-strapped middle-class are now passing over Denver and are instead heading to Vegas. 

At the end of the day, all they really care about is their bottom dollar in their pocket,” he said. 

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 – According to a new report, the prices of homes in the Las Vegas valley experienced a small increase during the month of October – which is usually the opposite of established norms during the fall season – while both sales and the number of listings currently on the market slowed slightly. 

As per industry group Las Vegas Realtors, in October the median price of an existing single-family home that was sold in Southern Nevada was $449,000, representing a 2.6 percent increase from September and an 18.3 percent increase year-over-year.  

One of the main factors that experts cite for the rise in home prices during what is normally considered an off season can be attributed to the lower number of listings currently available in the Valley, which is pushing the average list price for a home up. 

The number of available home listings last month was down 38 percent when compared to October 2022 and down 0.9 percent from September 2023, as per the Multiple Listings Service.  In addition, the number of homes sold in October also decreased from September by 6.7 percent and 1.5 percent year-over-year.  

All told, $922 million in homes traded hands in the Las Vegas Valley last month. 

Due to these and other issues currently impacting the industry – including record high inflation and increased interest rates instituted by the Federal Reserve to get that financial malady under control – Las Vegas Realtors President Lee Barrett noted that the real estate scene in Southern Nevada is going to be experiencing a few tough months. 

The historically tight housing supply we’ve been dealing with this year, along with the cyclical patterns we see almost every year around this time, seem to be propping up prices,” Barrett said. “We usually see home prices and sales cool down a bit along with the weather as we head into the fall and winter. We’ll see how these traditional trends play out this year. Higher interest rates and a smaller housing supply are playing a bigger role than in past years.” 

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 – During a presentation last week to the Las Vegas Stadium Authority by Mortenson-McCarthy, the construction manager of the Oakland Athletics, revealed that work is slated to begin on the Major League Baseball team’s upcoming Las Vegas ballpark in April 2025 for an anticipated completion date of April 2028 – just in time for that year’s regular season. 

The presentation laid out the entire timeline for the project, including plans to incorporate a variety of local vendors throughout the ballpark’s construction, with 15 percent of the work expected to be carried out by local and minority-owned businesses. Mortenson-McCarthy also noted that they intend to employ a diverse workforce, stating that 51 percent of the total construction hours for the project will utilize a combination of female, minority, veteran, and disabled workers. 

It was also revealed at the presentation that law firms have been retained by the A’s to draw up both a stadium lease as well as a community benefits agreement, covering a financial commitment from the A’s to the local Las Vegas community in addition to promises of paying livable wages to ballpark employees, diversity requirements, educational programs, community engagement, and more. 

The new home of the Athletics’ will be on a nine-acre plot of land situated on the 35-acre site of the Tropicana, located at Las Vegas Boulevard and Tropicana Avenue. Currently, the plan is to demolish the Tropicana to make way for the A’s stadium and to build a new 1,500-room hotel and casino on the remaining acreage. 

The A’s home stadium – the project is expected to cost a total of $1.5 billion – is slated to take the form of a 35,000-seat retractable roof stadium, with the project currently pending the passing of state legislation for public financing. Once the monies are obtained, full development of the ballpark will be in the hands of Bally’s. 

The A’s relocation from Oakland to Las Vegas still needs to be approved by MLB team owners, who are expected to vote on the matter next month. 

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 – Remote work, which came to prominence during COVID-19, has remained a work model that is quite popular amongst many individuals even now that the pandemic is officially over, leading to a nationwide decline in the demand for office space; indeed, many metro areas are still reporting high degrees of vacancy and experts expect a hybrid work model to remain the norm for the foreseeable future. 

However, Las Vegas is one of the few major metropolitan areas in the United States that is bucking this trend, with reports indicating that demand for office space in the city continues to remain strong in direct contrast to most other regions in the country. 

Marc Magliarditi, a first vice president at the commercial real estate firm CBRE, notes that while office vacancy is still slightly off from pre-pandemic numbers, the rates of office occupancy in Las Vegas didn’t come close to experiencing the same negative impact that the pandemic had upon other cities, and that demand has been steadily increasing more and more each day. 

Magliarditi contributes that continued growth to numerous factors that are unique to Vegas, such as several professional sports teams recently taking up residence in Southern Nevada; an increasing population; a robust and ever-growing economy; and its greater number of suburban residents when compared to other cities 

We’ve been fortunate here in Las Vegas,” he said. “That demand has been pretty steady, and I would even say strong, post-pandemic.” 

Las Vegas’ business-friendly taxes has also been a draw in terms of filling office space, with numerous companies relocating from California and other parts of the country to do business in the Valley, and the one thing that these companies all have in common – in addition to wanting to save money, that is – is that they all need commercial space to reside in. 

In addition, these companies are investing in new and improved office space in an effort to entice and retain new employees in a post-pandemic work market, currently making Las Vegas office space some of the most sought-after real estate in the country. 

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 real estate sales figures for Las Vegas in the month of September are in, and the median sales price of an existing single-family home in Southern Nevada was $450,000, which is the exact same price it was one year ago in September of 2022. 

The coincidences don’t stop there; the median sales price for condominiums and townhouses in Las Vegas was $270,000 in September, which is once again the same exact price year-over-year. 

These prices were reported by Las Vegas Realtors, and according to the group’s president, Lee Barrett, it’s an example of a degree of stability in the current local housing market that he envisions continuing for the foreseeable future. 

We should probably get used to the current housing market since it’s not likely to change much anytime soon,” he said in a statement. 

