Las Vegas Real Estate Info

The Las Vegas Business Press is reporting that higher prices have local homebuilders looking at places like Pahrump, Mesquite and Coyote Springs as the next bedroom communities to Las Vegas. Vacant property values now average about $800,000 per acre and higher in the Vegas area, and building costs have increased 14 percent or more during the last year alone.

Homebuilders subsequently are giving rural communities outside the valley more serious consideration. The land is still cheap and plentiful. Local officials are welcoming. Permitting is faster. And there are fewer water restrictions.

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Pahrump Valley Times is reporting that a national anti-tax group said it will donate $10,000 to jump-start the campaign in Nevada backing a property tax initiative modeled after California’s landmark tax rollback Proposition 13. The money is intended to boost the campaign’s signature gathering efforts and combat misinformation about the Angle Property Tax Restraint Initiative.

The proposal would freeze the tax rate for residential and commercial property at 1 percent of the assessed value based on the 2003-04 fiscal year. Tax rates could increase each year by 2 percent, or the rate of the consumer price index, whichever is lower. A similar measure was enacted in California in 1978 following a tax revolt led by Howard Jarvis.

This information brought to you by Las Vegas Homes and Real Estate in Henderson.

Yahoo is reporting the rising interest tourists are generating in the idea of a Mob Museum for Sin City. While the association between the Mob and the Desert Oasis Casino resorts is hardly new — there is still some resistance from locals on the idea.

The options included a “behind-the-scenes” look at gambling, a magic museum, a “vintage Vegas” theme, a museum dedicated to Las Vegas icons such as Elvis Presley and Frank Sinatra, and Mafia museum.

Locals told pollsters they would most like to see the museum chronicle “vintage Vegas,” described as the architecture, music and figures that dominated the city’s landscape from the 1930s to the 1950s.

Forbes and local analysts in Las Vegas may be lining up to disagree over the housing market in the Las Vegas area. Builder Online is reporting that Forbes dropped Las Vegas from the 18th-most overvalued housing market in the nation to 28th.

Median new home prices increased 12.5 percent in March to an all- time high of $320,379. Resale prices, which Forbes had predicted would drop 8.5 percent this year, are up 8.3 percent from last March at $284,900, though they’ve remained relatively flat over the past nine months.

Sales of new homes are ahead of last year by nearly 20 percent through the first three months and are on pace for a record 40,000. Existing home closings are about the same.

This information brought to you by Homes in the Las Vegas valley and surrounding areas.

The so-called Condo King is canceling his tower in Sin City. The Mercury News is reporting that Perez canceled a twin-tower condo called ICON Las Vegas. Now he’s weighing selling the 25 acres on which he, along with actor George Clooney, planned to build a massive — and much-hyped — 11-tower condo project, Las Ramblas.

The $3 billion project was to rise near the Las Vegas Strip, and full-page newspaper ads heralded the arrival of Perez, Clooney and team as the second coming of the Rat Pack. But now Perez says demand is lower than expected and construction costs much higher.

This information brought to you by Homes in and around the city of Las Vegas.