Was looking into buying my own place in LV (I’m a complete real estate noob) and was shocked to hear it’s a sellers market right now. Guessing I should wait to buy until the effects of all this shyt are felt?

My guess is wait until the fallout from all the rent freezes and evictions happen. I would assume some people who bought houses as rentals (AirBnB, VRBO) aren't looking too hot either and I would expect the market to shift drastically in the next 6 months.

Yep sure is. I know a agent if you need one. lol
He saids you should what a few if your buying.

Looking at 1BR condo near strip.

I will assume you mean in one of the high rises? There are 1 BR condos in the "garden style" communities near The Strip but nothing any civilized person would want to live in.

If that's what you were looking for and someone told you its a "sellers market" then that person is clearly wrong.

The high-rises are dropping and with no end in sight. I've been tracking them for a few weeks now and I think that market is going to be soft for a while. A lot of those units are owned by investors (foreign and otherwise) and you are starting to see those units coming online.

• One building just had 3 identical, sequential units hit the market on the same day, under the same agent. Clearly an investor dumping their share.
• Another building just had two units come online by an agent whose website is mostly in Chinese
• Another building has had their 1BD unit cross below the 200K mark - that has not been seen for about 10 years now

Again, this is all just the appetizer. Anyone who buys now will regret the lower prices in 1 year, especially in the condos.

PM sent.

Be careful with the condos and make sure the association is in good financial shape. There are some on the verge of going bankrupt or are bankrupt.

It depends on if you're paying cash and how long you plan on staying. Most people buy a payment, so with ultra-low interest rates people can borrow more for a given payment. This has caused prices to skyrocket around here. The thing is, you still owe what you borrow, so if you move in just a few years you still owe all that money. Rates will be higher then, which means prices will be depressed. Bad news for a seller.

Condo on the Strip - don't forget association fees. I saw a 1 br at MGM Signature for $200k. But the association fee is $1600 a month, which is more than a mortgage payment would be. In other words, you could buy a $400k house for LESS.

get a 2br, that way I gots a place to stay when I am "visiting"

Yes, both of those are good considerations and I'm trying to factor that into some of the buildings that I'm tracking. Quite frankly, in some of these buildings the HOA simply doesn't make any sense since it's such a high proportion of your payment.

Another thing to remember is that in post 2008 a lot of HOAs had to raise their fees because of all the defaults. The one left holding the bag were the ones that didn't default because now you have to carry the share that the HOA lost from the others. HOA fees are like a ratchet winch - once they go up, they never come down.

Which condo associations are strong in Henderson or SW? Thanks.

Define "strong"? Like you mean the management companies for HOAs? Or what exactly are you talking about. Also, not a ton of condos to choose from in Hendertucky and you're going to have to be more specific than just "SW"

Yeah, us folks in Hendertucky favor mobile homes and campers put up on cinder blocks, for sure.

Flip of those unit prices dropping is that the monthly fees are still sky-high.

Sub-$200K units quickly lose their allure with a $500ish/mo nut for fees.

Sort of tangential side query is what will happen to the units at Palms with the casino operations effectively ceasing and the property clearly on the market based upon the last quarterly call.

Many banks won’t finance condos or charge much higher interest rates, or have higher down payment requirements (or both). Their underwriting for condos may be skittish even though market is strong in general. Strip condos have absurdly high HOA fees, be sure to factor in those costs because they’ll always be there even when the place is paid off. $1/square foot is not uncommon. That is per month, not per year. I know, absurd.

HOAs for condos can also put you in a terrible position as someone else mentioned - if the owners start defaulting or going into foreclosure, the remaining owners will have their fees raised or be charged an assessment that has to be paid to cover the deadbeats. Whole lot of pitfalls to condo ownership.

If you can afford a $250k condo, you can probably also afford a $400k house in Summerlin or Henderson. I’d look in that direction personally.

Good advice

$1/sqft HOA fees sound pretty ridiculous, but then again, I don't know what you get for that money.

