L V Resident wrote on November 09, 2007 02:51 PM: Headline says it all. Prices have not fallen enough for rational folks to be buying. When I still see 2100 Sq ft homes in Summerlin still asking $500K to $600K and up, come on people! I seeing that this may take at least 5 years to sort itself out. That is how long it took to get us to this insane point! Sellers will get the message if they sober up and realize that the party has been over for sometime. Swallow your pride, admit that your "professional" realtor, lender and "friendly" housing developer sold you a bill of goods and that you thought you could outfox market forces! Ya, I know, you got burned with the Tech Stocks, now you were going to make a killing like your buddy Fred did in Real Estate, except Fred forgot to tell you he got burnt also! Now the Boys at GLVAR are saying its a great time to buy, well remember that old joke, "Dr. how can you be checking my prostate when you have both of your hands on my shoulders?" Same thing again! I know it hurts, but you have been hosed again!

VegasBob wrote on November 09, 2007 02:29 PM: All those A holes at GLVAR have been lying and hyping this market for the last 2 years. The Market ran out of speculator gas in 2006 after five years of pure hyped,shilled and flipped housing sales. Remember 40% appreciation one year? In the back of your mind Folks you knew something was out of whack! But the greed boys in GLVAR and the Lenders all pumped and dumped those housing units on the guiliable and the greedy who , just like the DOT COM Scam, thought the ride would never end. Well, 2007 the knife began to fall and its going to keep falling until prices get back to the historic mean. Translation, if you want to sell better get out front of the wave and drop your prices another 20 to 30% from this point or face seeing losing more equity, assumning you have not used your property as an ATM machine. BTW the boys are still hyping the Strip Condo market. The only ones buying there are the EURO Trash who money to move into sppeculative markets. Beware.

Brad wrote on November 09, 2007 02:20 PM: Remember, buy low, sell high. It works in the stock market, and real estate. Las Vegas real estate has a long, steep decline ahead! Wait for the bottom to buy.

douglas wrote on November 09, 2007 11:14 AM: of the las vegas single family homes, what percentage are "owner occupied" ? of the listings, what percentage are "new"/never lived in ?

could be that when the surplus of speculators' [non-owner occupied] properties are absorbed by those incoming residents, the buyer/seller imbalance will normalize. and, the prices will stabilize as well. until then, it may be that those "upside down" in their investment properties will rent them even at a negative [relative to some mortgage payment] cash flow so not to lose them via foreclosure.

from an investor's view, i'd guess that there may be some bargains yet on the horizon.

RussBBinVegas@aol.com wrote on November 09, 2007 10:47 AM: Hate to tell ya kiddies but it's going to get a lot worse before it gets better (the LA market in the early 90's took five years before it finally bottomed out). Not only that, but aaallll those home-owners in Calif & elsewhere who had been using their swollen equity as an ATM for $ to come to Las Vegas will all be tightening their belts, so plan on tough times for our tourist market, especially as all these vast new construction projects come on market. Gosh, it couldn't have happened to a nicer city. Tell Pat maybe we won't be needing that water!...

Andrew wrote on November 09, 2007 09:12 AM: Just a couple of points...

Inventory always falls every Oct - Dec, it's a seasonal thing and someone in Mr. Reiss' position should know that.

How come Mr. Smith is no longer poking fun at the "national experts" that predicted 10% declines this year? What happened to "we have lots of jobs" so prices won't fall?

I'll agree that it's a buyer's market by the standard definition. Apparently Mr. Brenkus thinks it's a good time to buy and he's one of the few agents putting their credit/money where their mouth is. However, the question "Is this a good time to buy?" is a relative one. It's certainly a better time than 6 months or a year ago, but not nearly as good as it's going to get. I believe, unless Brenkus got a very good deal, that he just caught a falling knife.

roger wrote on November 09, 2007 08:30 AM: Just out of curiousity does anyone know the occupancy rate for apartments in this area? I mean if home prices are dropping and still nobody is buying I am wonering why? Where are all the '6,000 people a month moving into this city every month' living? Could be it be that these fallen prices are still too high for the incoming population ? Citing the article that said 7 of 8 new jobs created here pay minimum wage I would have to think so. I think Terry in the note already posted may have hit the nail on the head. People probably did suck out all the equity in their homes when the values were in their favor. But what happends when the times turn ? like right now? They either ride it out and hope it comes back, or they walk away. Too many people made too much money when the property values went thru the roof, it's unfortunate that the everyday homeowner is going to be left holding the bag.

Nancy wrote on November 09, 2007 08:24 AM: This will be the best thing for our economy. In the end, young families will be able to own a home. The sad thing is, how may of our powers to be in this state are hidden in the LLC's that drove up the prices. Remember this at election time.

Terry wrote on November 09, 2007 07:25 AM: Its getting there. By next summer I think it will adjust to where it was before the boom. I remember about 4-5 years ago, anyone who had a HUD contract was raking in the dough. Now days it's bank owned, and I've already seen them lower their prices. Sad for those of us who own homes NEXT to a bank owned home, but not too sad if you didnt suck out all the equity when times were fat.