Las Vegas Condos And The National Housing Slow Down
The NYTimes (via Nevada Today) has an article about the slow down in the national housing market and features Las Vegas (along with Ft. Lauderdale, Florida) as usual. You have to wonder if all the housing articles written over the past two years in national publications like the NYTimes created an echo chamber that fueled the obviously irrational condo mania in Las Vegas (from outside investors) as opposed to the almost tame condo trend in Reno. I only know of two scrapped Reno projects this year (The Nevadan and The Chambolle):
In Las Vegas, cranes are still busily at work on new casino projects but dozens of gleaming condominium towers that were slated to sprout up a few miles from the Strip are not likely to be joining the city’s neon-bedecked skyline soon. John Restrepo, a real estate consultant in the city, estimates that only about 7 percent of the 60,000 condominium units that were announced and under construction as of the first quarter of the year are actually being built today.
For those of you keeping count, 7% of 60,000 equals only 4200 total condos under construction in Las Vegas, a city four times Reno’s size! I bet Reno, with The Montage, The Palladio, Waterfront Towers, The Belvedere, Riverwalk Towers, the Village at Idlewild, and Wingfield Towers, is close to having 2000 condo units under construction right now. Eat your heart out George Clooney–you should’ve built in Reno (Perhaps he should be our next Latest Celebrity Who Won’t Be Visiting Reno?).
Among the high-profile projects that were scrapped is Las Ramblas, an 11-building, $3 billion condominium and hotel complex being developed by the Related Companies and Centra Properties and had investors like the actor George Clooney.
“The period of irrational exuberance we saw in ’04 and ’05 and the gold rush fever has gone away,” Mr. Restrepo said.
Still, building activity for single-family homes, condos, hotels and casinos in Las Vegas is vibrant enough that construction workers are not struggling to find work, said George Vaughn, a business manager for a local of the Laborer’s International Union of North America, which represents almost 5,000 workers in Las Vegas. “The boom is still on,” he said.
Its amazing that they can still call it a boom when only 7% of the total condo units originally proposed are being built. Another good reason to be in Reno rather than Las Vegas.
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Man, I hate condo project names. Las Ramblas??? Barcelona must be breathing a huge sigh of relief right about now.
Also let me refer you to this article: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060730/ap_on_re_us/condos_on_hold_2 which lists some other cities flooded with condo sales. Gee it’s no wonder why these condo projects are stalling…nearly all of them are ‘luxury’ condos with units STARTING at $700,000 or more! Gimmy a break. This should be considered a guide for Reno developers….stay slow and steady, keep condo prices in the $250,000-$500,000 range, and we shouldn’t experience much of a slow down in our market for condos. Particularly since homes are so expensive right now.
I also get the impression the projects for Reno are more thought out and planned. Some projects have engaged in over a year of planning like the Waterfront and Wingfield Towers. A developer in Vegas once told me that project announcements in Vegas consisted of nothing more than an over-zealous developer getting some renderings done and saying ‘I’m here I have a project!’ without even completing any kind of study to see if it’s viable.