During the 2008 financial crisis, Las Vegas’s housing market was crushed and left devastated as one of the worst real estate markets in the country. Such makes sense as Las Vegas is the one of the world’s largest destination cities, and the tourism industry was hit hard as families were struggling to pay their bills and make ends meet, let alone travel to a city merely for entertainment purposes. Consequently, money did not flow into the city like it had prior to 2008, resulting in many people’s decision to leave Las Vegas for greener pastures.
As money has returned to the city, so have a lot of people who originally had left. Many exciting things have been happening in the once struggling city, not least of which are the decision of the NHL to add an expansion team in Las Vegas, and the conversation between hotel mogul Sheldon Adelson and the NFL to relocate the Raiders in Nevada, which would result in Las Vegas being identified as a “destination location” and taking it to the next level of being a metropolitan city. So what does this have to do with homes and if I should buy one?
With so many opportunities arriving in Vegas, with many more surely to come, and with the housing market on the rebound, Las Vegas homebuilders have become increasingly active. Dennis Smith, the founder of Home Builders Research is excited about new home building in Las Vegas as “the first half of 2016 ‘resulted in some stronger new-home closings results than we anticipated.’” Currently, the housing market in Las Vegas is trending towards pre-2008 levels, especially for newly built homes as “buyers picked up 3,422 new homes in the first half of 2016, up 12.7 percent from the same period last year.” Home builders have also pulled “4,710 new home permits for the first half of this year, up 14 percent from the same period last year… the median sales price of June’s closings was $327,622, up 8.1 percent from a year earlier and back to summer 2007 levels.”
Smith also states that just “a year ago, most people in the housing and lending industries figured mortgage rates would climb enough ‘to slow consumer demand.’ However, such is not the case. The average interest rates, nationally, for a 30-year home loan was 3.57 percent in June, a .59 percent decrease from just 2 years ago.
These newly founded construction projects are just one of many indications that Las Vegas as a whole (especially its housing market) is on the rise from the disaster it found itself in during the 2008 financial crisis.
I look forward to see the progress Las Vegas’s real estate market will continue to make. To check out the full article, click here.
