Category Archive : Market Updates

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.

LAS VEGAS, NV – Low inventory and high demand of apartment units in the Las Vegas Valley are causing rents to skyrocket to near record-breaking levels, a sign of Nevada’s economic recovery as COVID-19 ebbs into its final days. However, the continuing increases in rent in Clark County has come with a downside as well; hardship for some vulnerable local area residents who may have already been having difficulty keeping up with their payments due to the pandemic.

Rents in Las Vegas, while still well below the national average – as of June 2021, the average rent in the Las Vegas Valley was $1,591, whereas the national average is $1,799 – are nonetheless currently increasing at a faster rate than any other large U.S. metro area. Out of the top 50 U.S. metro areas, the speed of Vegas’ rent increases was at the top of the list, with a jump of 3.6 percent from May to June, which equates to approximately $55. Year-over-year from February 2020 to February 2021, Las Vegas rents have surged almost 20 percent, or $260.

Some Clark County tenants are reporting that they’re seeing their monthly rent jumping by as much as $200 or $300. For some – especially many seniors who are on fixed incomes – sudden increases this large can cause financial struggle and force people to cut difficult corners to get by.

Demand is seen as the main driving force behind the rent acceleration; with the pandemic dying down, businesses are hiring again, people are getting jobs, and new college graduates are entering the workforce heading out on their own for the first time. Rents are reportedly growing quickly throughout the country, but again, currently Vegas lays claim to the fastest rates of them all.

And experts are predicting this trend will continue as the country opens up and the economy recovers, but developers in Las Vegas who are hard at work on building several new apartment complexes are expected to help stabilize rents as more units are made available to satisfy demand.

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 reports, Ascaya – a master-planned luxury community located in Henderson that was formed by blasting 15 million cubic yards out of a mountain range – has seen sales on-pace to double their number this year when compared to 2020, a year when sales profits were already at a level that were three times higher than they were throughout the previous three years.

Among the recent new buyers of land in Ascaya is Mark Davis, owner of the Las Vegas Raiders NFL team, who purchased a 6-acre plot to construct his custom home featuring views of Allegiant Stadium, his team’s home base.

And according to the developer, the number one draw of Ascaya is the community’s breathtaking views of the surrounding region; in addition, it also features a $25 million clubhouse and a two-acre park currently in the works.

The majority of sales in Ascaya have consisted of vacant lots upon which buyers have been building their own homes to their personal specifications; a small number of sales have been made up of speculative-built homes, reports say.

Currently, the developer of Ascaya – Henry Cheng, a Hong Kong billionaire and owner of NWS Holdings Ltd. – has closed over $38 million in sales in 2021 alone, with an additional $8 million in sales currently under contract. This is in stark contrast to the dismal rate of sales when the community essentially “stalled” due to the housing crash of the mid-2000’s, or even when it re-opened in 2014.

However, with the recent recovery of the Southern Nevada economy and housing market, Ascaya has attracted a new breed of upscale clientele who were attracted by low mortgage rates and the greater bang for their buck Las Vegas afforded them. With that being the case, Ascaya has seen its growth explode over the past year or so.

Ascaya currently features over 300 homesites, and homes that are constructed there are mandated to be of at least 4,500 square-feet in size, according to the developer. Currently, 26 new homes have been built, 18 are currently being constructed, and 21 are in the planning stages.

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 house selling boom that’s taken the nation – and particularly Las Vegas – in its iron grip since the COVID-19 pandemic has begun easing off has finally begun to show some early signs of stabilizing and cooling down, despite the fact that many new homes introduced to the market are still being snatched up at an incredibly quick pace, reports say.

In Southern Nevada, sales of homes have started to drop ever so slightly over the course of the past few months and the number of available homes on the market has started to build; however, this doesn’t mean that the Las Vegas real estate scene has hit a plateau at all, since the houses that are being sold are still being gobbled up lightning fast.

Reports indicate that approximately 87 percent of previously owned single-family homes that were sold in the month of May had only been listed on the open market for 30 days or less; this represents a significant increase from the sales figures from January, when that number was at 64 percent.

Las Vegas’ real estate market has continued to grow over the past few months, as shown by fast sales and quickly escalating prices, spurred on by low mortgage rates that allow buyers to get more for their money. Regardless, the competition has been fierce, to the point that simply offering the initial asking price on a home is no longer a viable option; typically, the successful buys as of late have paid more.

However, experts are having trouble predicting where Las Vegas’ housing market will ultimately end up as the pandemic slowly comes to an end and the city’s tourism industry finally begins to heat up once again.

Despite the market showing signs of becoming more stable after skyrocketing for months, it nonetheless is still breaking records; the median sale price of a single-family home in May broke the all-time record at $385,000, and the overall inventory of available houses – despite increasing recently – is still low, with the end of May seeing only 2,031 homes for sale without offers.

So while there are a slightly smaller amount of people buying homes at the moment, those that are doing so are still grabbing them at a frantic rate.

