Category Archive : Market Updates

LAS VEGAS, NV – While Las Vegas has always been a hotbed of real estate activity, a new report indicates the city currently boasts the highest levels of growth in terms of new home listings out of the entire nation.

According to residential real estate brokerage and mortgage origination services company Redfin, in August of 2024, the number of new home listings in Sin City jumped an impressive 12.8 percent year-over-year, which represents the biggest increase out of any metro area in the United States.

However, Redfin did not note the overall number of listings that this encompassed, just the percentage of the increase from one year to the next.

The growth of new listings in Vegas beat out competing cities such as San Diego, California, which saw an 11.7 percent increase, and Sacramento, California, with an 9.5 increase.

In contrast, Atlanta, Georgia, saw its number of new home listings decrease the most nationally, with a whopping drop of 19.4 percent year-over-year.

As for what is driving the large increase of new home listings in Las Vegas, experts point to numerous factors influencing the real estate market, such as a growing number of residential transplants from neighboring California – most likely escaping high living costs and heavy tax burdens – as well as lowering interest rates on home mortgages following the Federal Reserve’s recent rate cuts.

The continued upward trajectory of Vegas’ real estate industry is also being driven by the arrival of new professional sports teams – such as the Raiders NFL team – as well as significant investments on the part of Hollywood bigwigs such as Sony, which is establishing a new studio in Summerlin.

“Everyone is coming here,” Perry said. “I’ve had a lot of cash buyers come in, and a lot of Californians are coming because prices are so high they can sell their property and pay cash here and have a big nest egg because everything in Las Vegas is cheaper.”

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 – Las Vegas is one of the most popular tourist destinations in the world, and when those visitors come to Sin City, they obviously need places to stay. And while the city’s hotels are bustling, investors have been hedging their bets on the popular short-term rental industry in recent years, buying up properties to rent out via platforms such as Airbnb and Vrbo.

At current count, there are approximately 10,000 short-term rentals operating in Las Vegas; however, according to a new report, the majority of them are doing so without a license, and are thus considered illegal by Clark County officials.

Landlords operating unlicensed short-term rentals can face serious penalties, with recent examples including hosts incurring fines as high as $180,000 to $240,000. But the majority of these property owners would prefer to be running their rentals legally and on the up-and-up, and blame the extraordinarily sluggish licensing approval process on the part of Clark County for essentially forcing them to skirt the law.

Clark County’s pre-application process opened in 2022, with the deadline for submission having been August 2023. Since then, however, a meager 64 applications have been approved out of the 831 submitted, leaving a looming backlog of over 600 individuals waiting to be able to legally rent out their properties.

According to a statement that Clark County officials issued to the media, the approval process has become ensnared in unforeseen red tape caused by the type of lottery process they employed, and they are attempting to rectify those issues as quickly as possible.

The issuance or denial of a license or a withdrawal of an application will impact other applicants with a higher RNG number on the priority list,” officials said. “Also, the appeal of a denial also requires a hearing process, which requires additional time and delays the process. Additionally, there are factors that impact the timeliness of this process, such as applicants submitting fees timely and getting their inspections scheduled.”

But regardless of the reasons for the delays, Greater Las Vegas Short-Term Rental Association founder Jackie Flores said that every day the property owners she advocates for are forced to wait, is yet another day they are unable to support their families.

A lot of people think people do short-term renting just to get rich, and that is not usually the case,” she said. “The average individuals are senior citizens with a fixed income that are doing it to supplement their income, there are families that have bills to pay and need to make that extra money.”

LAS VEGAS, NV – Today, many are turning to the short-term rental field in order to either make a living or simply get a few bucks via a side hustle, and often these individuals are managing properties via short-term rental platforms such as Airbnb and Vrbo that they own at locations outside of the state in which they reside.

Obviously, this can cause some logistical issues, especially when it comes to monitoring the properties they are renting out; this is especially true when hosts want to ensure that their guests are not holding unruly parties in their residences, potentially causing damage and drawing the ire of local neighbors and authorities.

That being said, many short-term rental owners are now turning to technology to remotely “party proof” their properties as a means of protecting their investments; this article will give a brief breakdown of some effective systems for your consideration.

