Retiring to Vegas

You Too Can Happen In Vegas

So *That’s* What the Corner Looks Like!

May 14

Posted by Steve in About Las Vegas, Information, Real Estate Information | No Comments

Follow this link to an article from the Las Vegas Review Journal about real estate prices in Las Vegas. This is germane because for at least the last two years I’ve been telling people through this blog and elsewhere to Buy Low so later you can Sell High. It’s not too late to buy low. Las Vegas is still undervalued. But inventory is getting scarce, and the median price of a home in the Valley has been rising for several months. We are no longer #1 in foreclosures, nor bank sales, nor even short sales.

We are, however, still

  • The Entertainment Capitol of the World
  • A clean Southwestern city
  • A place where the “bad weather” part of the year means that it’s hot
  • A city where real estate is selling for less than fair market value

What is fair market value? Well, whatever it sells for, I suppose, but there is a rule of thumb in real estate that says that a house is worth ten years rent (120 months rent.) Most places are currently selling for about 100 months rent, more or less. (Less in higher end properties.) So, by rule of thumb, property in Las Vegas is undervalued.

Of course, that may change. Global warming may lower rents for everyone or something. But somehow I doubt it. Owner occupied property taxes are low, there is no income tax, the entertainment opportunities (including what is usually thought of as “culture”) abound, and you never have to shovel your driveway unless it’s to spread the gravel you bought.

Something to think about while you contemplate spending another winter waiting for the ice storm ax to fall.

702-379-6267
stevefey@hotmail.com
steve.fey1 on Skype

Tags: , ,

Souvenirs of Las Vegas

May 3

Posted by Steve in Information | No Comments

Keychains

Get 'em while they're 'ot!

I just made a new page that allows you to order a souvenir keychain that’s based on the famous Welcome to Fabulous Las Vegas sign. There is a regular link to the page under “Las Vegas Info.” It’s really a marketing test, but you can take advantage of the opportunity to get your very own Welcome to Las Vegas keychain for only a buck plus two bucks shipping. You can get up to three of them for a buck each plus the same two bucks shipping. That’s $4 for 2 or $5 for 3. Such a deal, eh? If this works out and people like getting souvenirs I will be expanding my offerings. I am not making any money from this venture (I’m not losing any either) but I do hope that those who buy will remember me fondly when they decide to move to the Entertainment Capitol of the World! ‘Kay?

March Statistics for Southern Nevada

Apr 2

Posted by Steve in About Las Vegas, Real Estate Information | No Comments

LAS VEGAS REAL ESTATE STATISTICS FOR MARCH 2012
(Single family residences only)

3316 properties closed in March 2012. Prices ranged from $70.00 (!) to $3,500,000.00. The median sales price in March was $123,500.00, which is $67 per square foot (median again.) The median ration of list price to sales price is 99.5%, so mostly things seem to be priced about right. The median days on the market was 47, another indicator of a well priced market.

It will be another two years at least before we in Las Vegas see the end of the depressed prices caused by foreclosures. I was saying about a year or so from now, but recent laws making it harder to foreclose have slowed down the process. The good news about that is that now we are seeing more short sales.

Short sales good news?

Well, yes. For one thing, everyone involved in short sales is more experienced so mostly things tend to work properly the first time. Not that it doesn’t still take longer, two to three times longer seems to be typical these days, but that it doesn’t fail and go into foreclosure at some random point, spoiling the entire effort. Also, people short selling have good reasons not to trash the place, and in fact short sold properties tend to be in a whole lot better condition than foreclosed properties. Also, and this means a lot to some people, there isn’t any government money tied up in a short sale the way there can be in a foreclosure if Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac end up owning the place. Finally, short sales generally get a better price than a foreclosure, although I may just be restating my last sentence, as the better condition will command a better price.

So, if you’re contemplating retiring to Las Vegas you have a couple of years, maybe longer but don’t quote me on that, to decide to do so, locate a property you love, and settle into our Mojave oasis. There are some financing options available, such as 203k, that let you make an old, possibly damaged house into your dream home. (I’m not kidding about that.) Hover over “Real Estate Information” above and choose “HUD 203k” to learn more.

