Based on the reports by real estate experts, there are some states in the US that maintain a very good long term outlook even though if they are facing some problems with regards to their business industry. Some examples of these states are San Francisco, Boston and New York.  Even though Las Vegas and Phoenix remain at the bottom of because of the recession, they are not the only states that are suffering right now. Investors and professionals in the real estate industry are still unquestionably pessimistic and distressed over prospects for a long period of anemic demand and costly de-leveraging.

Also, Las Vegas has gotten bad reviews in a recent national report by the Urban Land Institute and accounting firm PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP.  Their Emerging Trends in Real Estate 2010 report, which was based on interviewing and surveying around 700 plus industry professionals around the US.  Based on the reports, after spending a time of more than one year with the housing market not relevantly moving, it has already made a big effect in the real estate market.  The commercial real estate industry rate is now going down and is foreseen to be averaging below normal levels by the start of 2010.  On a surge of unbearable write downs, defaults and workouts.  According to the real estate experts, Washington DC is now named as the new recession proof state with its very high employment rate and high reviews with regards to the nation’s commercial market.

The Starwood Capital Group recently purchased several high-rise properties in Las Vegas through U.S. Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.’s asset auction of Corus Bank, a unit of Chicago-based Corus Bankshares. This deal is expected to have a huge effect on  Southern Nevada’s luxury condominium market because of the scope and scale of Corus Bank’s local financial participation.  In the past, Corus Bank provided more than $400 million worth of loans for Las Vegas Valley condominium developments, many of which didn’t reach full potential. According to the analysts, this maybe an opportunity that may result in some abrupt price adjustments thought Las Vegas Valley.

The recent failure of Corus Bank in the Las Vegas market was accelerated due to the bad investments it made.  The publicly traded lender listed on the Pink Sheets under ticker symbol CORS was seized by the FDIC on Sept. 11 after being crippled by the condominium downturn. The Corus shares recently went down by 98 percent from a 52-week high of $5.23 a share.  Unfortunately, it was delisted from Nasdaq National Market last September 15.

According to the real estate experts, with such low purchase costs the new owners can make good profits with sales at foreclosure like price.  The median Las Vegas luxury condominium price was $386,500 this summer, which is 25 percent less than a year ago.  The chaos in Las Vegas Valley’s high rise market carries on due to the major price resets to meet depressed conditions in this product.

Local projects financed by Corus include Meridian ($111.3 million), Platinum ($87.6 million), Loft 5 ($56.5 million), Juhl ($106.2 million), Newport Lofts ($67.1 million), Panorama Towers ($236.3 million), Village Green ($60 million), the Residence Las Vegas ($56.8 million), Soho Lofts ($49.3 million), Copper Canyon ($43 million), Boulders at Lone Mountain ($40.2 million), Verano ($39.5 million) and Spanish Palms ($28.2 million) Streamline downtown and One Las Vegas on the South strip.

Superstar country singer, Garth Brooks, was lured out of semi-retirement by the casino mogul, Steve Wynn.  By giving him a large paycheck together with perks, Garth Brooks have agreed to sign a contract to take a five year weekend residency and shows at the Wynn Encore in Las Vegas starting on December 11.  This summer, Brooks have already started by playing two secret shows at the hotel.

Steve Wynn, whose expensive art collection proves again that what he wants is what he gets.  It took a lot of convincing to get Garth Brooks to sign the contract, as when Brooks retired, he vowed that he would drive his three daughters to school everyday.  Taking more than a big paycheck to get him to play at the Encore Theater , Wynn included the ultimate executive perk for Brooks, the private jet.  A new 11-seat Challenger jet, courtesy of Steve Wynn, will help him honor his promise, making short work of the commute from Oklahoma to Las Vegas.  According to Brooks, his top of the line private jet has a very cool interior and paint job.

In these shows, each ticket at the Encore will cost $125 and total sales for the shows could bring Wynn millions of dollars. But more important than ticket sales is the fact that he will be drawing people to Las Vegas and to Encore, the luxury hotel he opened when the economy was at its worst. Wynn having been in the casino business for a very long time knows that getting the people in the door can be the hardest part.  Having Brooks as an enticement for people to visit the hotel might just be worth the plane and the paycheck.

This October, the mayor of Las Vegas, Oscar Goodman was invited as the keynote speaker of the Las Vegas Real Estate Insider Club.  The house was packed during the said event and unfortunately, some of the guests that have not pre-registered was turned away due to the space constraints of the top floor of the Newport Lofts in downtown Las Vegas. The mayor, known for his stints as being the high-profile defense attorney for the Las Vegas mob, amused the crowd with interesting stories about his ex-clients and his fondness for the movie business.

The main focus of his speech was directed towards the current state of the Las Vegas housing market.  According to him, the huge majority sales closing in the Las Vegas valley continue to be real estate owned (REO) or bank owned property.  The mayor also pointed out that the number of SFRs currently available is not nearly so important to consider as the number of foreclosures being added to the market as REO listings on a monthly basis. Based on his observation,  the number of sales remain consistently high since June and the number of foreclosures are steadily declining, thus, the market is actually facing a shortage situation.

