Category Archive : Real Estate

LAS VEGAS, NV – According to the Southern Nevada Home Builders Association (SNHBA), the Las Vegas Valley – in the span of as little as eight years – could potentially run out of land upon which to develop housing, a serious situation that the organization said needs to be addressed sooner than later to avoid issues in the future.

SNHBA CEO Tina Frias noted that the eight-year timeframe – based on data supplied by a company called Applied Analysis – necessitates government action to free up additional federal desert lands to develop in order to keep Southern Nevada’s housing supply on par with the current level of supply and demand.

At the end of the day, from a homebuilding perspective, we need more land,” Frias said. “So, it’s important for us to have the land to develop in the first place.”

According to officials, the federal government currently owns 88 percent of the land in Clark County, with over half of that property – 2.6 million acres – managed by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM). A BLM spokesperson said that the 1998 Southern Nevada Public Land Management Act Mandated the federal agency to sell select plots of public land within the Las Vegas Valley, and so far nearly 44,000 acres have been sold or leased, with an additional 27,000 acres still pending.

In an effort to do away with the bureaucracy that some say is the cause behind the difficulties in accessing land for development in Southern Nevada, Governor Joe Lombardo recently endorsed a bill called the Accelerating Appraisals and Conservation Efforts Act in an effort to cut through the red tape and get the feds to release more land in the region for badly-needed home construction.

Nevada families deserve access to attainable housing – and that begins with eliminating governmental barriers to development,” Lombardo said.

According to Redfin, the current median sale price of an existing single-family home in the Las Vegas Valley has jumped 9.2 percent year-over-year alone, driven by low inventory and high demand; opening up more land for development, experts say, would help lower home prices in the long run and make the housing market more affordable.

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 – They’re not quite there yet, but according to a new report released by Las Vegas Realtors (LVR), the prices of homes in the Las Vegas Valley this past May continued to inch up to their all-time high point, illustrating the fact that demand is still exceeding supply in Southern Nevada.

LVR’s report, which acquires its data from Multiple Listing Services, noted that during May the median sale price for an existing, single-family home in Las Vegas was $473,000, representing a 7 percent jump year-over-year and moving that number ever closer to the all-time record high achieved in the valley, which was $482,000 during May 2022.

The MLS showed that there were 3869 homes for sale in the valley without any offer at the end of May, which is a 6.1 percent increase year-over-year. In addition, compared to one year prior, new listings in Las Vegas surged 19.9 percent in May, an 8.7 percent increase from the previous month.

LVR President Merri Perry Issued a statement on this development, saying that “although the demand for housing here in Southern Nevada continues to outpace our supply, increased sales and inventory are positive signs for consumers and for our members.”

Meanwhile, the median sales price for brand new homes listed for sale in the valley reached $500,000 in May, which represents a 5.3 percent jump from the same period of time one year ago; while high, this number nonetheless falls below the all-time record for new home listings in the region, which was $525,000 in May 2022.

However, it remains to be seen how much longer home prices continue to swell in Las Vegas, given the growing national trend of lowering housing costs in several major markets – including Austin, San Antonio and Fort Worth, Texas, and Portland, Oregon – as buyers back off in response to high home prices and mortgage rates.

It is expected that this phenomenon will spread to other parts of the country as well as the situation continues, eventually driving home prices down again, says real estate company Redfin in a recent report.

“Nationwide, prices rose 4.4 percent from a year earlier to an all-time high during the four weeks ending June 2,” report said. “But there are early indicators that national price growth could soften soon: 6.4 percent of U.S. home sellers cut their asking price, on average, the highest share since November 2022. And the typical active listing has been on the market for 46 days, up 2.3 percent year over year – the biggest increase in nine months, suggesting home listings are growing stale faster than they were a year ago.”

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 plans amongst major Hollywood studios to begin setting up operations in Las Vegas – along with the steadily growing presence of more and more professional sports teams within the city – Landon Miller, owner of developer Landon Miller Homes, announced this week that his company would be addressing the increasing demand for high-end housing in Southern Nevada by developing a series of ultra-luxury, $15 million-plus homes.

Initiated by the approved plans for a Sony movie studio and the presence of the Las Vegas Raiders, Golden Knights and other sports teams, the demand for ultra-luxury real estate is expected to surge,” said Miller. “Having grown up in California, I’ve always been captivated by its luxury architectural styles. It’s my goal to mirror that level of architecture here.”

