Category Archive : Real Estate

LAS VEGAS, NV – Experts have recently noted that the Las Vegas real estate market has settled into a degree of stability that the region has not seen for 20 years, according to reports. This comes after a period of skyrocketing growth that followed one of the worst recessions Vegas has seen when the housing bubble burst in the mid-2000’s.

Greater Las Vegas Association of Realtors President Janet Carpenter recently stated that there are a number of factors that figure into this determination, including home price appreciation slowing to a more gradual rate than the region has seen in years. 

Sales and the amount of homes on the market has also approached a greater degree of synchronicity, reports say. In July, 3,159 single-family homes were purchased, representing an 8.8 percent increase from June yet only a slight decrease of 0.8 percent from the same time period one year prior. The median sales price of those homes was $303,000, showing only a dip of 0.3 percent from the previous month with an increase of 8.8 percent from July 2018.

As for the available inventory on the Las Vegas real estate market, 7,808 homes were for sale without current offers at the close of July, which represents over a 63 percent increase from 2018 but only a 0.1 decrease from June 2019.

Clearly, the market is falling into a more sustainable pattern than it has seen in some time, when a previous lack of inventory coupled with massive demand caused home prices to swell at a record rate that many experts feared would lead to affordability concerns down the road. This was a major concern, as Vegas was often seen as a more affordable alternative to neighboring states such as California, where the escalating cost of living was actually driving some residents out. 

However, a greater amount of homes on the market are helping to reign in skyrocketing home price growth and are giving potential home-buyers more options, leading to an overall more stable marketplace for Las Vegas’ future.

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 former residence of developer Jim Rhodes, dubbed “The SkyFire Estate,” recently sold for the record price of $16 million, making it the second-highest sale price of a home in the history of Las Vegas.

Skyfire, a huge mansion clocking in a whopping 21,633 square feet, is located in the Spanish Hills community at 5212 Spanish Heights Drive on a two-acre plot of land. 

The house features eight bedrooms – including a 3,010-square-foot master bathroom with a two-story walk-in closet – ten bathrooms, a 15-car garage, and a 110-gallon infinity pool. SkyFire also boasts impressive, 360-degree views of the Las Vegas Strip, city, and surrounding mountains.

SkyFire features unique design elements, being made up extensively of curved exterior surfaces with many floor-to-ceiling windows. The mansion was sold quickly- it was only on the market for a single week before being snapped up by a buyer, who is remaining anonymous.

With its large price tag putting it in the record books as the second-highest residential sale price in Vegas history, that begs the obvious question- what did the highest-price house go for, and who did it belong to? Well, the answer is famous magician David Copperfield’s home in the community of Summerlin, which sold for $17.55 million.

Despite selling for a steep $16 million, SkyFire could have potentially sold for even more. The house was originally listed for a whopping $30 million in January with a different real estate agency, and then subsequently de-listed in April, only to be re-listed at $25 million a week before it sold. However, owner Jim Rhodes, in a hurry to sell and move on, lowered the price by $9 million, prompting an almost immediate sale.

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.

SUMMERLIN, NV – Bill Foley, owner of National Hockey League (NHL) ice hockey team Vegas Golden Knights, has recently listed his Summerlin Nevada home on the market for $8.75 million, down from his original asking price of $9.5 million.

The home – called “Azure” – is located at 19 Flying Cloud in an exclusive gated section of Summerlin called “The Ridges”, and is situated on a plot of land coming in at just under one acre. The residence is 12,445 square feet in size and was built in 2013 by its original owners before it was sold to Foley and his wife, Carol, in 2015. According to Clark County records, the sale price in 2015 was $8.05 million.

The home is being sold, according to Foley, because they had a new house constructed in Summerlin’s Summit Club area. 

Azure is being referred to as a luxury dwelling with large, open spaces that can accommodate both indoor and outdoor lifestyles, with an emphasis on a wide variety of entertainment options. The house also features an extensive backyard with a pavilion that provides shade, fire pits, a spa, a pool, a putting green, and a picturesque view of nearby mountains.

The interior boasts five master bedrooms, a media room, and a home office with a wraparound terrace on the second level. The upstairs features a theater room with reclining chairs and couch, as well as an elevator.

The Vegas Golden Knights are in the Las Vegas metropolitan area and began playing in the 2017–18 NHL season. They are members of the Pacific Division of the league’s Western Conference, and are owned by Black Knight Sports & Entertainment, a consortium led by Foley and the Maloof family. The team plays its home games at T-Mobile Arena on the Las Vegas Strip in Paradise, Nevada.