Bartlett noted that since March 2022, the Federal Reserve has increased interest rates 11 times in an effort to curb skyrocketing inflation; however, those rate increases have not had much effect upon the Las Vegas real estate market, he said. 

Hopefully, some of our national experts are right in predicting that interest rates could begin to come down a bit sometime next year,” Bartlett said. “Even at current rates and with our very tight housing supply, owning a home here in Southern Nevada is a better deal than renting for most people, especially when you consider that homeownership is still one of the best ways to build wealth and financial stability over time.” 

Las Vegas Realtors reports that available housing options are not remaining on the open Las Vegas market for any significant amount of time, with 85.7 percent of homes and 86.3 percent of condos and townhouses that were sold in September only having been available on the open market for a period of time spanning 60 days or less. 

At the end of September, there were 4,066 homes available on the market without any offers, which represents a 49.9 percent decrease year-over-year; as for condos and townhouses, 1,035 were available at the end of the month without offers. 

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 – With the housing market – both in Las Vegas and nationwide – breeding affordability concerns and pricing many out of the market altogether, buyers have been turning to more affordable options such as townhomes and condominiums. Southern Nevada developers, in turn, have sat up and taken notice, with more of them focusing on building these dwellings in order to produce denser developments and larger returns on their respective investments.

In May 2023, 29.1% of new home sales consisted primarily of townhomes and other such attached products, and this newfound attention from buyers on these housing options are not showing any sign of slowing its current momentum.

Skyrocketing interest rates on home mortgage loans have been the primary factor driving this increased interest in townhomes and condos, as single-family houses are currently outside of many people’s price range. Density in the form of two-story condominium projects are now starting to become a greater emphasis for many developers in the Las Vegas area.

In the first half of 2023, closings for new homes were down 12% year-over-year, with 4,106 single family homes closed on during that span of time. In contrast, 1,237 attached homes were closed on during that same time period, which represents a 6% increase from the first six months of 2022.

Of the new homes sold during the first six months of 2023, 23% of them were attached, including 29.1% in May and 25 percent in June. According to Touchstone Living’s Tom McCormick – one of the main townhome developers in the region – the number of townhomes and condominiums being sold in Las Vegas are on their way to reaching an all-time record high if these trends continue.

I’ve been here since the 1990s, and we’ve never seen it this high.” he said. “It’s about affordability and lifestyle. Land is so expensive and driving housing unaffordability, but with town homes, you can put more homes on the same amount of land. That makes the land cost per home lower and leads to a lower sales price.”

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 – Sales of luxury homes in Las Vegas have now reached their highest level ever with a record-setting number of homes priced at $1 million or higher exchanging hands between January and June of this year, and the milestone is being associated with numerous factors, including increasing prices and escalating demand. 

During the first six months of 2023, 267 luxury homes costing $1 million and above were sold, besting the previous all time record of 237 homes sold in the first half of 2022, as per Home Builders Research; the report covered the sale of production homes only, and does not include instances where homeowners have purchased empty property and have utilized it to construct multi-million dollar custom homes upon it. 

Experts in real estate have noted that demand for luxury abodes in Las Vegas has been skyrocketing as of late due to very tight inventory and the fact that many standard homes do not have the opulent trappings and high-end amenities that affluent home buyers are typically looking for. 

In addition, the luxury market in Las Vegas has been performing better when compared to the middle-class housing sector since buyers in that price range typically possess a degree of wealth that current high interest rates on home mortgages are not a deterrent to making a purchase now. In contrast, many average-level income buyers are waiting in hopes that rates will come down at some point. 

Yet another contributing factor for the increase in $1 million and above sales in Las Vegas is the increasing costs associated with construction, which in turn has resulted in more new luxury homes being valued at that threshold than in previous years. 

Vegas has seen luxury sales increase year over year on a regular basis; the only year to buck that trend was 2020, when the COVID-19 pandemic put a temporary roadblock on home sales in the second quarter of the year.  

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 prices of homes in Las Vegas during the month of August remained stable but in contrast, the prices condominiums and townhomes fetched during that span of time reached an all-time record high according to new report released by Las Vegas Realtors on Wednesday. 

The median price for an existing single-family home sold in Las Vegas in August was $447,435, which is only a very slight decrease from the $450,000 that represented the median price in July; year-over-year, August’s prices were down only 0.6 percent, showing that the real estate market in Southern Nevada has achieved a degree of stability after several years of ever-climbing prices. 

However, the market for condos and townhomes showed no such restraint in August, with the medium price hitting an all-time high of $287,000; this represents an 8.3 percent increase year-over-year and bests the previous record set in May 2022, when that price was $285,000. 

Inventory in the housing market and several spikes in home mortgage rates are still leaving a lasting effect upon the market, according to Las Vegas Realtors President Lee Barrett. 

Homes prices haven’t changed much lately. As for the record price for condos and townhomes, I attribute that to the demand for lower-priced housing options exceeding our supply,” he said. “Mortgage rates are obviously a factor. But as we’ve been saying all year, the biggest challenge we face in the local housing market is a very tight housing supply.” 

There were 3,881 single family homes listed for sale without any offers at the end of August, which is a decrease of 50 percent year-over-year; Condos and townhomes saw similar numbers, with 978 units listed for sale without offers, a decrease of 46 percent from the same period of time one year prior. 

2,649 existing homes, townhomes, and condos were sold last month, up 0.3 percent for homes and 4.7 percent for condos and townhomes when compared to August 2021. 

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.