The initial residence to be constructed as a part of Miller’s initiative – whose development has already begun, with completion slated for fall 2025 – will be a $22.9 million dollar estate in Southern Highlands, which will take the form of a 9,500-square-foot, three-story home featuring a cutting edge, contemporary design emphasizing clean lines, large windows, light wood tones, and a cement-plastered interior.

In addition, the estate will boast numerous high-end amenities, including a dedicated media and game room with a wet bar; a large, well-equipped gym; a temperature-controlled wine room with a storing capacity of over 750 bottles; a steam room shower with cold plunge; a resort-style pool; ample vehicle storage, with a three-car daily garage augmented by a huge, subterranean seven-car garage; and a large second-floor terrace with breathtaking views of Las Vegas’ skyline.

The Southern Highlands estate represents the first of a series of posh residences that Miller said he intends to design, build, and sell throughout the Las Vegas Valley, each featuring different architectural styles and unique amenities, noting that he intends to make each one distinctly different from one another.

“Despite Las Vegas’ rapid growth and renowned entertainment scene, the city has surprisingly few ultra-luxe homes. As people relocate from Hollywood and other parts of the United States, they’re looking for an elevated level of luxury, and that’s what we’re striving to provide,” Miller said. “More and more, clients come to us with a desire to create homes that truly reflect their personal style and needs. I work hand in hand with our clients to make my vision and the client’s vision come true.”

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 official groundbreaking was held this Thursday for the $112 million Flats Arts District project, an upcoming multifamily complex that is being erected in the Las Vegas Arts District via a joint venture between CEDARst Cos. and Bridge Investment Group.

The project is being constructed at 123 West Imperial Avenue – located one block away from Main Street – and will be comprised of 311 apartment units and 5,100 square feet of retail space on the ground floor.

The property was initially purchased in January for $6 million; as an example of how property values have skyrocketed in Las Vegas over the years, the last time this plot of land was sold – back in 2011 – it went for a mere $322,000, as per Clark County property records.

In a statement, CEDARst Chief Development Officer Mark Heffron noted that the company had been wanting to get in on the Las Vegas real estate scene for some time, with the Arts District property representing the perfect opportunity to finally do so given the area’s growing economy, highly diverse businesses, and close-knit residents.

There is a far greater sense of community in Las Vegas as well,” Heffron said. “This is obvious when spending time in a vibrant and walkable neighborhood like the Arts District. The addition of professional hockey, football and baseball teams are also furthering this sense of community.”

The Flats Arts District project is slated to include 86 studio units, 185 one-bedroom units, 38 two-bedroom units, and two three-bedroom units. It will also have numerous amenities for its tenants, including a fitness center, resort-style spa facilities with saunas, workspaces, and a sunset deck and lounge.

The official ground-breaking ceremony was originally expected to take place in February, but a series of delays pushed it back to late May; the first tenants were expected to be able to move into their units by the end of 2025 and the project finished by March 2026, but now the first completed units will be made available in mid-2026 and the complex itself completed late that same year.

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

LAS VEGAS, NV – Real estate investors have been ramping up their activity nationwide once again, and one of the areas that has seen the largest increase in single-family home purchases on the part of corporate entities as of late is the Las Vegas Valley.

According to a new report by Redfin, the number of homes purchased by investors in Las Vegas was 2.7 percent higher in the first quarter of 2024 when compared to the fourth quarter of 2023, the second highest increase in the entire country. The only other major city that ranked higher in that regard was Oakland, California, which saw a 2.9 percent jump quarter-over-quarter.

Redfin stated that the current average price of an investor-purchased home in the United States is $464,560, and in the first quarter of 2024 these entities have spent $31.3 billion so far snapping up properties left and right.

Meanwhile, according to MLS data, the number of single-family homes up for sale in the Las Vegas Valley is approximately 4,000, and 17 percent of those – amounting to 697 – are priced at less than $400,000, with the median sale price currently being $435,000, as per Redfin.

With the limited amount of inventory in Vegas at the sub-$400,000 price point, investors are increasing their activity in the Valley to take advantage and get the most value for their money.

Also, the majority of investor purchases – 69 percent – are made up of all-cash transactions, so they are far less impacted by the currently high mortgage loan rates that are impacting the real estate industry, Redfin noted.

The amount of investor activity in Southern Nevada has been compounded by the rising number of hedge funds and institutional investment companies backed by Wall Street that have been purchasing large numbers of single-family homes and turning them into rental properties, resulting in increased scarcity in a market with already low inventory.

The problem, both in Vegas and nationwide, has gotten to the point where several bills are being introduced – both on both federal and state levels – that, if passed, would forbid institutional investors from purchasing additional homes, and potentially even force them to sell off the ones they do have over a set period of time.