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 – In a real estate marketplace such as Las Vegas that is regularly setting records as of late, it takes a whopper of a deal to stand out; one such deal has just taken place, and it has broken the all-time record for the highest-priced home sale in Southern Nevada history, according to reports.

The sale of Vegas Modern 001 – a three-story, 15,000 square-foot home in Henderson’s MacDonald Highlands community – has earned its place in the record books, reportedly going for a staggering $25 million. The brand-new home, built by luxury developer Blue Heron of Southern Nevada, was purchased by LoanDepot Founder and Chairman Anthony Hsieh.

The property was originally listed for $28 million, which was also noted at the time for being the most expensive home listing in Las Vegas history.

Intended to be an ultra-sleek, high-tech showcase with a plethora of eye-opening amenities, Vegas Modern 001 features a great room with retractable walls, an office casita, seven fire features, water on three sides and views of both the Las Vegas Strip and the Red Rock Mountains, 200 solar panels, and a “smart home” system that allows users full control over the security system, sound system, and energy management.

The home has seven bedrooms – including a primary suite with a private patio and a separate suite accessed by a glass bridge – as well as nine bathrooms and a garage with room for up to 11 cars.

The home’s chef’s kitchen is also impressive, with Wolf and Sub-Zero touchscreen appliances, a full catering kitchen, and a glass wine cellar.

Prior to the sale of Vegas Modern 001, the highest record for a home sale in Las Vegas was when illusionist David Copperfield bought a 31,000- square-foot house in Summerlin in 2016 for $17.55 million.

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 of July 1, 2022, reports say, Clark County’s ban on short-term rentals comes to an end, as mandated by legislation passed by state lawmakers; from that point, all short-term rentals must be legalized and regulated, posing a difficult task for county officials. After all, despite the ban that is currently in-place, reports indicate that over 6,000 properties have been illegally renting regardless.

Assembly Bill 363 mandates that Clark County regulate its short-term rental industry, and with the end of the ban in sight, the possibility that these short-term rentals could start providing significant tax revenue is set to become very real. Rentals are incredibly popular in the Southern Nevada region, given that it is home to the famed Las Vegas Strip.

Assemblywoman Rochelle Nguyen, who sponsored Bill 363, noted that regulations need to be devised that will take into account the needs and concerns of both the residents who are renting their homes out for extra income, their neighbors who have often issued complaints regarding excessive noise and partying, as well as labor groups and local law enforcement.

One of the main reasons Nguyen said that she sponsored the bill – signed into law by Governor Steve Sisolak in early June – was because simply banning short-term rentals was not working at all, and lauded the potential tax revenue they could generate with proper oversight.

“I don’t think they work,” she said. “I think we are missing out on the potential revenue and it makes it difficult for our counties and cities to enforce what is being perpetrated in our communities with these investment properties.”

However, not everyone believes that the bill is perfect; neighbors of rentals who are furious with the noise have claimed that the bill is not strict enough in that regard, and on the opposite side, renters have complained that the new regulations limit them far too much. But the bill is not an end-all, be-all in terms of regulating the industry; it is meant to merely set the overall framework into which local municipalities can develop and implement their own regulations, which Clark County officials currently in the process of working out while maintaining the guidelines already set forth by the state.

Clark County officials have also expressed skepticism regarding their ability to enforce whatever mandates the bill establishes, given their own inability to enforce the county’s soon-to-end ban on short-term rentals. But the degree of flexibility that counties are afforded to create and enforce their own regulations may make that process easier for Clark officials, but at the same time may cause them to incur additional expenses setting up the infrastructure to do so.

Currently, the bill only applies to Clark County, Henderson, Las Vegas and North Las Vegas; all other counties and cities in Nevada are exempt.

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 only days remaining before it was slated to come to an end, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), under the direction of the Biden Administration, announced Thursday that they would be extending the national eviction memorandum for one more month – from June 30 to July 31 – to assist millions of tenants facing eviction due to nonpayment of rent during the COVID-19 pandemic, stating that “this is intended to be the final extension of the moratorium.”

The CDC first issued the eviction ban in September 2020 under former President Donald Trump, and it was originally supposed to last until the end of 2020. However, it has been extended three times; once in December 2020 by Congress, and twice more – in January and March 2021 – by the Biden Administration.

The remaining month, according to the Biden Administration, will be used to massively step up the distribution of nearly $47 billion in available emergency rental assistance funding; a process that, up until now, has been going far too slowly, reports say.

Currently, 6.4 million U.S. residents report being behind on their rent, and 3.2 million are facing eviction, many due to financial hardships incurred during the COVID-19 pandemic, according to a survey conducted by the U.S. Census Bureau.

However, the move to extend the moratorium at the last-minute was decried by landlords and property managers across the nation. Landlords – many being small mom-and-pop operations with limited means –  have been monetarily devastated for the last year by federal mandates that have compelled them to provide free room and board for their tenants, some of whom are financially viable but are actually taking advantage of the eviction ban and simply refusing to pay rent.

