Category Archive : Real Estate

LAS VEGAS, NV – It’s not every day that you get a car thrown in at no-cost to sweeten the deal when you purchase a home, but that’s the plan that was announced by developer Livv recently, who intends to construct two new housing communities in the Las Vegas area whose residences will all come with free Tesla electric cars.

The communities, which are slated to be built in Henderson and the southwest valley, are to be comprised of luxury “smart” and “sustainable” homes, and to that end Livv has stated that each buyer will receive a Model 3 Tesla electric car, each with a retail value of $40,000.

Livv – which constructed Las Vegas Raiders head coach Jon Gruden’s Southern Highlands new $4.3 million home – has stated that the Henderson project – dubbed “Neo” – will break ground in the fall of this year, whereas the southwest valley project to be known as “Magnus” will have work commence upon it in 2022.

Neo will be developed upon 60 acres in the vicinity of MacDonald Highlands, southeast of Horizon Ridge Parkway and Stephanie Street. Plans call for the guard-gated community to be comprised of 84 homes when completed; home prices will begin at $2.3 million and go up as high as $4 million.

The one-and-two story homes in Neo will be semi-customized for the buyers, will offer unobstructed views of the Las Vegas Strip and mountains, and will range in size from 3,600 square feet to 5,000 square feet with three-to-four bedrooms. In addition, each house will have an either three-or-five car garage as well.

Seven floor plans will be available for buyers to choose from after they plunk down the required $25,000 deposit, and selectable interior designs will range from “Euro chic, bohemian and ultra modern.”

The plans for Magnus have yet to be finalized, but the community will be located on 27 acres in the southwest valley, and 94 semi-custom homes are anticipated, ranging in price from $1.3 million to $2.8 million.

Livv has a wide array of projects on their plate, currently with 12 housing communities in the works throughout the world.

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 – New York-based private equity firm Blackstone has entered into an agreement with MGM Resorts International to sell operations of The Cosmopolitan, the Las Vegas-based luxury casino and hotel on the Las Vegas Strip, for $1.625 billion. In addition, the hotel and casino’s real estate assets are being purchased by the Cherng Family Trust – which was set up by the owners of the fast-food chain Panda Express – for over $4 billion.

The total sale, valued at $5.65 billion, was announced on Monday; MGM Resorts International will run the daily operations of the venue for the next 30 years, with three options to renew their lease once it expires for an additional 10 years each time. MGM will pay the Cherng Family Trust a yearly rent of $200 million, with a yearly increase of two percent for the first 15 years of their lease.

Two years ago, Blackstone had attempted to sell the Cosmopolitan for a $4 billion asking price, but found no takers. They put the resort back on the market again this month, now seeking at least $5 billion, and this time it didn’t take long for a buyer to snag the iconic establishment.

The Cosmopolitan opened its doors for business in 2010; it was later sold by owner Deutsche Bank AG to Blackstone in 2014 for $1.73 billion, who then put $500 million into renovating the resort, which features 3,027 rooms, a 110,000 square-foot casino, 300,000 square-feet of retail and restaurant space, a spa and fitness facility, a 3,200-seat theater, and 150,000 square-feet of meeting and convention space.

The transaction is expected to close in early 2022, at which time MGM Resorts International will assume the operations of the resort going forward.

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 mansion of Scott Gragson – a Las Vegas-based real estate broker who is currently serving time in prison in connection with a fatal drunk-driving accident – has been listed on the rental market, for the whopping price of $50,000 per month.

The mansion, located at 5 Promontory Ridge Drive in The Ridges – a wealthy master-planned community in Summerlin – is described as a “desert contemporary masterpiece,” comes in at 10,621 square-feet in size, is fully furnished, and features six bedrooms.

The residence also features a number of posh amenities for its tenant, including clear views of the famed Las Vegas Strip, a private movie room, a guest house, a gym, and a basketball court.

If security is a concern, the mansion also has a a series of two gated entrances with a guard on-duty.

Gragson, 55, had been arrested on May 30, 2019, after he had been involved in a drunk-driving crash in The Ridges that left Melissa Newton, a 36-year-old mother of three, dead. Gragson pleaded guilty in February 2020 to one count of DUI resulting in death and one count of DUI resulting in substantial bodily harm and was sentenced to eight-to-20 years in prison.