Often short-term rentals are located in residential neighborhoods, and with that being the case it’s important to remain on good terms with the local community. Because of that, you may want to put safeguards in place to ensure that your guests are not disturbing surrounding houses with loud music or partying late into the night. One way of doing so without invading your guest’s privacy is by installing a Minut noise monitor, which alerts you only if the noise exceeds a specified level, allowing you to immediately contact guests and get ahead of any potential complaints from neighbors.

A Ring doorbell camera is also an effective way to remotely monitor your property to ensure that a steady stream of rambunctious party guests aren’t filing in and out of your property at all hours of the night. Such a system can also provide valuable evidence in the event you need to file a claim with Airbnb or Vrbo over damages caused by party guests.

In addition, some guests can incur excessive utility bills if left unchecked, especially when partying; a Nest smart thermostat can effectively prevent that, allowing you to remotely control the temperature in your property, setting it on a schedule that still allows guests to adjust it within a predetermined range. Likewise, you can also control pool and hot tub temperatures via the Pentair app, but unlike the Nest thermostats, guests have no manual control and must contact the host for adjustments.

And finally, hosts can ensure they are properly regulating their rental pricing structure using revenue management platforms such as Beyond, which utilizes up-to-date algorithms to optimize nightly rates on all their vacation rental platforms, ensuring they are charging appropriate rates around busy holiday times to maximize profit.

Short-term rentals can be a significant source of revenue, but they can also be a significant headache if you’re not properly prepared. But utilizing some of these apps and systems can go a long way to streamlining the process of remote property management, allowing you to enjoy the extra income your rental is providing to you.

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 – T.B. Penick & Sons, the general contractor of Las Vegas’ first “all-for-rent” apartment complex celebrated a significant construction milestone this month, officially topping off the building – which is when the last beam is placed atop a structure – in anticipation of its planned opening in summer of 2025.

Dubbed “Capella” and located in the Las Vegas neighborhood of Symphony Park, the facility will be the first in the city where tenants will have all-inclusive rent agreements, also known as “all-for-rent” or “rent with utilities included.”

According to developer Southern Land Co., Capella will feature 272 apartments – comprised of one and two-bedroom units and penthouses – spread out over 22 stories, with impressive views of the famed Las Vegas Strip, the downtown area, and the mountain ranges surrounding the city.

The apartments will boast numerous amenities, such as kitchen islands that are movable, high-end finishings, and the latest in smart home technology. The bottom floor of the building will also offer 16,250 square feet of commercial space, including retail and restaurant options.

Southern Land Co. is developing Bria, which is Capella’s 275-unit near-duplicate counterpart, with both projects slated to open next summer. Once opened, they will join Auric, another apartment complex that Southern Land Co. opened in Symphony Park in 2021.

Both Capella and Bria will have fancy perks for residents, such as a lounge, state-of-the-art fitness center, yoga studio, dog run, co-working space, concierge services, resort-style swimming pool and hot tub, as well as a pool lounge with outdoor bar, grills, televisions, and jumbotron.

Southern Land Co. founder and CEO Tim Downey said that the dual projects will prove to be a boon to the residents of the artsy Las Vegas neighborhood.

“The introduction of Bria and Capella furthers our vision of making Symphony Park a premier urban neighborhood that blends luxury living with arts and culture – and the topping off of Capella signifies that we are one step closer to realizing our vision,” 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 – A new report released this week by Hotel News Resource (HNR) has placed Las Vegas, Nevada among the very top cities in the United States when it comes to the highest return on short-erm rental investments.

The U.S. has become one of the most sought-after vacation destinations in the world in recent years, and the growth of the short-term rental market can attest to that fact, having increased a whopping 53 percent between June 2022 and June 2024, HNR says.

HNR examined each of the 25 cities in their report based on numerous metrics, including both the possible income derived from rentals and how much it typically costs to purchase properties to, in turn, rent out. They selected only cities with a significant number of properties – in this case, 10,000 or above – potentially available for investment.

But while any investment comes with the risk of loss, HNR’s study narrowed down the top 25 cities where investors saw the highest Revenue Per Available Rental (RevPAR) levels, with Las Vegas coming in with an impressive showing at number 15 overall.

