September Market Update

Wondering how Las Vegas is managing record heat while still thriving as a real estate hotspot? Join us as Tiana Carroll and guest Mia Wolfe explore the intersection of weather, nostalgia, and market dynamics in our latest episode of Vegas Realty Check. Discover how the recent heat wave isn't just extending pool seasons but also transforming the landscape of our daily lives. We also take a moment to bid a heartfelt farewell to the iconic Tropicana hotel, sharing personal memories and the spectacle of its implosion, all while standing in solidarity with hurricane-stricken Floridians from our stable desert oasis.

Curious about how Las Vegas' dry climate offers unexpected perks for hair and skin care? Our conversation also touches on intriguing lifestyle changes post-pandemic, from altered store hours to the convenience of delivery services like Postmates and Uber Eats. We share some amusing anecdotes about kids creatively using these services and even entertain the idea of summoning food trucks to our doorsteps. Then, we shift gears to analyze the current real estate trends, from rising inventory and pricing shifts to the renewed buyer interest sparked by recent drops in interest rates.

Is Las Vegas really the thriving opportunity city for transplants from pricier locales like New York and San Francisco? Absolutely. Dive into the vibrant dynamics of our real estate market, where starter homes and townhomes are turning over quickly, and the luxury market continues to flourish. We discuss Las Vegas' allure for investors and outdoor enthusiasts alike, and we invite you to engage with us on social media to uncover the mystery of the "second spring" phenomenon in our city. Whether you're planning a move or considering an investment, we promise insights and local wisdom to help you navigate the ever-evolving Las Vegas real estate landscape.

Chapters

• 0:16 Vegas Real Estate Market Update
• 9:28 Las Vegas Real Estate Market Trends
• 20:38 Las Vegas Real Estate Market Dynamics
• 26:46 Vegas Real Estate Market Plant Mystery

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:16

Hey, vegas, welcome to Vegas Realty Check. I'm your host, Tiana Carroll, and today I have a good friend with me, ms Mia Wolfe. Hi, so we are here and we are talking everything Vegas real estate. Matter of fact, if you're tuning in right now, then you've gotten lucky enough to meet us for our monthly market update. We're going to talk everything about the September numbers and real estate that happened here in Las Vegas. So, if you haven't yet, make sure you like, share and subscribe to join our tribe so that way you don't miss out on any of the information, because if you were looking to buy, sell or invest in Vegas, these numbers are going to be a forecaster of what you can expect during your deal. So make sure you join the tribe and we appreciate that. Before we get started, mia, you have been on the show a couple times. I so appreciate you coming out and being with us. Yet again, anything new and interesting going on in your life.

Speaker 2: 1:06

I don't know so much, so much, and this is the first time I've ever been on with just you. Yes, yeah Well usually like.

Speaker 1: 1:13

I know that there's been a couple of times where I've had other obligations and then you've come in and I've done it with just Trish before, and this is the first time with just you Say yay, well, glad you're here, thank you, thank you.

Speaker 2: 1:29

No, just ready for this. Uh, for fall, to hit for fall. I know it's officially fall, but I'm ready for boot weather and it is not boot weather waiting.

Speaker 1: 1:33

It is a hundred degrees out there. Still we got boots on there.

Speaker 2: 1:37

You do have little ankle boots waiting in the boot season right, slowly right.

Speaker 1: 1:45

As it gets colder. The boots come up over the ankle, then the calf. By the midwinter they should be thigh high. That's right, perfect. Well, I think you look fantastic in thigh highs and ankle boots.

Speaker 2: 1:58

Thank you.

Speaker 1: 1:59

But yeah, no, we've been having this weird heat wave going on it is hot, it's been hot, it's hot Every day over 100.

Speaker 1: 2:05

Yeah, so many HOAs have done like that usually close for fall on their pools and stuff. They've extended it through this heat wave, which is really nice yeah, which is nice. So there's still kids coming home from school and playing in the pool, which I grew up in Vegas. So that always felt like you know something. It feels like it's a must have anymore is the pool in Vegas. Yeah, that was my favorite, even when school started, that we'd come home from school and get to go swimming still. So that was always nice.

Speaker 2: 2:37

Well, and too, it's usually so hot that you have to swim at night. So it's night swimming really, cause it is really too hot to swim in the day. So we just swim at nighttime, right, right.

Speaker 1: 2:46

Because it gets kind of soupy like the water in extreme temperature, especially if you have a heated pool. It feels soupy, it doesn't feel cool and refreshing. Yeah, yeah, and so, um, I do want to say that we said goodbye to the Tropicana hotel. I've seen it was imploded this week, I know everybody. Everybody's sad yeah.

