Real Estate Housing Market Evening Out

New-home sales in Las Vegas in March'05 was 3,135 and
the median price in March'05 was $281,315, an increase
of $55,502, or 24.6 percent, from the same month a
year ago. If condominium conversions are taken out of
consideration, the new-home median price was $304,734.

According to Dennis Smith, president of Home Builders
Research the market is was correcting for the
oversupply of inventory from last year and adjusting
evenly and now the demand is catching up on supply.
This would help keep prices stable.

Sales of existing homes also went up from a slow start
to post 5,470-recorded closings in March. But the
three-month total of 12,698 is still down 13.1 percent
from a year ago. On the other hand the new-home total
of 7,691 sales is up 11 percent. The median price of a
resale homes in March was $257,000, up 23.3 percent
from a year ago. Since the first of the year, the
price has risen only $7,000.

According to Smith in order for the housing market to
return to a more balanced condition, there has to be
fewer products available that compete with the new
home segment. And that's what happening now.

How Many High Rises Will Eventually Come Up?

Not all of the proposed high-rise towers will come up
in Las Vegas according to analysts.
Less than half around 30 percent of 100 or so towers
that were supposed to come up will eventually come up
according to Wall Street Analyst only reinforcing what
local experts have long been predicting.

If all the 100 announced high rises are built that
will be whopping 37,000 new luxury condos on the
market according to a Deutsche Bank report. Though
Turnberry Towers and Park Towers started the trend of
luxury condo living in Las Vegas several other
projects like Metropolis, SoHo Lofts and Panorama are
coming up continuing the trend.

But not many are sure of how many units will actually
come up or how many will finally sell. With the
failing of Krystle Sands, homebuyers who were on the
waiting list of that high-rise on the Strip, around
3000 of them are back on the market and there may be
scramble for homes that are coming up on the Strip.
Bruce Hiatt, owner and broker of Luxury Realty Group
in Las Vegas feels that there be a bullish condo storm
on Strip. Turberry Towers homes sold out in hours and
there are no other new projects coming up there in the
near future.

High-rise the new trend in Las Vegas

A respect real estate seller, Stan Kates feels that
eventually all the 100 or more Las Vegas high rises
will be built over the next 5 to 10 years. The owners
and promoters may not be the same as today but there
is a tremendous demand for new units around
40,000-50,000 in Las Vegas and unless all these
projects are completed this demand will never be met.

Las Vegas is facing a resource shortage. There is not
much land left which can be developed into homes.
Second the prices of existing land are skyrocketing.
That's the reason why more and more builders are going
for high rises to get more bang for their buck.
Eventually how these projects get completed will
depend entirely on the financial savvy of the
promoting companies. Some of the projects are being
held together by the breadth of a hair and any false
move could that the owners would lose them.

Many experts feel that Las Vegas was not even coming
close to meet the booming demand for its real estate.
Foreign investors are buying up Las Vegas units like
they buy commodities fuelling the demand ever more.