The Clark County Department of Aviation reported Thursday that 3.7 million passengers used McCarran in March, putting first-quarter totals at 9.9 million — 3 percent ahead of the first quarter of 2011.

International arrivals once again led the way with 16.1% more passengers arriving from beyond U.S. borders for the month.  For the quarter, international travel is up 18.9 percent to 671,706 passengers.

Mexican airlines Volaris and Vivaaerobus, Canada’s Westjet Airlines and Great Britain’s British Airways and Virgin Atlantic Airways all contributed significantly to the increase in numbers for the month.

Two air carriers that charge fees for carry-on bags — Las Vegas-based Allegiant Air and Mirimar, Fla.-based Spirit Airlines — had double-figure percentage increases in passenger counts for the month.

Allegiant, the fourth-busiest carrier at McCarran behind Southwest, Delta and United-Continental, reported 29.8 percent more passengers — 251,108 — in March. Spirit, meanwhile, climbed by 22.8 percent to 160,377 passengers. For the quarter, Spirit was up 310 percent.

Strong performances by Allegiant and Spirit offset a flat performance by Southwest, at 1.4 million passengers for the month, and declines by No. 2 Delta Air Lines, down 8.8 percent to 349,938. US Airways was off 15.2 percent to 181,280 passengers.

For the first quarter, Southwest passenger counts were down 0.8 percent, Delta down 7.5 percent and US Airways off 16.3 percent.

For more information on this subject please click here: http://www.lasvegassun.com/news/2012/apr/26/traffic-las-vegas-mccarran-airport-march-1st-quart/

New home prices in the Las Vegas Valley rose 3.3% in March to $201,668 and are up 1.6% from one year ago.

Resale home prices rose in March to $103,000 which is an increase of $2,200 from February but is a decrease of 4.3% from a year ago.  Prices for non-distressed homes, properties that aren’t short sales or repos, rose for the third straight month to $105,000.

Listings and foreclosures continued to decrease each month.  Although new homes sales for the month were only at 352 in March, that is an increase of 24% from the previous month.  During the boom months there were about 2400 new homes sales a month.

Cash sales were again very prominent in the resale market.  They made up 54% of the resale closings in March.

One of the key market factors in the Valley has been the paltry amount of foreclosures during the past several months.  During March, only 322 homes were repossessed by lenders.  This figure represents half of the amount from February and is down 84% from a year ago.

For more information on the Las Vegas Valley housing market click here:

http://www.lvrj.com/business/report-median-home-prices-rise-in-march-148172475.html

Farmers markets have gained in popularity around the country.  Here in Las Vegas, with our collection of great chefs and restaurants, farmers markets have sprung up all over town.  Here’s a list for you to check out.

Las Vegas Farmers Market@Gardens Park:  10401 Gardens Park Dr.  Every Tuesday from 4pm-8pm.

Las Vegas Farmers Market@Bruce Trent Park:  1600 N. Rampart Blvd.  Every Wednesday from 2pm-6pm

Las Vegas Farmers Market@Floyd Lamb Park at Tule Springs:  9100 Tule Spring Rd.  First and Third Saturday of each month from 10am-2pm.

www.lasvegasfarmersmarket.com  – 702-562-2676

__________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Fresh52@Tivoli Village:  302 S. Rampart.  Saturday from 8am-1pm.

Fresh52@Sansone Park Place:  9480 S. Eastern.  Sunday from 8am-1p.m.

www.fresh52.com – 702-900-2552

__________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Taste & Toast Thursdays:  440 S. Rampart.  Thursdays from 5pm-8pm.

www.tivolivillagelv.com/index.php/events-and-offerings – 702-900-2552

__________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Bet on the Farm:  The Springs Preserve, 333 S. Valley View Blvd.  Thursdays from 10am-1pm.

www.betonthefarm.com

__________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Country Fresh Farmers Market:

240 Water St. Henderson.  Thursdays from 9am-4pm.

200 s. Green Valley Pkwy. Henderson.  Fridays from 10am-4pm.

www.farmersmarketonline.com – 702-579-9661

___________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Downtown 3rd Farmers Market:  300 N. Casino Center.  Fridays from 9am-2pm.

__________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Granny’s Gourmet Farmers Market:  3315 E. Russell Rd.

www.grannysgourmetmarket.com – 702-458-9110

__________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Gilcrease Orchards:  7800 N. Tenaya Way.  Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays from 7am-12pm.

www.thegilcreaseorchard.org – 702-409-0655

Once you’ve tried one or more, leave us your comments.

The number of homes that received first time foreclosures notices rose 7% nationally in March, setting the stage for a surge in the properties being repossessed by lenders this year.  This represents the third straight month increase this year and reflects a stepped-up effort by banks to take action against homeowners who fail to keep up with mortgage payments.

Foreclosure activity, as measured by the number of homes receiving foreclosure-related notices, slowed sharply in the fall of 2010 when claims surfaced that some banks and mortgage servicers were processing foreclosures without verifying documents.

Notice of default filings in Nevada have dropped dramatically since October when the robo-signing law went into effect requiring lenders to provide documentation of authority to foreclose. Nevada’s county recorders counted 346 NODs in January, compared with 5,019 in the same month a year ago.

Las Vegas housing analyst Dennis Smith of Home Builders Research said the local market is improving and moving in the right direction at this point of the recession. However, the recovery is being artificially stimulated by banks holding foreclosure inventory off the market, he said.

They’ve turned the housing inventory spigot to a trickle following legal issues and government backlash from the robo-signing scandal, Smith said. Ironically, they’ve created their own support mechanism to help the housing recovery.

“If this was a plan to help the housing industry, it worked,” the analyst said. “In our opinion, they have unintentionally helped themselves by holding back REOs, giving the market a chance to absorb some of the excess resale inventory.”

Rather than a large wave of bank-owned homes crashing onto the market at once, it’s likely the new crop of foreclosures will arrive in smaller waves throughout the year, Smith said.

For more information on this topic, please click here: http://www.lvrj.com/business/u-s-foreclosure-activity-rises-but-nevada-tumbles-62-percent-147123515.html

The Nevada Department of Motor Vehicles has installed kiosks up all over the Las Vegas Valley. You will notice them at grocery stores and most recently the UNLV campus.  At the kiosks, motorists can renew their registration, order a new driver’s license or identification card or reinstate their registration if their insurance has expired. The location of kiosks can be found on the department’s website.

They have seemed to help out considerably with the always long wait times at our Valleys DMV offices.  I personally saw a difference recently when it took me only about 15 minutes to register my new vehicle last month.  I arrived at 7:30 and by the time the Henderson DMV office opened at 8:00, I already had a number and was well on my way to completing my transaction.

The DMV has made a huge effort to improve customer service and make the entire process more convenient over the past couple of years. Motorists can log on to dmvnv.gov and check estimated wait times at every office or download necessary forms.  But most people feel that the best new idea has been the kiosks.

Although they haven’t completely made the DMV experience pleasant, they are definitely a positive step in the right direction.

For more information on the DMV kiosks check out their website: http://dmvnv.com/

Home ownership in the Las Vegas Valley is now at 48% which is down from a high of 64% in 2000.  This is according the US census.

Most experts predict that this number will continue to fall even though home prices and mortgage rates make it far less expensive to own than to rent.

About half of the homes that have been purchased in the past 2 years have been all cash transactions and these will also likely end up as rentals, as they are being purchased by mostly investors.

Decline in home ownership is largely the result of a historic economic downturn and the resulting credit challenges for consumers. Relatively speaking, we have low prices relative to income. Consumers have a problem with credit, not cash flow, which suggests growth in the share of renters over the next five years according to Jeremy Aguero, principal analyst with Las Vegas-based Applied Analysis.

Renters have gone up considerably in the market due to people losing their home from foreclosure and short sale, and they can’t get a loan again for a couple of years, and with so many investors coming in and buying.

A  combination of record-low home prices and lending costs have made buying a home relatively cheaper than renting in nearly 100 major U.S. metro areas, including 11th-ranked Las Vegas, according to Discovery Bay, Calif.-based Trulia.com, an online listing service.

Trulia calculates the price-to-rent ratio for 100 major U.S. metros by estimating the ratio of asking sales prices to asking rents, adjusting for attributes of the properties and their locations. A home with an asking sales price of $200,000 and monthly rent of $1,500 would produce $18,000 in annual rent, for a price-to-rent ratio of 11.

Anything under 15 indicates that buying a home is a better deal than renting for people planning to live in a home for at least five years. Even if the buyer plans to live in the home for less than five years, buying could be a better deal if the index is 10 or less, depending on moving and closing costs.