Speaker 2: 3:04

I feel like everybody's sad, excited about what's to come, but kind of missed out.

Speaker 1: 3:08

Yeah Well, this isn't the first time I've seen an implosion, because I've been here since 88. I was brand new born. That's when I was born 88.

Speaker 2: 3:17

Yeah, yeah, that's it.

Speaker 1: 3:27

Anyway. So I've been here a minute and I've seen lots of hotels be imploded. But the Tropicana was sort of near and dear to my heart because when I was a kid we used to go swimming there a lot, when my dad would be in the sports book or whatever. That's funny. That is funny. You couldn't get away with that nowadays. And then the first show I did on my own was at the Tropicana. Oh really.

Speaker 2: 3:44

Yeah, that's cool. Yep, yep, yep.

Speaker 1: 3:46

So that was, and the first show I auditioned for was Follies Brasier uh at the Tropicana. I didn't actually go into that show, I did a uh, bird and magic show up in one of the towers.

Speaker 2: 3:57

I got to see video or pictures.

Speaker 1: 3:59

Yeah, yeah, yeah, I might, I might have a picture I'll show you after and and to.

Speaker 2: 4:04

I was surprised so many people went to see it in person. I think it was like 2 in the morning.

Speaker 1: 4:08

Well, because yeah, or 3.

Speaker 2: 4:10

That's a thing that you do when you're and there were kids out there and I go the next hotel that we implode. I'm going to be there on the front row.

Speaker 1: 4:20

Well, you're in luck, because that's what we do here in this town. We implode and I mean it's a big deal. There's fireworks and drones and a staging area.

Speaker 2: 4:29

It was a big deal yeah.

Speaker 1: 4:31

And it's pretty cool, like I've been taking pictures and video of the entire process where they're dismantling the hotel, so it's basically the frame and then you know when they come down they collapse easily. I'm sure it was probably covered nationwide, right? Yeah, it may have been um overshadowed by the hurricane, yeah, which our hearts go out to everybody in florida, but if you're floridian, you're probably like oh, it's fine, the waffle house is open I know, and you know I was thinking too well, they are leaving.

Speaker 2: 5:01

I have family in florida and all through tennessee and I mean it was taking them, like you know, 20 hours to get a six hour distance. But I was thinking, what do you do? We have no weather here. I mean it's hot and dry, that's it. So we have been. I mean I'm from Tennessee tornadoes and things like that. But like you, don't think about having to just take whatever you have, leave the finances for that and the places to go, I go. I would go to Las Vegas. I would get a hotel room in Las.

Speaker 1: 5:31

Vegas. Right If it were easy to get to Las Vegas, but, like you said, 20 hours. So back in, I think it was 2012,. Hurricane Sandy was coming up the coast of Florida and I was actually on the Gulf side. I was in Bradenton, which is now being hit with this hurricane, but at the time Sandy was coming towards Florida and I was on the Gulf side and they were having winds of 90 miles an hour and I was on the top floor of a six-story building and the palm trees in the wind were caving over and the tops of the trees were hitting the ground. They just wave.

Speaker 2: 6:05

Right, they just wave in it, in it.

Speaker 1: 6:06

and I kept thinking like I'm in a hotel room, like what do I do? I can't drive, I can't get out of here. So I have lots of family in florida and they were. I was calling them and they were on the east side of florida, in coral gables, and that's where everything was projected to hit. Now we now know that sandy, you know, kind of curved off and then came back up the Atlantic into New York, new Jersey, and that was devastating. But when it was still tropical storm, beginning of hurricane and it was on the Florida side, they were. They were laughing at me because I was like I'm on the other side, you know, drive over here, we can be in the hotel and you'll be safe. And they're like yeah, we're fully stopped.

Speaker 2: 6:47

You're a desert person. I'm a desert person we don't have elements like that they get used to, I mean tornado prepping and all that stuff. But man, when it hits, it hits and it's scary, and it's scary.

Speaker 1: 6:59

I saw people like uh, like shrink, wrapping their cars so that way the water couldn't get in. They were wrapping them in plastics and foils.

Speaker 2: 7:09

I saw a guy on tiktok laying in a canoe in his living room. The guy that just built the house right yes, I was going live and it was like four feet of water and he was so chill though he was like in his kayak.

Speaker 1: 7:22

He was the most calm person. I was like we're gonna have to change these lights, switch out.

Speaker 2: 7:26

I was trying to stress him out through the camera. I'm like you need to be like worried Please.