Tags: , ,

The Boulder Highway Corridor

Feb 28

Posted by Steve in About Las Vegas, Information, Las Vegas Life | No Comments

There is a new link on this blog that leads to Boulder Highway dot com. Boulder Highway, knows as Fremont Street within the City of Las Vegas, has a strip of it’s own. It also is a major business thoroughfare through Henderson, and of course at the head is The Fremont Street Experience, and at the foot is Boulder City Nevada. The road runs from the world’s most famous gambling district (“Glitter Gulch”) to a town where gambling is illegal. Boulder City is generally quiet and subdued compared to Las Vegas, and it’s a great place to literally get away from the glitz for a while. As a local you may come to appreciate the break. In between the two extremes are hundreds of businesses of all types, and that’s what the site Boulder Highway dot com is all about. Retiring to Vegas has nothing whatsoever with the production or content of that site, but what the heck, give it a try!

Commercial, Anyone?

Dec 16

Posted by Steve in About Las Vegas, Information, Real Estate Information | No Comments

Not the thing on TV that you skip past with your DVR! I mean commercial property. Now I’m not the expert on such things. I specialize in residential properties. But it occurs to me that a number of boomer retirees really won’t retire because we can’t afford to right now, we like to work, and besides we’re not old, dammit! That being established, a lot of people use the occasion of reaching sixty-five or so to open up a business for themselves. That can mean, in many cases, getting a brick and mortar place (okay, maybe it’s stone and wood, but you know what I mean) from which to operate.

I bring that up here because in Las Vegas these days the commercial market, which lags the residential market by a bit, is really, really priced low. There’s what used to be a residence in my neighborhood for $285k that was worth over a million a few years ago. It’s on a busy street, has lots of traffic, and is zoned residential/commercial (which means that you can run a business out of your house, should you choose to live there.) I live in a really nice neighborhood, too, although I am a bit biased. See what I mean? You could own a large house with parking that you can legally run a store/repair business/service/etc. out of.

Should this sound good to you, call me at 702-379-6267 and I’ll connect you with a commercial agent.

Just something to think about as you contemplate moving to the most exciting city in the world!

Tags: ,

1408 Pawnee Walk-Thru

Dec 12

Posted by Steve in Information | No Comments

I’m starting a new thing where I post walk-thur videos of homes for sale in Paradise Palms, which is where I live. Paradise Palms is in the middle of town, so it’s not for everyone. But, for those who like mid-modern design and architecture, it’s almost a must-have. Since I live here, I’m working hard to be the go to guy for Paradise Palms. I recently got some fancy new editing software, and I’ve been playing with it. The first useful result is this video:

Hope you enjoy it!

MOVING ALONG . . .

Jul 25

Posted by Steve in Information | No Comments

Retiringtovegas is not going away. I will be doing most of my business on my public Facebook page. If the link doesn’t work, here’s the html: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Retiring-to-Vegas/181810418530692.

A plain blog just isn’t cutting the mustard, so to speak. Not everything from here will move there, and it will take a while anyway. But, for instance you can find the daily updates that have been available on the Buy Paradise Palms page on Facebook now. Do click on over. We’ll keep a light on for ya . . .

Paradise Palms Again

Jun 27

Posted by Steve in About Las Vegas, Classic Las Vegas, Information | No Comments

Paradise Palms Attractions circa 1963

A reproduction of a portion of the original sales material for Paradise Palms

A friend of mine who goes by the name Paradise Palms collects old promotional brochures for the neighborhood from when it all was new. This example was used specifically in a brochure for the Americana series, which is mostly North of Desert Inn Road on the West end of the development. Some of the features are really sought after still today. The fireplaces are wonderful, the tile work is excellent, the overall design is functional and beautiful. Then, to be honest about things, you find the vinyl asbestos tile and the aluminum windows. Those windows were great at letting the outside come in, which is a guiding principle of modern architecture. But if they ever didn’t leak, those days are long gone. They’re simple enough to replace: Lowes did ours and did a wonderful job of it. But vinyl-asbestos tile? Not all Paradise Palms houses used the stuff, but if yours did, my advice is simply to put whatever you want instead over the top. We now know asbestos to be a killer. Back in the day, well, they stood and watched atomic bombs explode wearing welder’s goggles, too.

If you look on the Paradise Palms site (the link is above) you’ll find a whole slew of these old brochures. They’ll show you just how much the world has changed. They’ll also remind you of the days when innovation and creativity were applied to housing for real, not just in advertising campaigns.

Buy Your Home in Paradise Palms!