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 – On Tuesday, the end of an era was marked as the Tropicana Las Vegas – one of the oldest remaining vanguards of the iconic Sin City hotel-casinos of the Rat Pack era – closed its doors for business two days prior to its 67^th anniversary, with the structure slated to be imploded later this year to make way for a new stadium for the newly-arriving Oakland Athletics Major League Baseball (MLB) team.

Originally, casino operator Bally’s Corp. had announced that play in the casino would cease at 3 a.m. Tuesday, but in reality, workers had begun breaking down many of the table games at around midnight; the slot machines had already been decommissioned several days prior, and most of the food outlets and restrooms were already closed.

One of the few remaining bars open in the Tropicana, Chill’m, was inundated with customers that evening – including bloggers, YouTubers and influencers – where they celebrated the closing of the iconic hotel-casino with a champagne toast at approximately 1:30 a.m.

In April of 1957, the Tropicana opened with 300 rooms, and had ties to organized crime; today, in its current form, the resort features 1,470-rooms, 50,000 square-feet of gaming floor space, and 72,000 square-feet of convention and exhibit space.

In April 2021, Bally’s entered a deal to acquire the Tropicana from Gaming and Leisure Properties in a deal valued at $308 million. Later, the Athletics’ ownership reached an agreement with Bally’s Corp. and the owner of the resort casino’s underlying land, Vici Properties, to purchase the property for the MLB team’s proposed new $1.5 billion ballpark on the Las Vegas Strip.

The A’s new home is slated to take the form of a 33,000-seat retractable roof stadium, with the team expected to play their first season in 2028.

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 New Frontier Hotel and Casino was an iconic sight on the Las Vegas Strip since it originally opened for business in 1931; over the years it changed hands several times until it’s eventual final sale and closure in May 2007. The structure was finally imploded in November of that same year following a fireworks celebration and countdown chanted by onlookers who gathered to see a remnant of Vegas’ colorful past finally crumble to dust.

Nearly 17 years later, the property continues to sit unused; casino operator Wynn Resorts, which bought the land and four adjacent acres in early 2018, has not announced any plans yet, merely stating in a February securities filing that it “may be used for future development” without any further details being provided.

As a result of the inactivity, a 38-acre tract of land is currently sitting unused between Fashion Show Mall and Resorts World Las Vegas. Over the years, the property was bought and sold following New Frontier’s closure by numerous entities before it was purchased by Wynn Resorts, each of which brought different plans to the table that ultimately never came to fruition.

New Frontier sold the 16-story, 984-room hotel-casino in 2007 for $1.24 billion to Israeli investors who subsequently imploded the tower for a multibillion-dollar project that would have seen the construction of a massive resort with 4,100 hotel rooms, 2,600 resort-condo units, and over one million square feet of casino, restaurant, convention, and retail space. However, the project was never realized, due in part to the mid-2000s recession.

From there, the property was acquired in 2014 by Australian billionaire James Packer in hopes of building a 1,100-room hotel-casino; however, funding issues resulted in the project never getting off the ground, leading to Wynn Resorts purchasing the property – in addition to some adjacent plots – for $336 million in 2007.

But while Wynn Resorts founder Steve Wynn had announced at the time that he wanted to quickly develop the land, he would soon resign as chairman and CEO following a series of sexual misconduct allegations.

Since then, the site of the New Frontier Hotel and Casino has sat vacant and unused.

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 Western Hotel & Casino, an iconic part of the Las Vegas downtown scene steeped in the rich history of the city, is reportedly up for sale for an undisclosed price.

Originally closing down in 2012, the hotel is one of the many properties in Vegas previously owned by the late Tony Hsieh, who passed away in November 2020 at the age of 46 due to injuries suffered in a Connecticut house fire.

Hsieh – who was worth hundreds of millions of dollars at the time of his death – headed up retail shoe selling giant Zappos before selling it to Amazon in 2009 for over $1 billion; he later retired as CEO in August 2020. He is also credited for having pledged $350 million to the renovation and revitalization of Downtown Las Vegas.

A real estate brokerage firm, Logic Commercial Real Estate, was selected by Hsieh’s estate in May 2023 to sell five of his downtown Las Vegas properties, the Western Hotel & Casino being among them.

Boston Omaha Asset Management – an investment firm owned by Logic’s chairman and co-founder Brendan Keating, who was named its co-managing partner four months before the Hsieh listings were announced – recently purchased several downtown properties from Hsieh’s estate for approximately $24.7 million.