Speaker 1: 7:33

Paddle out of there. So last year we did a report on the show that had come out saying that as far as natural disasters and elements and stuff, that Vegas was one of the safest places to live. And you know I'm like laughing because everybody's like, oh, how did you survive those 10 days over 110 degrees and whatever during summer? And I'm like the whole world went on Like I was going to the gym and eating dinner and there's no property damage there's I mean there's the loss of some trees.

Speaker 1: 8:07

I said it a couple of times this year that driving through the Valley and seeing these trees all burnt up is heartbreaking. But have you noticed this? And if anybody else out there has noticed this, write it, type it, go to a realtycheckvegas and send it in. And let me know that I'm not the only one, but some of those plants that were like burned off and died. They're having a second spring right now.

Speaker 2: 8:30

Have you noticed that flowers are in bloom? I thought that was so weird, because I have a bunch of plants that they've already bloomed this year and then I was ready to trim them, because it's like fall or autumn or whatever, and they're like in full bloom, bloom in full bloom. There are so many types.

Speaker 1: 8:48

There's so many plants out there that look like they were dying off. They were brown and crispy and they're starting to get new growth, as if they were spring and then re-flowering for a second time. It's like it tricked nature. It must have, like you know, died quote unquote in the heat and kind of gone into a dormant. And then now it's like what's up, baby? I'm back, and then there's, it's blooming.

Speaker 2: 9:10

That would be me if I was a tree.

Speaker 1: 9:13

That would be me too Like, and that's how I felt like after the heat wave, and it was like 103, I'm like oh, this is spring weather.

Speaker 2: 9:21

We had one, yeah, we had one week of perfection and then it was like, but even 100 years, not bad. I mean, it's different when it's dry right.

Speaker 1: 9:31

You go to like 80 in 85% humidity and it's wet and it's sticky and it's hot and it's hard to breathe.

Speaker 2: 9:38

We don't have any of that hair. It's great for makeup and hair and all of that.

Speaker 1: 9:43

I feel like we don't have frizzy hair, we don't have humidity, so my hair is curly when I go to the South.

Speaker 2: 9:49

Immediately I get off the plane and my hair just frizzes up. Yeah Well, it gets curly.

Speaker 1: 9:55

Yeah, my hair, my hair is half straight. Yeah, no, no, no, my hair is trash.

Speaker 2: 10:04

It's like it's so good for your skin though, cause I'm like I look younger immediately, cause my skin just plumps up because of the moisture. Yeah, we were like so dry.

Speaker 1: 10:12

Yeah, but the thing is as far as living, this is a good place to live. I don't care what anybody says. It's one of the best places ever. I love it too. I love I mean it's a little different now after the pandemic. Everything's not 24 seven the way it used to be. I used to love that I could just run into a Walmart or a grocery store or whatever, like at three in the morning and it was fine. The grocery stores do close a little bit yeah, I even went to like Walgreens that closed at like 11.

Speaker 2: 10:38

I was like that's weird. My daughter went to school in Alabama and she's really spoiled from growing up here because I mean there's so much shops and everything they you know we still pretty much stay open until yeah, I mean pretty much well, better than the rest of the country, not as good as we used to be, but I do love it here in Vegas.

Speaker 1: 10:56

So if you're looking to uh, relocate to Vegas, yes. If you want to love it here too, well, and you know something else, I noticed since COVID which is great because I use it so much is like Postmates.

Speaker 2: 11:07

Uber Eats any delivery. It is so fast, it's faster I can Postmate something no joke faster than if I was in the car to go. You know, if you're running through, drive through something and come home, yeah, it's nuts, it's gotten so fast, yeah, and it's so convenient it is, it's nuts, it's gotten gotten.

Speaker 1: 11:26

So fast, yeah, and it's so convenient, it's so convenient. I can't even tell you how many times I've had like a hankering or a craving and I was like I should go and I'm like, oh, I don't even have to do that now, I could just have it brought right to my house.

Speaker 2: 11:36

Thank you. My kids are the worst. I have to put like limits on it. They'll just one day I saw it, it was like from 7-Eleven and it was like a Mountain Dew and a cookie or something I go. How did you do this? I think one of my kids was like six and he ordered it. I go one time. An icy truck. They ordered an icy truck to the house, a huge ice cream truck.

Speaker 1: 12:01

But yeah, you can order anything. Listen, that's, that's, that's valuable information. I didn't know I can order a food truck right to my house because there are some taco trucks out there. I'd like to have them. Come on, you probably can. I'll be like come to my house now. Okay, so we're totally getting off subject. This is what happens when we're together. Yes, we started talking about Vegas and Tropicana. That ended up into the weather and we still haven't got to numbers.

