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Economy at a Glance - November 2008

How is Las Vegas doing?  With all of the economic gloom and doom, we need to hit the pause button for a minute and see what the numbers really say about the Las Vegas Economy.

Housing & Real Estate
Existing home closings continued to rise in October and were more than double the closings from October 2007.

Prices on existing homes did drop, but only slightly to $184,000. Existing home inventory is well below last year with 21,130 available listings - an estimated seven month supply.

SalesTraq

Tourism
Visitors to Las Vegas totaled more than 2.9 million in September. Although that represents a 10.1% decrease over 2007, year-to-date numbers are down only 2.5%.

Tourist occupied room nights are up 5% for the year.
Las Vegas Convention & Visitors Authority

AAA announced its latest Five Diamond Award® winners. Las Vegas is second only to Chicago in number of Five Diamond restaurants.

• Restaurant Guy Savoy in Caesars Palace
• Picasso in Bellagio
• Le Cirque in Bellagio
  
• Alex in Wynn Las Vegas
• Joël Robuchon at MGM Grand Hotel & Casino

Five local hotels also received this coveted award

• The Venetian Resort Hotel Casino
  
• Skylofts at MGM Grand Hotel
• Wynn Las Vegas
• Bellagio
• Four Seasons Hotel Las Vegas

The Michelin Guide Las Vegas awarded Joël Robuchon its highest honors with three stars in its 2009 edition. Alex, Restaurant Guy Savoy and Picasso were each awarded two stars.

Retail

Taxable goods sold in Nevada increased 3.1% to $4.05 billion in August, primarily due to the governor's tax amnesty program. Without the amnesty program, sales would have declined 3.6%.
Nevada Department of Taxation

Air Traffic
The total passenger count at McCarran in September was 3.37 million, down 13.2% over last year.

Despite air traffic declines, numbers for international scheduled flights at Terminal 2 are up 5.7% for the year.
Clark County Department of Aviation

Business & Employment
Unemployment in Nevada was 7.6% in October, with the rate in Las Vegas slightly lower at 7.5%. The total labor force in the Las Vegas market has increased 5.4% since last year, and total employment is up 2.6%.
Nevada Department of Employment, Training and Rehabilitation

Gaming
Statewide gaming win totaled just over $1 billion in September, down 5.4%.

Clark County numbers declined 2.9% to $853.5 million, the highest monthly total since March.
Nevada Gaming Control Board

Population & Market Growth
More than 5,600 new movers came to Clark County in October.

Although the county's population decreased by about 10,000 people in the past year to 1,986,146, Clark County is expected to see a 54% growth rate in the next twenty years.
Department of Motor Vehicles, Clark County, & Nevada State Demographer's Office

Did you know?

We bet you think you know all the important stats about Las Vegas. Perhaps you are considering a move here, and since you’re smart and on the ball, you’ve done all your research on our fair city and can recite the facts to the natives.
Well, we’d venture to say we have a few stats you may not have researched, but really tell the flavor of not only our history, but also some interesting tidbits on some of our former residents or visitors.


Take a look:

• It would take 288 years for one person to spend one night in every hotel room in Las Vegas.

• Shrimp consumption in Las Vegas is more than 60,000 pounds a day – higher than the rest of the country combined.

• Howard Hughes stayed at the Desert Inn for so long that he was asked to leave. So, he bought the hotel.

• The average Las Vegas household consumes about 230,000 gallons of water a year.

• There is one operating slot machine in Las Vegas for every 8 residents.

• The Wynn and the Rio hotels do not have any elevator floors that start with the number 4.

This is because the #4 is not lucky in the Chinese culture.

• If you combine the Las Vegas Strip and the downtown area, there are more than 15,000 miles of lighted neon tubing.

• Las Vegas is home to the largest community of Hawaiians outside of Hawaii.

Know some interesting bit of trivia about Las Vegas that we don't?  Let us know.  We welcome your email.