The Western Hotel & Casino, as described by the sales pitch, is a “rare, full city block redevelopment opportunity in Downtown Las Vegas.” The establishment, which is two stories tall and has approximately 49 hotel rooms, charged about $37 a night at the time of its closing. Originally built in 1970, the four-parcel property – which sits upon a 1.3-acre plot of land with 300 feet of frontage on Fremont Street – was mainly known for its cheap slot machines, bingo, and table games.

Hsieh’s Downtown Project had previously purchased the property for $14 million in 2013.

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 new study from online real estate search portal Point2, Nevada has experienced a decrease in the number of housing permits being applied for by developers for the second year in a row.

In 2023, Nevada issued 18,473 new housing permits, made up of single-family homes and apartment units; according to the report, which noted that it acquired its data from the U.S. Census Bureau, this represents an 8 percent decrease year-over-year.

However, once you pick apart the data, some interesting notes surface. While the overall number of housing permits issued last year decreased, the number of single-family home permits increased, whereas permits for apartment complexes and other associated projects took a whopping 32 percent dive.

According to the report, the decrease in apartment project permits in 2023 indicates less emphasis being placed on the multifamily housing market by Nevada developers, which could have the effect of “limiting options for residents seeking affordable housing.”

When specifically looking at development activity in the Las Vegas Valley, the Point2 report stated that 13,073 new permits were issued in 2023, a number that remains approximately on par with the year before. But once again, the particulars in the Valley mirrored those of the state as a whole, with permits for single-family homes increasing but those for apartment projects dropping by 23 percent.

The Point2 study said that this is “suggesting a shift in the region’s housing stock, with implications for the variety of housing in the area.”

While there had been an increase in multifamily units entering the market in the Valley recently – which has served to help stabilize rents – the Point2 report indicates that fewer apartment projects are currently in development than in recent years, with the surge in building brought about by the pandemic now finally slowing down.

Earlier in March, Nevada Governor Joe Lombardo sent a request to President Joe Biden to allow the Bureau of Land Management to release more of the land that it owns in Nevada for housing; currently, the agency owns 48 million acres in Nevada, or approximately 67 percent of the state.

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 – Major League Baseball (MLB) legend Jose Canseco has listed his lavish Las Vegas, Nevada home for sale on the open market for the reported amount of $1.6 million.

Canseco, 59, originally purchased the 5,100-square-foot, five-bedroom, four-and-a-half bath residence – located in an affluent, guard-gated master-planned community located a short drive from downtown Las Vegas – in 2021 for $1.1 million, after which he carried out more than $200,000 in renovations and upgrades.

He originally listed the home for sale in September 2023 for $1.7 million; one month later he cut the price by $100,000, and that amount is still what he’s asking despite the property still remaining on the market six months later without any takers.

The home is located in a private cul-de-sac and it’s front and back yards are surrounded by electric fences, something that’s sure to appeal to the security-conscious. It features a Spanish-tile roof, a living room with a marble fireplace and large arched window, a huge kitchen boasting top-of-the-line Wolf appliances, and a formal dining room with a glossy tile floor.

3340 MONTECITO DRIVE, LAS VEGAS – $1,600,000.00

The large bedrooms are luxurious, with the primary suite offering a sitting area and a bathroom with a wraparound marble vanity and glass-enclosed shower.

The house also offers many amenities, including a fitness studio and a backyard with an in-ground pool, a koi pond, a barbecue, and low-maintenance artificial grass. There’s also an attached two-bedroom casita with a full kitchen, living and dining area.

This isn’t the first real estate sale the former pro baseballer has attempted to make in Southern Nevada; in August 2023 he put a car wash he had been running in Vegas up for sale – Jose Canseco’s Showtime Car Wash – although it is currently uncertain if he still remains the owner as of press time.

Canseco played 17 seasons in MLB and is best known for his time with the Oakland Athletics. During his career, he won Rookie of the Year (1986) and the Most Valuable Player award (1988), in addition to being a six-time All-Star. He is a two-time World Series champion with the Oakland Athletics (1989) and the New York Yankees (2000), and in 1988 became the first player in MLB history to hit 40 home runs and steal 40 bases in a single season.

See full listing details for 3340 Montecito Drive, Las Vegas

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.

CHICAGO, IL – In a historic settlement that will completely change the current homebuying and selling business model, the National Association of Realtors (NAR) on Friday entered into a settlement in a series of antitrust lawsuits brought against the organization by groups of home sellers by agreeing to pay $418 million in damages and eliminating commission rules, effectively doing away with the 6 percent industry standard.