In addition to the prison term, Gragson had also reached a settlement deal to pay restitution to Newton’s family in the amount of $21 million; he would pay $12.8 million, and his insurance company would pay the remaining $8.2 million.

Additional settlements were also reached with the surviving passengers of the vehicle – Greg Tassi and Christie Cobbett – although the amounts of those have not been publicly revealed. A third passenger, Christopher Bentley, is set to begin his civil suit against Gragson this November.

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 state law that was signed by Nevada Governor Steve Sisolak on June 4 will, once it officially goes into effect next year, require that Clark County – and a number of cities – to tax all short-term vacation rentals (STVRs) within the city’s limits, in addition to imposing a number of other regulations upon the industry as well.

Assembly Bill 363, due to go into effect July 1, 2022, only applies to counties with over 700,000 residents – currently Clark County only –  and cities with over 25,000 residents, which includes Las Vegas, Henderson, and North Las Vegas. In addition, the bill will override the ban on STVRs that’s currently in-place in some of Clark County’s unincorporated areas, and will establish a number of rules governing them. Bill 363 mandates that the municipalities it covers establish a series of regulations covering owners of STVRs to:

• Have a state business license
• Pay an annual fee after acquiring local authorization
• Designate a local representative for the rental
• Maintain liability coverage, and
• Collect lodging taxes from guests

In addition, Bill 363 lays out a number of other rules that cover how STVRs can be utilized and where they can be located:

• Guests must stay a minimum of two nights in a non-owner-occupied property and one night in an owner-occupied property
• Short-term rental properties must be located at least 660 feet away from each other
• Vacation rental properties must be located at least 2,500 feet away from resort hotels
• Vacation rentals within a multifamily dwelling are limited to no more than 10 percent of units
• No more than 16 guests may stay in a short-term rental property
• Operators may hold no more than five local authorization permits per state business license
• Short-term rentals are prohibited in apartment buildings
• Governments must establish specific requirements for noise, trash, and security
• Short-term rentals are not allowed in communities with homeowners associations unless the association expressly allows them

Officials of local governments covered by this law are also required to establish and enforce penalties of operators of STVRs deviate from any of these rules, although certain minimum fines are laid out in the law; in addition, local governments are also allowed to create their own rules that are tailored for their individual needs and circumstances.

Third-party companies that facilitate short-terms rentals, such as Airbnb and Vrbo, are also required to collect taxes from individuals who utilize their services, in addition to having to submit reports each quarter to the cities they are operating in.

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 housing market in Las Vegas has been enjoying a year of success amid skyrocketing home prices that has resulted in all-time records being set while sellers are often offered more than their asking prices by desperate buyers. However, August appeared to buck that trend – albeit only slightly, with prices appearing to stabilize – before the market resumed its hot streak in September as if nothing ever happened.

According to a recently-released report, the median sales price of previously owned single-family homes in Las Vegas appeared to plateau after hitting an all-time record in July with $405,000, as that price – which had been steadily climbing for the past year – remained at that exact level in August as well.

Regardless, it illustrated how far the housing market in Vegas has recovered, as that August $405,000 median sales price still represents a 25 percent increase over the same period of time in 2020.

However, it was soon revealed that the housing market in Southern Nevada had not hit a plateau, but simply experienced more of a momentary lull; according to trade association Las Vegas Realtors, rising prices in the region had taken a “momentary pause” during August while the market prepared for a pre-holiday surge.

Once the holiday season hits, the market can be expected to temporarily flatten once again, as it did from November 2020 to January 2021 when the median sales price of pre-owned homes remained at $345,000; in January, prices began climbing once again.

However, it remains to be seen if the market flattens as much – or for as long – this upcoming holiday season, as one of the reasons for the intense house-buying activity that Vegas has been experiencing as of late is being driven by historically-low mortgage rates, which are driving buyers to snap up every property they can.

What that being the case, there remains the possibility that this holiday season may not slow down as much as in previous 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 – The Blackstone Group, an investment management company based in New York City, is reportedly going to be putting the Cosmopolitan resort of Las Vegas up for sale, and their hefty asking price is said to be at least $5 billion, if not more.

Two years ago, Blackstone had attempted to sell the Cosmopolitan for a $4 billion asking price, but at the time found no takers, yet as time went by and the COVID-19 pandemic took hold of the country, prices of casinos have nonetheless continued to rise as investment firms have often bought them and then split the costs with management firms they bring in to run things.