Speaker 2: 12:21

It is the perfect segment into numbers. Yeah, look at this seamless transition. Let's talk numbers now. Well, I tell you, I feel like this week has been busy, the busiest week I've had already, and it's what is today, wednesday, thursday, yeah, in in a few weeks.

Speaker 1: 12:38

Yeah, yeah, yeah. So that's one of the things. Like, we've been covering the numbers, um, we do it at the top of every show, right, like this is what our stock is, this is what our um solds are, and what have you. And we've seen, uh, let's say, the last four or five weeks we've seen inventory go up. We've seen, uh, price reductions come go. We've seen inventory go up and price reductions go up and the sales have dropped and the days on market have gotten longer. So all of that was going into like a ickity-ick-ick spot feeling. But then they dropped the interest rates and some lenders even dropped interest rates proactively, knowing that the Fed was going to cut their rates. So they were sort of positioning themselves to be ready for that. And then all of a sudden it was like hey, do you sell houses? I'm looking to buy houses.

Speaker 2: 13:32

I'm like, yeah, I'm not off anymore, just like the plants came alive again.

Speaker 1: 13:36

So did the buyers the market the market overcame death once again. Yeah, which it'll be really interesting to go through September's numbers and then next month at this time to go through October's numbers, because it's going to be a little bit different as we slowly started to see things start to dip. I think we're going to start to see those come back. But let's just get into some numbers so that way we can talk about what's going on and that way this is a real estate show and it's not Tiana and me.

Speaker 2: 14:09

Don't invite me for the numbers show anymore. I can't come on the monthly numbers show. No, I'm just kidding.

Speaker 1: 14:15

She's like this is not my day, I'm kidding. No, I know you're kidding. Okay, so if we look first, we're going to start off with our single family units, because that's how we always start. And our single family units do you want to tell us how many went ahead and sold last month?

Speaker 2: 14:30

Let's see 1,791.

Speaker 1: 14:35

1,791. That's actually down. That's down almost 2% from last month. So that is that sort of raise in inventory and price decreases that had happened. But the new listings which is crazy has gone completely up 2,830 new listings. That is up almost 16%. That is a lot of new stock coming on the market, which gives us available units of 5,458, which is up 35%. So that is definitely, definitely, definitely going up, that is great for buyers for sure.

Speaker 1: 15:18

Yeah, that's great for buyers and sort of the same thing. But I guess more magnified is happening on the condo sales, because what do we have on the condo sales for units sold? So 486. 486 units sold we have. That's down 12%. That's a lot, yeah, that is a lot. And new listings 833 new listings up 16 percent. And our units of available stock of 1731, that is up 67 percent. That's crazy. That is a lot of stock going on in the valley, you guys. And so, with all of this new stock and the interest rates, um, what have you been seeing?

Speaker 1: 16:06

um, you know I all of this new stock and the interest rates. What have you been seeing? You know all of this, you're like this is the stuff.

Speaker 2: 16:12

Yeah, all of this. You know, even I do have longer days on market but, like I said, something happened this week. You know I have a couple listings and one of them that I just haven't really had any action on, priced great, great. I've sold before in that area, you know. Um, so you know there's. There's absolutely nothing wrong with it and it is literally this is the longest days on market I've ever had anything before. So I'm like you know, 70 days is a lot. I mean it's not a lot. I mean mean that's you know what. A little bit over two months. But in a market that we're so used to being so fast, so fast, so fast. You know, when you get to 30 days, you're like, oh my gosh, what's going on? You know, so it is. You know, I can feel it. The sellers can feel it, but you know, thankfully, you can tell they're like I can't wait any longer. You know what, when you need to sell, you got to sell. When you're ready to buy, you just got to buy.

Speaker 1: 17:11

You know, even independent of what the market's doing, like you know you, just you have to yeah, yeah, I always refer to those as real real estate. Yeah, but if you've got like a, baby coming.

Speaker 2: 17:18

a marriage if you have a job transfer, you can make the market work for you. It doesn't matter what it is. You can make the market work for you.

Speaker 1: 17:25

Well, I always tell people too that real estate is such a long-term hold you have to live somewhere and it's such a long-term hold that if you're going to be an owner, occupant, then buying at any time makes sense. So that way you are paying yourself For sure, because the market's going to do this. I mean, how many years have you been in real estate? And it's sort of up and down and all over the road.