RevPAR is the revenue generated by a property, given its average degree of availability in a given period of time; for example, if you are renting a house out on a short-term basis and a tenant occupies it for half of a month for a price of $200, the RevPAR would be $100.

Ultimately, RevPAR is the most important metric when it comes to determining the return on investment (ROI) potential of any property or market, experts say, and Las Vegas has performed strongly in that regard for many years now; its RevPAR ranking in the HNR report – again, where it placed 15 out of 25 overall – was $149.81.

Seaside cities performed the strongest in HNR’s report, with Lahaina, Hawaii coming in first with a RevPAR of $419.15, whereas Sarasota, Florida ranked last at 25th with $129.69.

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 – Ground was broken last Friday on a unique and pioneering affordable living apartment complex in downtown Las Vegas that caters exclusively to the needs of blind and visually impaired residents.

Dubbed “Visions Park,” the $30 million project will be located next door to the Blind Center of Nevada campus at 950 Visions Park Lane, and will feature numerous amenities to help sight-challenged tenants retain some degree of independence, including flooring that makes different kinds of noises when you walk on it in order to help blind individuals navigate, as well as special types of lighting to assist those who are visually impaired.

In order to bring this project to life, the cities of Las Vegas, Henderson, North Las Vegas, Clark County, and even the state of Nevada have pooled their collective resources in order to create an apartment complex that is accessible to those who rely on the resources of the Blind Center of Nevada.

In addition, the project will aid in reducing travel time and costs getting to and from the Blind Center, as currently some – such as Havander Davis, a visually impaired man who has attended the campus since he was a child – report a commute of anywhere from one to two hours every day.

This is something that blind people or even people with disabilities need, moving into a place that is already going to be accessible is going to be amazing,” Davis said.

Henderson City Councilwoman Carrie Cox, who helped make the project a reality, said that the challenges of visual impairment have affected members of her own family, making this cause a deeply personal one.

It takes a toll. I’ve had a personal experience with my own mother and seeing her sight fail her towards the end of her life,” Cox said, noting that her mother’s situation improved when she began attending the Blind Center. “And to know the difference that that made for her, there was really not a lot of options. So, this is amazing to me that the Blind Center has taken this leap to bring us all together and to make something happen for those that are visually impaired.”

Visions Park is slated to open in the beginning of 2026; there are already 300 people on the waiting list.

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 per a newly-released report by a construction industry analytics firm, Millennials are slowly being priced out of the Las Vegas housing market, with the group being ranked as one of the lowest in terms of home buying not only in Southern Nevada, but nationwide as well.

Construction Coverage notes that out of the 55 largest metropolitan area they examined, Millennials – defined as the generation born between 1981 and 1996 – were responsible for buying just 48.4 percent of the single-family homes in Las Vegas in 2023. Tucson, Arizona was the only city ranking lower than Vegas in this regard at 45.2 percent, while San Jose, California was the city with the highest percentage of Millennials home-buyers at 73.2 percent.

According to the author of Construction Coverage’s report, Jonathan Jones – a senior researcher for the firm – Millennials residing in the Las Vegas Valley were taking out mortgages in 2023 with the highest loan-to-value ratios of any age group. In addition, given the fact that an individual’s average peak earning and home-buying years are their mid-30s – the current age of the average Millennial – they are not purchasing residences at nearly the same level when compared to other demographics.

Recently, the cost of homeownership has skyrocketed in large part due to an adverse combination of high interest rates and scarce inventory, leaving millennials with a daunting homeownership outlook,” Jones said.

The median loan amount for Millennials purchasing a home in the Las Vegas Valley in 2023 was $385,000; those loans had an 86.2 percent median loan-to-value ratio, which is higher than for younger demographics. When looking at the overall rankings state-by-state, Nevada had the fifth-lowest Millennial home buying rate at 48.1 percent – Delaware was the lowest at 40.6 percent – whereas Massachusetts had the most at 64.2 percent.

Despite this, and an overall decline in home buying across the country, millennials still accounted for the majority of the nation’s home purchase loans in 2023 (56.9 percent),” Jones said. “However, rates vary by location. Researchers ranked metros by the millennial share of conventional home purchase loans originated in 2023.”

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 a number of borrowing rate increases over the past several years instituted in an attempt to combat skyrocketing inflation and prevent a potential national recession, the Federal Reserve is finally expected to implement their first rate cut in four years on Wednesday, with experts anticipating that the move will begin to lower the historically-high interest on mortgage loans.

Other decreases due to Wednesday’s expected cut are to be seen with auto loans, credit cards – the nation debt for which recently hit $1.1 trillion, the highest level in U.S. history – and business loans.

The rate cut, which is anticipated to be by either a quarter point or half percentage point – and more cuts are currently in the pipeline – should make it easier for individuals and families who have been holding off on buying a home due to high borrowing costs to finally land a mortgage that they can afford. The last time the Fed instituted a cut – way back in 2020 – interest rates were at 5.25 to 5.5 percent, which at the time was the highest point they had reached in 23 years.

In contrast, over the past four years interest rates for mortgages peaked at a whopping 7.8 percent in October 2023; as of September 2024, rates have dropped to approximately 6.2 percent.

Experts say that, with the news of the Fed’s anticipated rate cut announcement on Wednesday, now is a good time for people to begin taking a close look at their financial situation, as some interest rates will decrease automatically, creating some measure of relief for cash-strapped citizens.

While the federal funds rate does not directly set mortgage rates, experts note that the two tend to go hand-in-hand and as continued cuts come to pass, borrowing rates should continue to fall. As that occurs, consumers are encouraged to consider refinancing existing home mortgages and those shopping for a home should step up their efforts amid the lowered borrowing costs.

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 – For decades, the resort industry has dominated the Las Vegas economy, with glitzy and glamorous hotels providing convenient opportunities for visitors and tourists to enjoy the many casinos and entertainment options lining the famed Las Vegas Strip and its surrounding areas. However, the advent of short-term rentals – via services such as Airbnb and Vrbo – have had an impact on the Vegas resort industry, but has it been a positive or negative one?

According to University of Nevada, Las Vegas College of Hospitality professor Amanda Belarmino, the relationship between the resort and short-term rental industries in Vegas is far from adversarial; in fact, she noted, the two actually compliment each other quite well, as they each attract very different customer bases.

“(Short-term rentals) serve underserved markets. Families are not well served by traditional hotels or by traditional hotel casinos in Las Vegas,” she said. “Many of [them] are people that are relocating here. That’s not a person that you necessarily want in a casino hotel because they’re trying to go to work and not going to be gambling, or eating every meal at your restaurant.”

In addition, Belarmino said that the Vegas economy strongly benefits from having short-term rentals operating within its borders, and while they typically are more expensive than a hotel stay, they normally more than make up for it in terms of privacy, accessibility, and the number of amenities on offer.

But if there is any one disadvantage that comes with short-term rentals, Belarmino said, it’s the high number of investors who are getting in on the action who are serving to drive up the prices of homes in the Southern Nevada region.

I think the bigger impact we see is the perceived impact on housing prices, because investors are purchasing the homes instead,” she said. “But we see that in every market that Airbnb goes into.”

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 cost of rent continues to be a hot button topic in Southern Nevada, with the dough tenants are handing over to their landlords each and every month increasing in some parts of the Las Vegas Valley while decreasing in others. But for renters looking to save a few bucks and find a slightly more affordable place to call home, a new study by digital marketplace Zumper sheds some light on where in Vegas they should be looking.

Out of the 100 cities in the nation that Zumper examined as a part of their report, Las Vegas came in at the 67th most expensive in terms of rent, solidifying its status as one of the more affordable places in the United States to live these days. In August, the median price of a one-bedroom apartment in Vegas was $1,210, a 0.8 percent month-over-month increase; in addition, the median price of a two-bedroom apartment in August was $1,500, remaining the same exact cost as the month before.

The Zumper report examined several areas in the Valley with very heavy rental activity – Henderson, Spring Valley, Winchester, Paradise, and the City of Las Vegas – with Paradise having the most expensive one-bedroom median rent at $1,640, followed by Henderson at $1,460, Winchester with 1,220 and the City of Las Vegas at $1,210.

In addition to having the highest median rent, Paradise also had the largest year-over-year rent increase at 9.3 percent, followed by Spring Valley with 7.5 percent. However, some other areas in the Valley examined in the report saw decreases in rent when compared to last year, with Winchester going down 10.9 percent and the City of Las Vegas dropping 3.2 percent.

In addition, the median rent in the City of Las Vegas is approximately $300 lower than the national average, according to the Zumper report.

In contrast, New York has the dubious distinction of having the highest rental prices in the entire United States, with the median price for a one-bedroom apartment in Manhattan coming in at a whopping $4,500.

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 new history data released by industry group Las Vegas Realtors (LVR) illustrating how inflation has made home ownership more costly in recent years, in 1997 the median price of an existing single-family home in Southern Nevada was $124,000, which would be the equivalent of $246,829 in today’s current market.

However, clearly showing how times have changed, the actual median price of a single-family home in Las Vegas as of July 2024 was, in reality, $480,000, which represents a 6.7 percent jump from July 2023, when that amount was $450,000.

July 2024’s median home price also shows that home values in the Las Vegas Valley are slowly but surely creeping back up to potentially meet – and perhaps even exceed – the all-time record of $482,000, which was originally set in May 2022.

Other tidbits from the data released by LVR provide additional insight into how home values have appreciated with greater and greater speed in Southern Nevada over the years- the median price in July 2000 was $140,000, but by April 2004, it had increased to $252,500.

And despite the Great Recession in the mid-2000s essentially knocking home prices in Vegas back to levels not seen since before 2001, LVR’s historical data indicates that, since 2000, home prices in the region overall have more than tripled.

One of the main factors contributing to the rapidly rising value of homes in Vegas is the fact that there is a limit currently to how much public land there is for developers to construct upon.

In fact, research firm Applied Analysis notes that in as soon as eight years, the valley could exhaust its supply unless the Bureau of Land Management – a federal agency that controls much of the land in Nevada – speeds up the process of releasing more land for housing development, a process that they have been heavily criticized for due to their lack of urgency in doing so thus far.

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 presidential campaign of Kamala Harris released an ad this week detailing her plan to address the housing shortage and lower home costs in the United States, should she be successful in her bid to be elected to the White House in November.

The advertisement – targeting residents in swing states including Nevada, where the median home price as of July was $480,000 – first details the struggle of the family of the Democratic nominee for president to save and purchase their first home when she was a child.

From there, the advertisement then proceeds to recap the plan that Harris revealed last week in North Carolina that calls for a $40 billion housing initiative fund for local municipalities throughout the country, the construction of three million new homes, and tax incentives for residential developers that target first-time homebuyers.

In addition, Harris’ plan also aims to provide “first-generation” homebuyers – defied as “any individual whose parents or guardians never owned a home during the homebuyer’s lifetime and whose spouse has not owned a home in the last three years” – with down payment assistance in the amount of $25,000, as well as a $10,000 tax credit for first-time buyers.

The Research Director of the University of Nevada, Las Vegas’ Lied Center for Real Estate, Nicholas Irwin, noted that Harris’ proposal, if implemented properly, could be effective in addressing the housing crisis that the state is currently experiencing, which currently has the sixth-lowest homeownership rate and 11th-highest median rent in the country.

I’m a big, big proponent, like most people in the real estate space, of building more housing as best we can,” he said, while pointing out the fact that about 80 percent of the land in Nevada is federally-owned. “We don’t have the option to just go build. Federal agencies are not disposing of [it’s land] perhaps as quickly as we would like, especially when it comes to addressing our affordable housing needs.”

However, the Executive Director of the Nevada Housing Coalition, Maurice Page – while also acknowledging the potential in Harris’ plan – expressed worry that it could ultimately inflate housing costs down the line.

These will definitely create some amount of inflationary pressure, because you’re putting more money in a certain group’s hands, the first-time homeowners,” he said. “But if you pair a demand-side policy like that with supply-side, getting more houses online, hopefully it will dampen that effect.”

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.