A good bet? Residential real estate in Las Vegas is on fire. Residents and investors alike see real estate as the smartest bet in town. But can the trend last--or is Vegas one of those bubbles everyone is talking about?

Mortgage Banking › Vol. 65 Nbr. 12, September 2005 ›

Author: Schiavone, Louise L.

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Summary

INDUSTRY TRENDS

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Extract

A good bet? Residential real estate in Las Vegas is on fire. Residents and investors alike see real estate as the smartest bet in town. But can the trend last--or is Vegas one of those bubbles everyone is talking about?

THE AIR IS DRY AND OFTEN SCORCHING. THE view is utterly monochromatic--various terra cotta shades of rock, dirt and dust, framed by mountains. If there is water, it's nowhere in sight. And because the residential terrain is so flat, acres and acres of land look like just a few blocks. And guess what: Every month, 8,000 people move in and 2,000 people move out.

Just about everything you can think of is under construction: highways, hospitals, doctors' offices, warehouses, more houses, more hotels, more condominiums, more office buildings, more gas stations, more stores. There are street addresses so new they haven't been listed in GPS Magellan Navigator yet. This is Las Vegas. Real estate here is sizzling. Sales and prices are so hot that some people are worried that, if ever there was a housing bubble, Las Vegas is it.

Across the nation, average home prices shot up 12.5 percent from the first quarter of 2004 through the first quarter...

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