HOA fees aren't just a sinkhole that you throw money into every month. It pays for things - usually water/sewer/trash, amenities (pool/gym/etc), landscaping, and anything exterior-based (like roofs/balconies/etc), and also usually insurance to cover exterior/common areas.

Yes, sometimes you might find that you pay more for that HOA fee than purchasing all that yourself, but many times it's at least in the same ballpark. In any case, just saying 'well a $250k condo plus a $X hoa fee is the same as a mortgage on a $400k house, so just get the house' isn't really comparing apples to apples. You have to add on all of the costs of landscaping/water/sewer/etc that you'd now have to pay for on the $400k house.

Mrs Breeze and I owned a condo for 10 years.

We don’t recommend it.

I was on the board for 3 of those years.

I still don’t recommend it.

The lack of observational skills of some of you is quite astounding. Maybe this is why all of you suck at poker & life.

Stop and think before you post please: Does it make sense to you that the same person that is looking for a 1BR would need 2,000+ square feet of space?

If you have a family and many bedrooms to fill, go and find a SFH. But the person that wants a 1BR condo also looks at a 2,000 sq ft home and sees nothing but maintenance and cleaning.

Maybe the guy is single, maybe the guy is downsizing, maybe the guy is semi-retired, maybe the guy just wants the convenience of walking to the Aria poker room. Either way, it's just plain idiotic for some of you to think that the same person that wants a 1BR condo is the same buyer for a $400k home.

Hello strip condo owner, it seems my housing purchase advise has triggered you a bit. A few points:

1. I didn’t say anything about 2000sqft. There’s a lot of very nice 1000-1700 sqft single story houses around town at or we’ll under $400k

2. Do you think an owner condo does not need maintenance or cleaning? It will be great fun when the HOA sends you a bill for $10k for property maintenance when they run out of cash.

3. A $250k condo is a $250k asset. A $400k house is a $400k asset. You can pay $12k/year in HOA fees for your condo and still have a $250k asset. Or you could have used that money to pay down the mortgage on a more valuable property that doesn’t have absurd HOA fees. But hey some people like flushing $12k/year down the drain for no reason, good for them.

3. Houses have a large pool of buyers. Strip condos do not.

4. Why so salty bro?

It’s important to note that the HOA fees will normally also go towards some bills that you’d have to otherwise pay in a house (water/electric) etc. Also, with a house you’ll have other fees unless you do them yourself (house maintenance, lawn mowing, landscaping. Having to pay for misc things breaking (example just had to pay $400 to service my boiler/replace a part)

The rest of your points still stand, and as someone who just sold a condo to move into a SFH (albeit not Las Vegas) I will never again own a condo.

One thing not mentioned is almost every neighborhood in Henderson and Summerlin are now under HOA rules. California invasion has caused this. I own a couple homes in a new HOA neighborhoods (I declined to join even though they bother me every month and sometimes send me bills) and the fees are going up every year. And those HOA fees just cover things like a community park and pool vs. high rise condos at least you get a gym, security, front desk for packages, etc. So you're going to be flushing money down the drain anyway.

I live at the Martin and my HOA fees are pretty ridiculous (61 cents per square foot), but I prefer it over living in Henderson. I tried it for a year and the neighbors are the worst. They want to know everything you're doing and ask you questions non stop. I've been at the Martin for three years and no one cares I exist. Much better. And when I have an issue with something they fix it. HVAC broke last summer and it's covered under the HOA warranty. No Henderson HOA will cover that. I also don't have to worry about trash, water, sewer, gardening, parking. It's all covered under the HOA fee. Trash costs are high in Nevada and gardening to meet Henderson/Summerlin HOA rules will cost you money or time.

You also can't live full time at MGM. You're basically just renting a hotel room that you can use. Same thing at Trump Towers, Palms, and Platinum. The condo/hotels are scams and try to sell people on the idea you can put your room in the pool of available rentals.

The MGM Signature at $1600 per month is a lot more than a dollar per square foot.

There's no way all of the crap you mention would cost $1600 a month on a house.