In the Movie Musical "The Sound of Music", Julie Andrews sang about how the hills were alive with the sound of music.  Today that sound is an auctioneers gavel.  The buss these days is all about Foreclosures and Short Sales, and there is a lot of interest in buying bank owned properties.  And rightfully so.  There are amazing bargains in Las Vegas to be found - today - in foreclosures.  However, with so much information, some is going to be valuable, and some quite frankly is bad.  The internet is loaded with questionable information about the subject.   Often the information offered is for sale, with the promise that you can make a lot of money with little effort once you know “the secret formula”.  The fact is that there are no secrets, and to make money does require effort.  Let us help you sort the facts from the fiction.  The right decision can make you wealthy.  The wrong one can cost you dearly.

What’s an REO?
REO is an internal Bank term.  It stands for “Real Estate Owned”.  These are properties that have gone through foreclosure and are now owned by the bank or mortgage company.  This is not the same as a property up for foreclosure auction.  When buying a property during a foreclosure sale, you must pay at least the loan balance plus any interest and other fees accumulated during the foreclosure process.  You must also be prepared to pay with cash in hand.  And on top of all that, you’ll receive the property 100% “as is”.  That could include existing liens and even current occupants that need to be evicted.  A REO, by contrast, is a much “cleaner” and attractive transaction.  The REO property did not find a buyer during foreclosure auction.  The bank now owns it.  The bank will see to the removal of tax liens, evict occupants if needed and generally prepare for the issuance of a title insurance policy to the buyer at closing.  Do be aware that REO’s may be exempt from normal disclosure requirements.  In Nevada, for example, banks are exempt from giving a Real Property Disclosure Statement, a document that normally requires sellers to tell you about any defects they are aware of.  This need not, and should not scare you off.  You may still be able to reserve the right to obtain a property inspection from a licensed inspector.

Is it a bargain?
It’s commonly assumed that any REO must be a bargain and an opportunity for easy money.  This simply isn’t true.  You have to be very careful about buying a REO if your intent is to make money off of it.  While it’s true that the bank is typically anxious to sell it quickly, they are also strongly motivated to get as much as they can for it.  When considering the value of a REO, you need to look closely at comparable sales in the neighborhood and be sure to take into account the time and cost of any repairs or remodeling needed to prepare the house for resale.  The bargains with money making potential exist, and many people do very well buying foreclosures.  But there are also many REO’s that are not good buys and not likely to turn a profit.   We are there to help you with that evaluation, and help you navigate the potential mine fields.

If you would like a copy of our free daily update of the top 10 Foreclosure Deals in Las Vegas, simply give us your email address and name, and we will include you in our "Top 10 Daily Hotlist" Blast.  If you have a particular area and/or price range that you are interested in let us know, and we will customize a "Top 10 Daily Hotlist" Blast just for you.  There is no obligation, but we promise prompt, courteous, and confidential service.

This is a question I get asked a lot.  "With interest rates fluctuating, the volatility of the market, and Foreclosures at an all time high, should I wait for the market to turn, or should I buy now?  What if I buy now, and the prices go down some more?"  The answer is:  Buy Now!  Consider the following chart courtesy of Lending Tree.

As you can see from the above example, if you wait for the price to go down 10%, but the interest rate only goes up 1/2%, your payment will be the same.  The chances of the interest rates going up 1/2 or even 1% are as good as that prices will decline another 10%.  However, if you wait, you will have lost the pride of ownership, the potential to build equity, the tax advantages as a result of interest deductability, and perhaps the house you want today, verses a house you might not like as much a year from now.  Perhaps the biggest reason is what I call the "BDF" which stands for "Bank Desperation Factor."  Right now, Banks are desperate to get bad loans and REOs (That is their term for Foreclosures - it stands for 'Real Estate Owned') off their books.  The reason is simple; the more bad loans and REOs in their portfolio, the less money they can loan, the less solvent they are, and the less profitable they are.  The result?  The prices on Foreclosures today are so low, you might consider it legal theft.  But when the investors come back out of the woodwork as they already are we will see prices of Foreclosures firm back up.  The other day I showed a Foreclosure property that had 15 offers on it by the end of the weekend.  (That one was way low, which sparked the feeding frenzy among the investment sharks).

Bottom line:  Don't wait to buy.  Click on and fill out the interest form now, and we will - without pressure - give you all the information you need to find and buy the right property, if you determine that the time is right for YOU.