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

LAS VEGAS – NV – Property Brothers is a reality television series starring identical twin brothers Drew Scott and Jonathan Scott. Drew is a real estate expert who scouts neglected houses and negotiates their purchases and his brother, Jonathan, is a licensed contractor who then renovates the houses. Together, the Property Brothers help families find, buy, and transform fixer-uppers into dream homes on a strict timeline and budget.

With their show broadcast in over 150 countries, Drew and Jonathan Scott are basically household names at this point. Riding high on their current success, the duo are now testing the waters for their next entrepreneurial endeavor- “Property Brothers” branded homes, and the first one going on the market is located just outside of Las Vegas, Nevada, with the current asking price being a cool $5 million. 

The concept behind the brand – dubbed “Dream Homes by Scott Living” – is the collaboration between Drew and Jonathan and local developers that will result in high-end, luxury abodes, according to a statement on their official website. The brothers clearly have faith in the worth of their brand name, given the fact that they are asking such a hefty price for their work when the Las Vegas home actually isn’t even completed yet; far from it, in fact. The ground has been officially broken and construction has only just commenced, with an estimated finish date of January 2020.

However, based on the brand strength of the Property Brothers name – coupled with the publicly-released plans for the house – the project is sure to attract many curious potential buyers. The house is slated to have five bedrooms and eight-and-a-half bathrooms, in addition to a game room, wine storage, parking for up to 11 cars, wet bar, and a two-story “man cave.,” all packed onto a .56 acre plot of land. 

Test renders have been released of the exterior of the home, although interior renders have yet to be made available. Once completed, Drew and Jonathan Scott are expected to attend the official housewarming event in January.

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 – Gindi Capital, an investment firm headquartered in New York, officially announced last week that they had purchased a large chunk of Las Vegas Boulevard for a whopping price, with the stated goal of developing a hub for new retail businesses in the area, according to reports.

Gindi confirmed that they had bought 9.5 acres of real estate on the famed boulevard for the whopping price of $172 million, an amount that comes to approximately $18 million an acre, officials say. The purchase – made from New York investment firm Spectrum Group Management – includes pre-existing real estate that is home to adjacent retail plazas Hawaiian Marketplace and Cable Center Shops.

The announcement indicated that Gindi – also the owner of the nearby Showcase Mall, located at 3785 S. Las Vegas Boulevard – is currently in the midst of working with design teams in order to develop plans to transform the acquisition into “a new flagship retail, entertainment and dining experience.” The company did not expand on exactly what their plans are in any additional detail.

Reports indicate the possibility that Gindi may raze all of the structures on the property to make way for a completely new project in order to take advantage of the large amount of foot traffic that area currently boasts. While it is unknown if this is actually the case, it would be a change of direction from many of the other structures located on the Strip, which currently are comprised mostly of hotels, casinos, and resorts.

Spectrum Group Management had previously bought the property in 2010 after the previous owners had declared bankruptcy following the recession; originally, it had been slated to be used for an Elvis-themed hotel and resort. Spectrum originally owned and was selling an 18-acre plot of land on the Strip, but the need for such a large piece of property – as well as the prohibitive cost – lead them to break the land into smaller swaths for sale. After the sale to Gindi, Spectrum still possesses approximately 6 acres of land on Las Vegas Boulevard.

This is not the first purchase Gindi has made from Spectrum; they also recently acquired a Walgreens Pharmacy from them for $30 million, reports say.

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 – Despite fierce push-back and lobbying efforts on the part of local realtors, Nevada lawmakers – via a last-minute amendment made to Senate Bill 151 (SB151) – added what they referred to as “tenant protections” to the proposed bill that would make some significant changes to the state’s currently Landlord/Tenant Laws. That bill was officially made into the law of the land when it passed both houses and landed on the desk of Governor Steve Sisolak, who then signed on the dotted line.

As per the newly ratified SB151, the changes to the Landlord/Tenant Laws will take effect on July 1st, 2019; however, what are the changes that landlords and their tenants can expect to see, and why are Nevada residential realtors so up in arms over them?

First, some are taking exception to SB151 because certain provisions that had been previously a part of SB256 – a bill that was previously considered dead and buried – were basically revived and incorporated into SB151 on the very last day of the legislative session. The deeply-unpopular provisions in question – touted as “tenant protections” – centered on specific aspects of the eviction process, including a late-fee cap on overdue rent and a window of time afforded to evicted tenants to re-enter their former rental property to retrieve belongings.

The most significant aspect of SB151 when it comes to landlords is the inclusion of a 5 percent cap on late fees when it comes to overdue monthly rent; that is, a landlord can no longer charge over 5 percent of the periodic fee the renter normally pays when they are delinquent; previous penalties that many landlords employed, such as cumulative daily late fees, are no longer allowed.

