2009 is off to a fast start here in Las Vegas and across the country. Many big events have taken place national and here locally as well. In our local High Rise Condo market we have had some major events take place in the last 30 days. MGM’s multi billion dollar development City Center has made the decision to scale down it’s Harmon Hotel/Spa & residence in height by eliminating the residential portion of the building due to an engineering mis-hap. Allot of people have reported on this story for the last couple of weeks and not many of them have highlighted the positive effects of this decision. One of the biggest pluses that I have be able to see is that the development as a whole will probably be completed slightly sooner than expected despite the rumors of delays. Another big plus about the decision is that buyers in Veer Towers who purchased unites on the North side of tower 2 will have a good view of the Cosmopolitan & their sandy beach style pool area.
Another big story that has been broadly reported about is Trumps choice to turn his remaining Condo unites that haven’t sold or unites that he has had to take back from buyer fall out into apartment rentals. Trump has made this move before in past developments so this isn’t the Donald’s first walk in the park even though it may have been portrayed that way. The Trump International Hotel Las Vegas is still operating and is filling their rooms with guest on a nightly basis. The decision is a smart move on the Trumps behalf for a couple of reasons. One of the obvious reason is he is allowing time for the markets to correct so buyers with conventional financing can begin to re-enter the market.
Current economic situations have made it almost impossible to obtain a loan for a Las Vegas
High Rise Condo and left many buyers regretting there choice to purchase and wager so much. Despite the frozen lending industry cash flush buyers & affluent individuals can swoop in on amazing deals in just about every development. Prices across the board from studios to penthouse estates have come down drastically, as previously predicted, but won’t go down much lower & certainly won’t stay low for very much longer. That’s a bold statement considering there are people in the world who would like you to believe the sky is falling but considering the fact that several developments under construction at the moment like City Center have committed buyers who will be closing on their unites before the years end you can expect to see re-sale prices increase sharply in the near future due those buyers closing escrow on their unites. The reason for this is City Center unites were sold for almost double of what every other development built here in Las Vegas in the past 5 years have sold for. The buyers who have locked in their residences at City Center don’t fit the profile for a person who would just walk away especially with that type of money on the line. Another thing to watch out for in the new year of 2009 with Las Vegas High Rise Condos is the increase of REO properties. In the last quarter of 2008 there was an increase in short sale High Rise Condos listings and in 2009 you can expect to see a healthy portion of those converted into REO listings providing buyers great opportunities. These unites in my opinion people who tried to hold on as long as they could before losing their Condos, some what of a speculator. When Las Vegas High Rise Condos become bank owned they typically if priced correctly sell quickly and from what I’ve seen last year the agents listing the majority of REO High Rise Condos have done a great job in doing so.