Las Vegas currently has a price-to-rent ratio of 7.0.

This makes it a great time to buy if you are able to get financing.  That is one of the major reasons we have so many renters in the current market.  Financing is still a big problem for many would be homeowners.  With the tight lending restrictions many people that want to purchase are not able to get a loan that will work for their current financial situation.

The average credit score required to obtain a mortgage loan is 700. It’s higher than scores required before the mortgage crisis, but constant with requirements a year ago.

While indicators in the Las Vegas Valley point to a continued decline in home ownership, there are indications that a loosening of credit availability may help slow the trend. Banks are lending amounts up to 3.5 times borrower earnings. That’s up from a low during the crisis of 3.2 times borrower earnings.

OWNER VS. RENTER

Source: Applied Analysis

For more information on this topic, please click here; http://www.lvrj.com/business/more-in-las-vegas-now-rent-than-own-144074176.html

Bank of America announced this week a new program for homeowners in distress.  Initially, 1000 homeowners in three states, Nevada, Arizona and New York, will be invited to participate in a mortgage to lease pilot program.   Should one qualify, you would transfer your property to the bank, have the balance of the mortgage forgiven and then lease the home back for up to three years at current or less market rate.  The only loans which would qualify would be Bank of America held loans – also known as portfolio loans – not loans serviced by Bank of America or government backed loans, such as Freddie Mac, Fannie Mae, FHA or VA loans.  Other qualifications include requirements to be 60 days delinquent in payments, you must live in the house, there can be no other liens on the house, there must be a high loan balance in relation to value and you must be able to make the rent payments.  It’s an invitation only program; you cannot apply for it as you can for other options such refinances, modifications, or short sales.

So why is Bank of America trying out this program?  If you guessed because it benefits them, you would be right.  Bank of America is counting on housing prices going up over the next several years.  They don’t have to go through the foreclosure process, but just have the property deeded over to them and they have instant income on it from the rental payments.  Then they can sell it in several years and mitigate their losses.  It improves the status of their loan portfolio and looks better on their balance sheets.  Bear in mind that if Bank of America makes more money in short selling  or foreclosing on the property, Bank of America will continue to do so.

For more information on this pilot program, go to lvrj.com/business/bank-of-america-experiments-with-foreclosure-alternative-144006296.html

By Andy Karpf

Las Vegas Valley home buyers are noticing that if they are looking for a foreclosure bargain, there are not very many to choose from.  At the current time there is only a one month supply available on the market.

Homes priced in the range of $80,000 – $125,000 are being snapped up quickly, often with multiple offers within just a few days of being listed.

Foreclosure listings of single family homes have decrease about 40% in the past year.   Many experts predict that this trend will continue for the next several months as a result of the robo-signing laws that took effect in October of last year.   This law requires that banks be able to provide affidavits of authority to be able to foreclose on a property.  This has lead to a major slow down for the banks to obtain the legal paperwork involved.

With the new laws in place, many homeowners are choosing to remain in their homes without making mortgage payments.   Many are figuring that with all of the problems that the banks are currently having foreclosing on homes, they may as well just continue to live in the home and not pay.  They can always work on a short sale at a later time after the bank has begun foreclosure proceedings.

For more information on this topic click here; http://www.lvrj.com/business/home-shortage-in-las-vegas-in-foreclosure-deals-yes-realtors-say-142033853.html

NASA has posted a video showing Las Vegas growth from 1972 to 2010 via satellite imagery.  Here’s the link:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=xFzdyxwx50M

The first frame is from 1972, when the population was 300,000.  40 seconds later the last frame, from 2010, the population is almost 2 million.

In previous posts, we’ve discussed the tax benefits derived from the Mortgage Forgiveness Debt Relief Act, first enacted in 2007 and extended in 2009.  This act waived the taxes incurred by a foreclosure or short sale.  The difference between what a house sells for and what is owed on the mortgage is considered forgiven debt and a taxable event.  Currently, this tax is waived on the foreclosure or short sale of a primary residence on a purchase money loan.  The act expires at the end of this year.  While it may be extended, right now we have no idea what will happen.  If you are considering a short sale, now may be the time to get more information and see if this is the right decision for you.  Contact us at LasVegasHomeSpecialist for additional information.