The effect of this is that there are more people who are looking to buy low-priced REO homes than there are homes to sell them. This clarifies why the investors and realtors are faced with multiple offers and bids as they try to purchase homes in the past couple of months. As the REO steadily declines, the mayor has found that a change in direction is now required to provide his investor clients with the continued ability to purchase quality investment properties without having the price bid up to levels incompatible with strong cash flow.

Overcoming economic survivor guilt

A year after the meltdowns of the banking and housing industries, an unseen by-product of the financial crisis has crept into the American society: the economic survivor guilt, the news organization USA Today reported.  

Simply put, the economic survivor guilt is the uneasy feeling of “capitalizing off of somebody else’s misfortune.”

This economic survivor guilt is specifically widespread in Las Vegas and surrounding Clark County.

Data aggregator RealtyTrac reported that in July, one in 13 homes in Las Vegas and surrounding Clark County was owned by banks. For the month of August, RealtyTrac reported that Nevada tops the U.S. foreclosure rate list, with one in every 62 housing units in Nevada receiving a foreclosure filing.

The prevalence of foreclosed homes resulted to the ample supply of houses for sale at bargain prices.
 
While a great number rejoice at the bargain home prices, there are those who carry the guilt burden for the persons who lost their homes.

A realtor told the news organization that whenever clients would express guilt feelings over the bargain prices of homes, he would remind his clients that it is not their fault and that they need to grab this opportunity for the welfare of their families. 

Psychologist Sylvia Lafair told the news organization that buying bargain-priced homes is like buying a stock. Guilt is often not attached when buying a stock as one does not meet or come in close contact in whatever form with the person who sells the bargain-priced stock. 

To overcome this economic survivor guilt, Lafair said, bargain-priced home buyers can balance this guilt with good deeds. When moving in to the newly bought home, for example, she said, the old things that are not anymore useful can be donated to the shelter of Salvation Army.

July home sales mostly foreclosure resales

About 70 percent of the homes resold in Las Vegas area for the month of July were homes that had been foreclosed in the last 12 months, this according to  
DataQuick.

DataQuick also reported that for the month of June, close to 70 percent of the homes resold in Las Vegas were also foreclosure resales.

DataQuick is a San Diego-based firm which tracks U.S. real estate trends  through public property records.

Compared to foreclosure resales of July last year, foreclosure resales in July  this year rise by 62.5 percent, DataQuick added.

The firm said the foreclosure resales reached its peak in April of this year, with 73.7 percent of  foreclosure resales in Las Vegas.

The real estate information service reported that Las Vegas home sales rose for 11 successive months as first-time buyers and investors, including those making “cash” deals, strategically sought out lower-cost, post-foreclosure properties. 

The firm added that the median sale price in July dipped by 4 percent from June.

DataQuick’s report on Las Vegas July home sales also include the following key findings:

For the month of July, a total of  5,311 homes were sold in Las Vegas-Paradise metro area (Clark County). This is the highest sales for any July since July of 2006 when home sales reached 6,530. 

Resales of 3,925 single-family homes were the highest for any July since July 2005 when 4,555 single-family homes were sold. 

For 13 successive months,  resale of condos have increased with sales in July being the highest since 2005.

DataQuick reported, “Sales of newly built homes remain extremely slow, largely because home builders can’t compete with discounted foreclosure resales.”

For the month of July, 430  new homes were sold, a decrease by 9.5 percent from June and a dip by 44.7 percent for the same period last year.

$8.5 billion Las Vegas complex to showcase earth-friendly features

Developers of the CityCenter complex have pledged that the $8.5 billion, 18-million-square-foot complex will be the most earth-friendly thing to happen on the Strip, Reuters reported.

With this huge investment, this project has been closely watched, Reuters said. Amidst this huge investment, Las Vegas ranked No.5 in the US metro foreclosure rate rankings.

Las Vegas has been buffered from the lingering recession with income from convention travel, gaming and tourism, Reuters said.

A representative for the project told Reuters that sustainability has been the focus of the project from the beginning.

Las Vegas CityCenter aims to include 61-story, 4,004-room gaming resort; two non-gaming luxury hotels: the Vdara and the Mandarin Oriental; the Veer Towers residential building and a 500,000-square-foot retail and entertainment area. All these are expected to open late this year. Scheduled to open late next year is the 400-room luxury boutique hotel called Harmon.

Reuters reported that the project, which extends from Monte Carlo to the Bellagio properties, features the following earth-friendly features:
Specially designed water fixtures that cut as much as 39 percent of water used indoors and 60 percent used in landscaping, this in contrast to the water consumption at a conventionally built project of comparable size.

Energy savings is expected to be equivalent to the amount needed to power 7,700 homes. The exterior of the buildings include air-brows, reflective rooftops, specially coated windows and high-performance glass.

It features an 8.5 megawatt natural gas cogeneration plant that is expected to supply 10 percent of the heat requirement for the project.

The CityCenter project is a joint venture between the Infinity World Development Corp. and MGM Mirage. The Infinity World Development Corp. is a subsidiary of Dubai World, the corporation that manages the international investments of the emirate.

Reuters reported that financial disputes resulted to a lawsuit between Infinity World Development Corp. and MGM Mirage in the early part of this year. The lawsuit was however settled in spring with the joint venture partners agreeing to a new agreement and committing to the completion of the project to its target date.