The agreement to abolish the 6 percent commission standard on the part of NAR – which represents over 1 million Realtors – is expected to significantly reduce the costs associated with buying and selling homes, with experts predicting that commissions are expected to fall anywhere from 25 percent to 50 percent.

Up until Friday’s agreement, sellers paid both their broker and their buyer’s broker during a home sale, which some critics have said has artificially driven housing prices higher. Previously, sellers could pay more than $25,000 in brokerage fees upon the sale of the average-priced U.S. home, which is currently $417,000; those costs are then passed on to the buyer, which in turn leads to higher home prices.

A new set of rules will also be put into place, including prohibiting the amount of compensation an agent will receive from being included on listings posted on multiple listing services (MLS), which some have claimed leads to brokers pushing pricier homes on their customers; previously, NAR had required agents to post their fees on MLS listings.

In addition, brokers are no longer required to subscribe to MLS where properties are given a wide viewing in a local markets, and buyer’s brokers will now be required to enter into written agreements with their buyers.

The home sellers who had sued NAR argued that the cost of the buyer’s agent’s commission should be paid by the buyer who received the service, not by the seller, and that buyers should be able to negotiate the fee with their agent and that sellers should not be responsible for paying it.

In November, a Missouri federal jury ruled in favor of the plaintiffs and against NAR and two other brokerages for a total of $1.8 billion in damages for conspiring to keep agent commissions artificially high; because the lawsuit was an antitrust case, NAR would potentially have had to pay triple damages in the amount of $5.4 billion.

While the other two brokerage is settled, NAR initially vowed to appeal the judgment before finally agreeing to the settlement on Friday, which was announced by NAR interim CEO Nykia Wright in a statement.

NAR has worked hard for years to resolve this litigation in a manner that benefits our members and American consumers,” she said. “It has always been our goal to preserve consumer choice and protect our members to the greatest extent possible. This settlement achieves both of those goals.”

News of the settlement caused shares of real estate firms Zillow and Compass to plummet over 13 percent; Zillow issued a statement saying any significant change to the fee structure could have an industry-wide negative impact, including less business for real estate platforms.

If agent commissions are meaningfully impacted, it could reduce the marketing budgets of real estate partners or reduce the number of real estate partners participating in the industry, which could adversely affect our financial condition and results of operations,” the firm said.

However, Robert Braun – a partner in Cohen Milstein’s antitrust practice that represented the homesellers in the lawsuit – claimed that Friday’s settlement will lead to a more competitive and fair real estate market.

For far too long, home sellers have faced a system recognized by many as blatantly unfair,” he said. “This class action and settlement provides justice for our clients and will require important changes that help future home sellers.”

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 national luxury real estate broker has taken the industry one step closer to the future – for better or for worse, depending on how you feel about the implications of Artificial Intelligence (AI) – by announcing that it will be beta testing a website across its brokerage operations in Las Vegas featuring a first-of-its-kind “fully conversational” AI avatar that will be able to hold discussions and answer questions of prospective buyers.

Luxury Realty Group LLC, a subsidiary of Luxury Realty Group Holdings Inc, has begun testing the vuHome.ai website, claiming that their new AI avatar was created because text, images, and videos aren’t always sufficient to convey the experience of the luxury properties they are trying to sell. Instead, having an AI avatar who can actually converse with the seller and answer specific questions provides a more efficient, time saving approach to selling homes in the Las Vegas region, or at least, they say.

Pulling on up-to-the-minute MLS data, the AI avatar can be verbally asked to search for exact home criteria, including square footage, the number of stories, bedrooms, and baths, and specific amenities such as kitchen islands, pools, mountain views, guard gated communities, and what size garage they need. Within seconds, listings matching their search criteria are offered, and buyers can continue to converse with the AI to have questions pertaining to the properties they were interested in answered, including ones not readily available on traditional websites and portals.

The point, according to Luxury Realty Group, is to provide a more immersive experience for sellers and to allow them to be able to visualize living in the home more effectively. However, it remains to be seen if speaking to an eerily realistic virtual woman staring back at you from a computer screen is the best means of doing so, or if it simply conjures up the “uncanny valley,” a term that describes the sense of discomfort or unease people experience when they encounter a robot with certain human-like characteristics.

The website is currently password-protected and not for public use during its beta testing phase, but a demo video is available upon request by interested sellers, media, and prospective experienced luxury real estate agents in the Las Vegas area.

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.