Jun 9

Posted by Steve in Information, Real Estate Information | No Comments

To the left, under “Pages of Interest”, you will find a new link under “Real Estate Information” titled “Buy Paradise Palms!” There I will be updating the current list of homes for sale without offers in Paradise Palms South of Desert Inn Road as the changes occur. The list you see there is right from the MLS, with the date and time of the list creation as the caption for the graphic. I know a lot of readers don’t want to buy in Paradise Palms, and believe me, I understand and that’s fine with me. But, because I live here I like to promote the subdivision, and this is one of my efforts to do just that!

Don’t feel like searching for that link? Then just click here!

Tags:

June Email Newsletter

Jun 2

Posted by Steve in Information, Newsletters | No Comments

Volume 2, Issue 6                         June 1, 2011 Moving to Vegas A MONTHLY NEWSLETTER FROM STEVE FEY OF CENTURY 21 CONSOLIDATED IN LAS VEGAS

Storms, Storms, and More Storms  I am not complaining. We’ve had nary a tornado, no heavy rains, no hurricanes, not even any significant earthquakes or even, and this is unusual, any particularly hot weather. But we have had a lot of storms. A spring storm in Southern Nevada consists of a lot a wind, clouds, maybe some rain depending on exactly where you live (we got a quarter inch last week in my neighborhood) and chilly weather. Chilly? Well, a high in the sixties with low humidity and wind isn’t exactly toasty warm. But like I said, this is not a complaint, just sympathy for those downstream from us. Those storms that blow dirt into our swimming pools go on to become killers when they reach the Midwest. We get the cold air from the north, but we virtually never get that hot humid air from the Gulf of Mexico. As soon as the storms get far enough East to run into that stuff, the nasty weather starts. Well, enough lecture on the weather. Spring in Las Vegas can be windy and cool, and this year is a demonstration of that. Most of us are okay with the wind, because as soon as those storms stop coming in our wind shifts to the South, and then it just stays hot for ten weeks or so. Not always 112 degrees, but hot enough for practical purposes. That Southerly wind is due to an effect called a monsoon. Maybe you’ve heard of a big one in Asia? They’re not all wet, but they are all hot. Check out the June weather just over to your right for more. Steve steve@retiringtovegas.com 702-379-6267 Odd Bits about Las Vegas: They mayor’s race has gotten nasty! No kidding. The Mayor of Las Vegas has more or less no authority because they hire a city manager to actually run the place. But the two remaining candidates, Chris G. and Carolyn Goodman, both have ads on the air that say mean and unkind, and I suspect untrue, things about each other. Gee but I wish candidates wouldn’t do that! But, maybe it’s an example of “the less meaningful the outcome, the hotter the debate.” Ah, so.   Cool, Baby! June brings the start of summer, which in Las Vegas means that it’s going to be hot. True, it is a dry heat, and it isn’t as bad as it sounds to somebody who lives in a more humid place. But I have to be honest, 112 degrees Fahrenheit is too dratted hot and no mistake. So, how do people survive the heat? I kid you not, it’s easy! When I was but a child, back in Tiffin, Ohio, it got hot in the summer. Not hot as in “boy it’s a hundred-and-ten outside” but hot as in “it’s not the heat, it’s the humidity”. I don’t know if it was true, but we used to talk about 90 degrees and 90 percent humidity. How did I survive those summers? I went swimming! In Las Vegas a lot of people have swimming pools, but not everybody. If you don’t have one of your own (and there are some good arguments for not having one, but that’s for another time) you may live in an apartment complex that has a couple. Or, you can just drop in on one of the County or City owned pools like the one pictured here. That pool is at Cambridge Recreation Center operated by Clark County. It’s the closest public pool to my house. About a zillion kids will take a dip in this and other pools on a hot summer’s day. Maybe two zillion, it’s tough to count that high. Don’t like the chlorine? Visit Lake Mead, where there are beaches and changing rooms. This year there’s also an expected bonus: a thirty-foot rise in the lake level thanks to a record snowpack along the Western Slope of the Rockies in Colorado. When Vail and Aspen have an excellent year, so do we! That rise in the lake level is important, because it means the parking lot and other facilities are a lot closer to where you’ll be swimming. And if swimming isn’t your thing, the largest manmade lake in the world offers lots of boating, fishing, house boating, jet skiing, well any sort of waterborne recreation, in fact. Other “cool” places would be some of the museums found here. I’ve written about some of our museums and will be writing about others as well. For instance, The Nevada State Museum in Lorenzi Park, or the Atomic Testing Museum on East Flamingo Road. There are of course others, such as The Natural History Museum that offers some cool deals for locals. Finally, here’s a picture of a temperature that actually never happened, but this sign, on a Walgreen’s in Henderson, really did read just what it says here in this unretouched actual photo. Now that’s just gotta be hot enough for anyone, doesn’t it?