Another provision of SB151 is that evicted tenants are now given up to 5 days to re-enter a vacated home or apartment in order to retrieve what the bill refers to as “essential personal effects,” such as medication, before they are permanently locked out. A tenant may also file a motion with the court regarding how the landlord has chosen to handle the tenant’s property – including storage costs or removal procedures – after the 5-day period has passed. If the court finds in the tenant’s favor, they may be granted additional time and access to their former dwelling, as well as damages up to $2,500 if the judge rules that the landlord handled the property in question in an improper manner.

Other changes include an increase of the approved “pay or quit” eviction notice time period from 5 days to 7 judicial days; if a tenant manages to pay within the 7 judicial day time frame, the landlord is now obligated to accept it, even if the amount paid does not include any additional late fees or other charges that may have been applied to the overall amount owed. And finally, landlords and property managers can no longer serve an eviction notice themselves- now, only a sheriff, constable, or licensed process server may do so.

Many property mangers and realtors protested the changes represented by SB151 argue that these changes – which allegedly tip the perceived scales between tenants and landlords too far in the tenants’ favor – will discourage Nevada Landlords from renting out their homes and condos at a time when affordable housing is already scarce, in addition to leading to higher rents and more frequent lawsuits.

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 – Eldorado Resorts has announced that they will be purchasing Caesars – and in the process acquiring over 35 of their casinos – in a deal comprised of both cash and stock valued at over $17 billion, according to reports. The deal will result in Eldorado essentially becoming a casino mega-power, with a total of approximately 60 casinos and resorts to its name as a result of the purchase.

The acquisition, which took place on Monday of this week, now gives Eldorado a presence in 16 states and makes it one of the largest entertainment and gambling entrepreneurs in the country, according to a statement released by Eldorado Chief Executive Tom Reeg.

“Together, we will have an extremely powerful suite of iconic gaming and entertainment brands,” he said, “as well as valuable strategic alliances with industry leaders in sports betting and online gaming.”

The overreaching company in charge of this empire will be dubbed Caesars – taking advantage of the internationally-recognized brand name – and will be headquartered in Reno, Nevada, in addition to having a “significant corporate presence” in Caesars’ hometown of Las Vegas.

The deal will see Eldorado paying $8.40 per share of Caesars’ stock, as well as an exchange of $12.75 in Eldorado stock for each share of Caesars stock; in addition, Eldorado will assume approximately $8.8 billion of Caesars’ debt. According to the details of the transaction, Caesars is currently valued at about $8.6 billion; in 2017, the casino giant had emerged from federal bankruptcy protection, but has continued having financial difficulties since then.

Eldorado most likely made the move to acquire Caesars in light of the increased popularity of casinos in general, with sports betting growing in market share after successful legalization efforts in recent years. If approved by gaming regulators and shareholders from both companies, the deal is expected to be closed in early 2020, reports say.

Caesars Entertainment, Inc. was a Las Vegas Valley, Nevada based business that was the largest owner, operator and developer of casinos throughout the world. It was part of the Hilton Hotels chain and was spun off from Hilton as Park Place Entertainment in 1998, and renamed as Caesars Entertainment in 2003. The company was acquired in 2005 by Harrah’s Entertainment, which later took on the Caesars Entertainment name.

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 – You may have seen it on any number of television home improvement shows- the current hot trend of “tiny homes” that is sweeping the nation. Typically consisting of a house that is anywhere from 300-600 square feet large – or even smaller.

The allure of owning a tiny home in today’s often expensive housing market is that it encourages people to do without many of the perceived luxuries of living in a larger dwelling. This includes a reliance on possessions in favor of a more stripped-down, simpler existence where only your bare necessities are provided for. Some people do this out of sheer financial necessity, while others simply desire a simpler way of life. But either way, one region of the country where this trend of tiny homes is growing the most in recent months is in Las Vegas, Nevada, an area in the middle of a large economic and real estate boom that is seen housing prices – while still quite affordable compared to some other areas of the country – experiencing a record-setting rise in the past few years.

The tiny house movement is an architectural and social movement that advocates living simply in small homes. As of 2019 there is no set definition as to what exactly constitutes a tiny house; however, a residential structure under 600 to 300 square feet is generally considered a tiny home, and some people have even managed to live in dwellings 160 feet and smaller. In contrast, the current average size of a new single-family home is approximately 2,662 square feet.

With the national recession hitting in the mid-2000’s, the tiny house movement attracted more attention as it offered affordable, ecologically friendly housing options. Overall, however, it currently represents a very small part of real estate transactions nationwide, with only 1 percent of home buyers acquiring houses of 1,000 square feet or less. Tiny houses typically cost about $20,000 to $50,000 to construct, and have received a large amount of media coverage in recent years, including several television shows dedicated to their construction and the offbeat lifestyles of those occupying them.

According to reports, the demand for tiny homes in Las Vegas is growing in connection with the increase of young professionals moving into the area to take advantage of the rapidly expanding job market. In fact, according to some real estate professionals, there is a waiting list for these diminutive units that are currently under construction. Typically, the increase in interest for these smaller homes range from people over 50 years of age to millennial ages, with the ladder experiencing 63 percent in growth as far as being purchasers of tiny homes of the last few years.

Some of the more popular locations in Las Vegas for communities consisting of tiny homes are Ferguson’s Downtown, the Veteran’s Village in Downtown Las Vegas, as well as several mobile home parks located in Henderson.

Another reason cited by people for wanting a tiny home is the freedom to pick up, move, an experience living in different areas of the country; to that end, some tiny houses are constructed on wheels so they can be transported from one location to another. While some people have reported that downsizing and living with less in a smaller space can be difficult, many people say that the experience has not only improved them for the better, and helped save a lot of money in the 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 – After several years of nonstop, skyrocketing growth, the Las Vegas real estate market appears to have finally begun to stabilize as the median sales price of single-family homes have remained relatively flat throughout spring of 2019, according to reports.

So far, throughout March, April, and now May of 2019, the median sales price of single-family homes – particularly pre-owned ones, which make up the largest segment of the market currently – have remained at approximately $300,000.

To drive the point home, the price of a single-family house in May of 2018 saw an increase of 18 percent from the same period in 2017; in May of 2019, however, that increase amounted to only 1.7 percent, which represents the smallest year-to-year increase in seven years, according to reports.

The slowdown in Las Vegas’ real estate market has been becoming more noticeable in the last few months. Not only has it been apparent in the smaller increases in housing prices, but sales overall have decreased from the shocking levels they attained over the past few years, with the amount of available listings on the market increasing slowly but steadily. This is only natural in a market where real estate has experienced a nearly unprecedented amount of growth in such a short amount of time.

Previously, availability was becoming so scarce – and prices growing so quickly – that affordability concerns were being expressed by many moving to the region.

Strong demand is clearly still out there for housing in the Southern Nevada region, with resale prices still increasing in Las Vegas. This, experts say, is just a sign that the market has reached the point where pricing on real estate must stabilize in order for it to still remain viable.

The Las Vegas real estate market reached its highest price point in June of 2006, when a median house would fetch approximately $315,000 on the open market. That amount, of course, plummeted after the real estate bubble burst shortly thereafter, leading to the national recession.

Regardless of the fact that prices have remained rather flat during the spring, re-sales continue to do well in Las Vegas, with over 3,200 single family homes selling in May, an increase of 4.5 period from the same period one year prior. However, over 7,800 houses were on the market without offers by the end of last month, representing a 90 percent difference from the same period in 2018. Developers, who recently have been scrambling with construction projects in order to keep up with housing demands, have also noted that they have been selling fewer units in recent months.

Again, while still one of the most active and profitable real estate markets in the country, Las Vegas appears to finally be experiencing a plateau, and it is important for sellers to recognize this and make appropriate adjustments to their sales models in order to ensure continued growth.

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 – While the prices of new home sales in Las Vegas have showed some signs of slowing in recent months – clearly indicating that the red-hot real estate market is approaching the maximum buyers are willing to pay – those prices are still growing at rates that are twice the average elsewhere in the United States, according to reports.

In March 2019, the national average growth in home prices, year-over-year, was 3.7 percent, which contrasts sharply with the prices in Las Vegas, which are up 8.2 percent from the same period last year. S&P Dow Jones Indices released their S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller index recently, which indicated that Southern Nevada continued to feature the fastest-rising prices in the 20 markets that the report covers, and has remained at the top of the list for the past 10 months.

In contrast, growth overall throughout the rest of the nation has slowed recently, reports indicate. Bucking that trend, Las Vegas’ August 2019 home prices represented a whopping jump of nearly 14 percent from the same period in 2018.

After Las Vegas recovered from the mid-2000’s burst of the housing bubble and subsequent economic recession, demand rose sharply for affordable housing as money and businesses began flocking to Southern Nevada due to the relatively low cost of living when compared to many other regions in the United States. However, the market – due to demand – saw house prices and mortgage rates steadily rise as sellers looked to take advantage of the desperate scramble for their wares. 

Experts have been predicting that eventually these sellers would hit a wall when prices began to get too high, and it appears that we are rapidly approaching that point now. Sales are reported beginning to drop and the once emaciated amount of houses available on the market has begun to slowly grow once again.

Las Vegas, according to experts, is still considered a fantastic seller’s market; the median sales price of a single-family home in April was $300,000, which represents an increase of 3.8 percent from 2018. However, in order to ensure that the market remains strong, sellers should consider having more realistic outlooks for pricing models to ensure stability for the real estate market in the long-term, especially in light of recently increased inventory due to the output of developers looking to get sorely-needed affordable homes and apartment complexes built and on the 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 – Las Vegas Raiders officials announced this week that they have addressed potential parking concerns surrounding their stadium being constructed at Russell Road and Hacienda Avenue by purchasing additional areas of land in the area in order to convert it into additional parking, reports say. This land will add to the property’s 63-acre plot where the new $2 billion, 65,000-seat home of the Raiders is slated to open for the start of the team’s 2020 season.

Accompanying the purchase and conversion of the new properties for parking purposes is also a comprehensive transportation plan for ferrying attendees to and from their vehicles; the move is expected to provide a large boost to the amount of parking available for the stadium, Raiders officials say. Currently, there are only 2,725 parking spots situated on the stadium property itself, but this move – Raiders management have purchased several plots of land adjacent to the stadium – is expected to provide approximately an additional 12,000 or so spaces nearby, as well as increase the number of the stadium’s on-site spaces to almost 6,000. With the Clark County requirement of at least 16,250 parking spaces at the stadium, this move will exceed that number by at least 1,700 or more.
Raiders management are working out deals with area casinos to lease out excess fields for events and overflow parking when needed, reports say.

Transportation options are being researched and proposed by Clark County and Raiders management for attendees parked at the off-site lots, including a pedestrian bridge and an underground “people mover” that inventor and entrepreneur Elon Musk’s the Boring Company recently won the $48.7 million bid to construct. Work on the people mover, which will involve a looping tunnel that shuttles attendees back and forth via electrical train cars, is stated to take just a year to complete.

Since the construction of the Las Vegas Raiders stadium was announced, one of the major issues that had generated concern was in regards to the parking available in the area, since much of the surrounding land is currently undeveloped. However, with the announcement of the additional land purchases by stadium management, these issues appear to have been adequately addressed, providing a viable solution that is expected to be ready for attendees in time for the Raiders’ 2020 opening day festivities.

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 – Famed comedian Jerry Lewis had resided in Las Vegas for over 30 years before his death in August of 2017 at the age of 91. Recently, local real estate investor Jane Popple announced that his home would be going up for a public auction planned from May 25th through 27th.

Popple had previously purchased the home for $1.2 million from Jerry Lewis’s Widow, Sam, in 2018. Lewis’s daughter, Danielle, had grown up in the residence, and she and her mother had held an auction of much of the late comedian’s personal belongings and movie memorabilia earlier this year. The auction included over 400 items which netted $1,071,766.00 in proceeds.

Located near Interstate 15 and Charleston Boulevard in the affluent Scotch 80s neighborhood, the 7,325 square foot house comes in at two stories and boasts five grand bathrooms. There is a casita – a small house unconnected to the main house used for guests or as a changing room – as well as an office, a large in-ground pool, and an expansive backyard that the property’s listing says is ideal for entertaining guests. In fact, over the years the residence has been host to a variety of parties and get-togethers featuring many well-known celebrities and Las Vegas dignitaries of whom were entertained in the extensive bar located in the house’s family room. The list price is $1.8M.

An enthusiast of the color red, Lewis would often wear a red shirt or sweater while performing; his former Las Vegas home also reflected this color aesthetic, with many of the carpets, appliances, and pieces of furniture crimson in color, giving the accommodations a bright, warm, and inviting sensibility.

The Scotch 80s neighborhood itself is considered well-to-do, with the median price of a single-family home coming in at over $734,000.00. The neighborhood has seen a variety of celebrities and well-known businessman calling it home since the 1950s, including Howard Hughes, Steve Wynn, singer Phyllis McGuire, Carolyn Goodman, and more.

Jerry Lewis entertained millions of fans after appearing in dozens of comedy films and television shows over decades, often with his friend and partner Dean Martin, himself another famous Las Vegas entertainer and comedian. Lewis was also well known for hosting an annual Labor Day Telethon that raised money for the Muscular Dystrophy Association, benefiting children who were affectionately known as “Jerry’s Kids.”

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.