Some real estate experts have speculated that a potential taker for Blackstone’s offer may be Apollo Global Management Inc., which has been purchasing casinos globally; MGM Resorts International is also being talked about as a possible partner and property manager, although there have been no official statements from either organization confirming this.

The Cosmopolitan, which encountered financial difficulty during its $3.9 billion construction phase due to the mid-2000’s recession, finally opened its doors for business in 2010; it was later sold by owner Deutsche Bank AG who would then sell the resort for $1.73 billion to Blackstone in 2014.

The Cosmopolitan is located just south of the Bellagio on the west side of Las Vegas Boulevard, between CityCenter and the Blackstone-owned Bellagio casino. The resort consists of two high-rise towers – the Boulevard Tower and the Chelsea Tower – and features 3,027 rooms, a 110,000 square-foot casino, 300,000 square-feet of retail and restaurant space, a spa and fitness facility, a 3,200-seat theater, and 150,000 square-feet of meeting and convention space.

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 real estate firm from Atlanta, Georgia has gotten into the highly competitive Southern Nevada rental marketplace with the recent announcement they have purchased two large apartment complexes located in the east-side of the Las Vegas Valley.

The firm, known as Carroll, noted that they had acquired the Emerald Springs, a 436-unit complex, in addition to The Meadows, a 383-unit building situated only three miles away and located on the very same road, which is Nellis Boulevard; Emerald Springs is near Bonanza Road, and The Meadows is near Desert Inn Road.

While Carroll did not mention the amount the firm paid for the two apartment complexes, public records from Clark County reveal that the properties sold for a combined total of $163.25 million.

Investors have been buying rental properties in Las Vegas in droves as of late, fueled by low borrowing costs and a demand from consumers moving to the city for its flourishing job market and relatively low cost of living. Records indicate that 10,424 Las Vegas apartments were purchased by investors in 2021 through the month of July, in comparison with the same period of time in 2020, was only 3,065 acquired. 

David Perez, Carroll’s chief operating officer, confirmed in a statement to media that both Emerald Springs and The Meadows are currently 96 percent occupied when the purchases took place, ending a three or four-year quest on the part of the firm to find the right rental space in the Las Vegas area to invest in.

Carroll also has rental holdings in the western region of the U.S. and that Las Vegas has proved an especially attractive city to invest in as its economy is still in the process of recovering from the pandemic and tourists – which are a driving force of Vegas’ financial well-being – are finally starting to coming back.

Also, in contrast to the rising rent rates in Vegas as of late – the average rent jumped 22.7% year over year in July – Perez noted that while maintenance will be improved at the two properties, the firm is not looking to raise rates for tenants in an effort to provide affordable housing.

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 months go by and the economy continues to improve emerging – ever-so-slowly – away from the COVID-19 pandemic, records continue to be broken on a regular basis in Las Vegas’ housing market. But according to experts, while home prices are the highest they’ve ever been in Southern Nevada, there’s at least one way that home values are still underneath their pre-recession levels.

According to local media reports, signs that the Vegas housing market is on fire can be plainly seen in the numbers, with buyers for homes in Spring Valley and Summerlin last week paying a whopping $22,000 and $75,000 over their respective asking prices. And if you don’t think that’s a sign of intense competition, let’s not forget about the Henderson home that recently sold for approximately $160,000 more than its owner had paid for it just a few short years ago.  

But while real estate records are falling by the wayside with increasing regularity as of late in Las Vegas, one way experts note values remain in question is that they are still shy of the levels achieved prior to the burst of the housing bubble in the mid-2000’s, and that’s due to inflation.

In July 2021, the median sales price of previously owned single-family homes in Vegas was an all-time high of $405,000, representing a 22.7 percent jump from the same period of time in 2020. But the previous peak of median house prices in the region was in the middle of 2006, when they reached $315,000… which, in 2021 dollars, would come to $423,834.

Experts say that factor alone illustrates a great many things about Las Vegas real estate, such as the extreme bloat of the pre-recession marketplace and how circumstances today – despite prices rising again to the point of creating affordability concerns – are far more stable overall, leading to less risk of another hosing bubble pop and subsequent financial disaster.

Many analysts predict that the current boom in Vegas will eventually level off as developers continue to construct new homes and rental properties to satisfy demand, although exactly when that will happen is anyone’s guess.

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.

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 – 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.