 March Las Vegas Weather:  June is when Summer begins. Usually right around the time the calendar agrees with that statement, it gets hot and stays that way until September. Most years there is only a week or so of truly, awfully gee-whiz heat, but it’s dependably hot all summer long, starting in June.

  • Mean high temperature is 100°F, or 38° Celsius.
  • The mean low temperature is 69° F, or 20.5°C
  • Mean March Rainfall equals .2 inches
  • Record High is 116° F (47C), and the record low is 48° F (9C).

Even if it’s getting hot during the day in June, usually the nights cool down nicely. The average high is 100, and you can start depending on hundred degree days by the middle of the month. June is rarely gosh-awful hot, but usually gets pretty darned hot. Las Vegas weather can be surprising. The official record high temperature was 117 degrees, just a couple of years ago. The official record low was 8 degrees, a long time ago. In winter it typically freezes most nights for a couple of months, although rarely a truly hard freeze. In summer it only rarely gets above 110 degrees, but most of us think that 110 degrees is hot enough for practical purposes anyway. Everything is air-conditioned, even temporary storage facilities.
To contact Steve, including to opt out of this newsletter, please email using the address below.  Email: steve.fey@century21.com Website: www.retiringtovegas.com Snail Mail: 2820 Flamingo Road Las Vegas NV 89121 Ph.  702-379-6267 Fax 702-732-8466 Like getting this newsletter? Forward it on to your friends! Las Vegas is a great place for a Boomer to live, so why not pass it on?
Things to Do in Vegas (Even When You’re Alive)  Keep cool! (See above.) Also, if you’ve never seen the newest hotel/casino resorts along the Strip, then summer can be a good time to visit. It’s cool in there, for one thing, and some of them get nothing but rave reviews from locals. Just now Cosmopolitan is the big draw. There is a secret pizza place in there, for instance. I’d tell you where it is, but, well, you know. (Honest, it’s unadvertised and no signs point to it.)

LAS VEGAS REAL ESTATE MARKET STATISTICS AS OF May 31, 2011 (single family residences) Total listings equals 21013 Listings with no offers equals 12204 Closings since May 1st equals 2696 Absorption rate based on the above is 12013 listings/2696 closings per month, giving an absorption rate of 4.5 months, which is down a bit. A lower absorption rate looks good, but the fact is that in Las Vegas we are still getting foreclosed properties put on the market every month. I saw a recent estimate that there are another 48,000 foreclosures to be processed. If true, that inventory alone would take a year and a half to sell. When you add in all of the “normal” property sales (and there are a lot of them as well) you can see why some people say it may be five years before Las Vegas recovers. Well, four-and-a-half, now. I’m not quite that pessimistic, because I expect people to notice, rather too late as usual, the low cost of properties in Southern Nevada, and to then start snatching them up, which will drive prices up for everybody. Good if you’re selling, bad if you’re buying. Some neighborhoods already are showing signs of recovery. In Paradise Palms, for instance, most current homes for sale are traditional equity sales, not short or foreclosure sales. So, I say again: the adage is “buy low, sell high”. Well, Las Vegas real estate is low. What are you waiting for? A written invitation? Well, this is one. So? As always, this information is from the Multiple Listing Service and is deemed accurate but not guaranteed. Figures were gathered at 8:50 AM PDT on May 31, 2011.

June 2011

Sunday Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday
1 Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band released in the UK in 1967 2  (US Release the next day.) 3 4
5 RFK Shot in 1968 (he died the next day) 6 7 8 9 Nero died in 68. Pretty much no one is sorry to this day. 10 11
12 13 14  Flag Day 15 16 17  Watergate break-in, 1972 18  Sally Ride goes into space in 1983
19 20 21 22 23 24 25
26 A Hard Day’s Night released in 1964 27 28 29 The Interstate Highway System is established in 1956 30

generated by HTML Calendar Maker 1.1. Copyright (C) 2009 John Dalbey.

Tags: