Las Vegas, the neon city in the middle of a desert, has seen its housing market expand and collapse in the blink of an eye. But Las Vegas is a town where millionaires are made overnight and even Las Vegas real estate investors can win big.

Las Vegas’ neighborhoods are still recovering from the slump caused by overbuilding, speculation and subprime lending. Foreclosures line the streets and planned luxury high rise condos on the Las Vegas Strip are incomplete or sitting vacant. Looking ahead, changes to the job market and lending industry are about to put new pressure on Las Vegas’ housing market.

“The change in the market over the last three years has gone from an extreme hyper lack of supply to a severe glut,” Sean Brown, CEO of the National Association of Residential Real Estate Investment Advisors (NARREIA), said. “We’ve gone from [a] market where it was a cash flow positive, below national median house price…to something where you’re going to have negative cash flow…unless you do some bizarrely creative financing on it, which has gone away with the implosion of the lending industry.”

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With Las Vegas having more than 29,000 homes, townhouses and condos on the market, the Southern Nevada Home Builders Association released a report last month that the region would have a shortage of workforce housing by 2009.

The report, drafted by Las Vegas consulting firm Applied Analysis, said it’s possible because of the opening of resorts on the Strip in 2009 and 2010. The creation of jobs will fuel the demand for migration to Las Vegas and the need for more homes, the report said.

If that is true, it means people looking for bargains better buy homes in 2008 because strong demand will only increase housing prices.

“We think it is a matter of grave concern to the community,” said Monica Caruso, spokeswoman for the homebuilders. “With the resorts opening, that is going to bring in tens of thousands of jobs, and our industry has to rachet up to address workforce housing at the end of 2009. People are well served to get a roof over their head quickly. We are going to have no place to live, and people are going to have to double up and triple up.”

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With a constant eye toward improving downtown, Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman gave his usual unfiltered assessment of the state of the city to a group of business leaders at a recent luncheon.

“You’re going to be so impressed with Las Vegas,” the flamboyant Goodman said about recent development announcements, including a sports stadium, a music hall and multiple condominium projects. “Your friends will say they never thought Las Vegas could get to this level. It’s going to be iconic. World-class performing.”

With a twinkle in his eye, the former mob lawyer came out swinging as he shot down detractors during his address to more than 100 people at Lawry’s The Prime Rib. The event was part of Vanguard Media Group’s quarterly Development Roundtable. The Las Vegas Business Press co-sponsors the events.

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Las Vegas real estate expert Paul Murad will lead a Round Table discussion at IMN in Las Vegas.

Las Vegas, Nevada (PRWEB) November 30, 2007 — The Third Annual Las Vegas Symposium on Constructing, Financing, Developing and Operating Condo-Hotels and Branded residences is being held December 3-4, 2007, at The MGM GRAND Hotel and Casino.

Organized by The Information Management Network (IMN) to better equip finance and commerce investors—over 600 builders, owners, developers, analysts and financial lenders both nationwide and internationally will exchange knowledge on today’s condo-hotel market. What lies ahead for Las Vegas Real Estate?

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This city is building a museum about some of its founding fathers and most influential figures - guys with names like Bugsy, Lefty and Lansky.

The mob museum will stand as frank acknowledgment of the major role mobsters played in developing Las Vegas into the gambling capital of America and giving the city its rakish glamour during the 1940s and ’50s.

“Let’s be brutally honest, warts and all. This is more than legend. It’s fact,” said Mayor Oscar Goodman, a former defense attorney whose clients included mobsters Meyer Lansky and Anthony “Tony the Ant” Spilotro. “This is something that differentiates us from other cities.”

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A December 2007 Redfin (a discount real estate advertiser) analysis of its online traffic for 119,079 listings across seven markets found that listings that debut on Friday get on average 7.7 percent more visitors in their first seven days than those that debut on the worst day, Thursday. So if you are putting up your condo for sale make sure that you list it on Friday, and if you are looking to buy a Las Vegas Condo try calling on Thursday when sellers are expecting a slow day and more willing to negotiate.

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Construction cranes are everywhere, and so was the sound of development, especially emanating from CityCenter. Literally thousands of construction workers are working around the clock from now until November 2009 to build this 76-acre complex that will span roughly the part of the Strip between the Bellagio and the Monte Carlo. The total cost will be about $7.8 billion. The city-within-a-city will likely feature the Strip’s first grocery store (I’m guessing it won’t be your basic Safeway), a post office, public art, entertainment centers, a natural-light casino, and a convention center. There will be thousands of luxuriously appointed hotel rooms, for-sale condos and condo/hotel configurations. In true Las Vegas Real Estate style, the developer, MGM Mirage, spent more than $25 million on the sales center and sales presentations for CityCenter, and they’ll rip it down when the project is ready for occupation.

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A common complaint of residents in high-end, Las Vegas high-rise condominiums is that they pay exorbitant prices for a cookie-cutter look that is indistinguishable from other units in a project.

Chet Nichols of AmLand Development was determined to make sure that didn’t happen at his project ONE Las Vegas.

The combination of sizes, distinct floor plans and available upgrade options almost guarantees that residents of ONE Las Vegas can create a living space that is unique.

There are 14 floor plans available with sizes ranging from 830 to 2,850 square feet. Although a few of the plans have only subtle variations, most are markedly different.

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Solar technology developer Ausra Inc. said Thursday it is building a factory in the Nevada desert that will turn out equipment for large-scale solar thermal farms.

Palo Alto-based Ausra said the Las Vegas facility will create the components used by solar facilities in the sunny Southwest, including a farm Ausra wants to build in San Luis Obispo County.

In November, Ausra said it inked a deal with Pacific Gas and Electric Co. for 177 megawatts of solar power from the San Luis Obispo plant, which it said should begin producing by 2010.

Ausra’s power plants drive steam turbines with sunshine. Locally manufactured solar concentrators made of steel and glass focus sunlight to boil water, generating high-pressure steam that drives conventional turbine generators. New thermal energy storage systems using pressurized water and low cost materials will provide for on-demand generation day and night.

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