Some landlords have challenged the authority of the CDC eviction moratorium in court. Currently, there are at least six major lawsuits that are ongoing, with three judges ruling in favor of the eviction ban and three ruling against it; all six cases are currently in the appeals process.

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 MSG Sphere at the Venetian, the much talked-about high-tech Las Vegas event venue that is currently in the works, reached a major development milestone recently when the final 32 steel beams were bolted into place by the 650-strong construction crew, according to reports.

Madison Square Garden Entertainment (MSG) Corporation is the construction manager of the MSG Sphere, and handles “strategic planning and the construction timeline, as well as management of all subcontractors,” according to a press release put out by the company. The previous construction manager, an engineering firm called AECOM, remains in a supporting role.

Madison Square Garden Company Vice President of Construction Nick Tomasino noted that there will be two “topping out” ceremonies for the project, with the first representing the completion of the steel beam bolting and the second slated for 2022, when the venue’s “exosphere” will be added.

The exosphere will consist of 580,000 square feet of LED light panels that will be able to be seen from several miles in the distance, and will increase the height of the current MSG Sphere itself by approximately 30 percent.

When completed, the MSG Sphere will be a 400,000-square-foot, 18,000-seat, 360-foot-tall globe-shaped arena slated to be constructed on 63 acres of property located behind the Venetian Resort Hotel Casino on the Las Vegas Strip. The exterior of the sphere will feature 36 miles of variable intensity LED lighting – the aforementioned exosphere – enabling the structure to allow outside spectators to peer through a transparent façade to watch the concert within; at higher lighting intensities, outside vision will be obscured.

The venue will typically not feature sporting events, but rather cater to musical performances and concerts; however, the occasional boxing or MMA contest could be held there if needed. Originally slated to be opened in 2020, the project has fallen behind scheduling estimates and is now eying a 2023 opening date.

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 reports, the prices in the Las Vegas rental home marketplace continue to climb amid the recovering local post-COVID economy, and are now ranking among the fastest increasing in the United States.

May saw rental home prices soar as demand remains very high and supply still very low; those factors, combined with the rapidly-recovering Nevada economy, means that there’s people out there with money who want to rent properties, and prices are always set by demand.

The average rent of a Las Vegas home increased year-over-year in May a whopping 17.3 percent, with April showing an 11.3 rate gain over the year before as well, illustrating consistent month-to-month growth.

Las Vegas is now tied with Riverside, California for the second-fastest rising home rents, behind only Phoenix, Arizona, which experienced a rental rate increase of 17.7 percent in May.

Competition for what rental properties there are is fierce, and often realtors are noting that people are filling out multiple rental applications and are nonetheless having a difficult time actually closing a deal with landlords.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, the rental market in Las Vegas initially suffered, but as vaccine distribution has stepped up and more and more of the country has been inoculated, the recovering economy has fueled increased demand for rental housing. However, landlords are also seeing increased competition from the home-buying market due to lower-than-average mortgage rates available driving sales to a higher level than usual.

But this home-buying frenzy has also helped the rental market as well, since many new homeowners may still need a place to live until their home is ready, and would turn to short-term rentals to satisfy that need.

Other factors driving the Las Vegas rental market are people who moved to the Southern Nevada region for its cheaper cost of living to work remotely during the pandemic.

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 reports, when the federal eviction moratorium imposed by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) expires at the end of this month, at least 100,000 Nevada residents – and with some estimates placing that number as high as 140,000 – are facing being legally removed from their dwellings due to non-payment of rent.

Nevada’s eviction moratorium ended on May 31, at which time landlords and property managers throughout the state began filing paperwork for evictions that will begin to progress through the court system en masse when the CDC moratorium ceases as of July 1.

Clark County has confirmed that they have distributed approximately $110 million in rental assistance, and has noted that more money would have been sent out to renters except for the fact that many applications that the county received were submitted with errors that require correction before funds can be released.

Kimberly Ireland, a Las Vegas renter who has only recently returned to work at a resort on the Las Vegas Strip, significantly behind on her rent to a small, mom-and-pop landlord who she says has been “gracious and kind” throughout the COVID-19 pandemic when record-breaking unemployment was at its worst.

However, the landlord has reached the point where they want the property back so they can rent it to a party capable or paying rent, which Ireland said she understands at this point.

“It’s heartbreaking,” she said. “We’re forced into this. It’s not by choice.”

Assemblywoman Brittney Miller (D-Las Vegas) recently stated that she supported a bill that was recently signed into law that helps smaller landlords who might be left out of federal relief programs and pauses pending eviction proceedings once a person applies for rental assistance. However, if a renter receives an eviction notice and does nothing, the eviction will automatically go through by default.

“Maybe the United States didn’t hit depression numbers when it came to unemployment, but Nevada did,” Miller 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.