Speaker 2: 17:48

Oh yeah, that's it.

Speaker 1: 17:49

Yeah, so this is a different market than we've been in, but it is the normal to always be a different market.

Speaker 2: 17:55

That's the truth. It's unpredictable, it really is unpredictable.

Speaker 1: 17:58

Yeah, it is. And then we are seeing some prices increasing and I do want to talk about the prices. We went ahead about the number of available units that we have here in the Valley, but we do want to talk about some prices, like the median home price that is going on the market. Listing is at $479,900, which is up 6.6%. So the prices, even though we're seeing a lot of price decreases, the things that are selling are still up. And as far as median home price ranges in the condos, those are median home price listing that it goes on the market at is $310,000, up about 8.3%. And then they're selling for just under $300,000, $299,500, and that is up almost 11%.

Speaker 1: 19:04

So those houses are moving and we've got about three months worth of stock in our single family homes, which normally would very much be solely a seller's market and they could get their pick of the litter. We usually like to be. Under three months is seller's market, and then we get in that four or five, six months tends to be a little more balanced. Anything above that 6,000 mark tends to be a buyer's market. But this is seller market numbers in a buyer's market environment. That's the perfect words. Yeah, because that's what's happening here. So that's crazy. So about three months of stock in single family and three and a half months of stock in condos, but still great deals to be had out there.

Speaker 1: 19:47

I just want to jump down because you said something really interesting about the days on market. So if you're a listener of this show then you absolutely know our market is fast. It just hop, skip and jump boom deals over. You blink and you're like oh, that's right, I closed another deal, which is actually a fun place to be, but our price, our days on market, has gone down a little bit. So, like you said, you had a house that was sitting, interest rates change and now all of a sudden you're drumming up some showings, which has to make your sellers happy. Oh, yes, of course you know anything.

Speaker 2: 20:27

It's so funny because any little change to it doesn't matter. If it's in the neighborhood and you have a house listed in there and they list a house around the corner, that's going to drive more eyes on your listing. I can feel it because primarily, you know, I usually have listings more so, so I can see it. Though, when a house lists or, um, you know, even a price change, right here, interest rate dip, buyers are are showing up, so I can measure it in showings, number of showings, almost, and feel how the market just I mean and it is quick because it, you know, tomorrow or next week could be different, could be completely what happened last Thursday here on this show versus what is happening this Thursday on this show.

Speaker 1: 21:11

it's only a week difference and I'm just like the amount of activity and interest and things is insane.

Speaker 2: 21:18

I know. I mean, the urgency is always there. You know, no matter what the numbers are, the urgency is always there.

Speaker 1: 21:27

Yeah, I agree with that. But if we are jumping back to the days on market, so zero to 30 days on market for us to sell a house 61.5% of our homes sell in September in that. Zero to 30 days, right, but that's actually down because if we go back to December of last year it was 68%. So now we're down almost 7% there and that is pretty significant for us because, like I said, we're usually a quick moving market. So then if you're 31 to 60 days, that's just about 20% of the homes, which in August that was about the same too we were hovering right around 20% within that 60-day range. And that is up, because in September of 23, a year ago, that would have only been at 17.7%, right, so those days in March are just a little more extended. This year than last year.

Speaker 1: 22:30

But the biggest one was the timeframe that you were in when you were saying it was 80 days on the market. But now you're seeing activity with this interest rate drop. That's where we saw the biggest, I guess, change was 61 to 90 days, went over 10% of our homes. Usually that's, like you know, 7%. A year ago in September it was 6%. So that's the one that really jumped up. If we're looking at 91 to 120 days, that's still around the 3, 4% and two price points always differ too.

Speaker 2: 23:02

Something in a higher price point generally has longer days on market Totally, but the million plus in Vegas is faster than the rest of the nation, you know, as far as days on market goes.

Speaker 1: 23:17

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. So that's the numbers that we, Trish and I, actually talked about this. I don't remember if it was last week or the week before, but we talked about how our basically starter homes or beginning like that townhome price range if you can get into like that $300, $350 price for condos and townhomes and if you can find a starter home like $380 to $450 in the Valley.

Speaker 2: 23:45

Those suckers fly off the shelves and it's so funny because the numbers are relative and I know their numbers, but we see it in our business. You know, and and it does correlate. You can you know that it that it's true, but I mean three bedroom $350,000,. No matter what market it is, it's going to sell and you're going to have multiple offers.

Speaker 1: 24:05

I mean within quickly, quickly, if it's decent, and you know Well, even if it's not, because at that price point, depending upon location and how many square feet, then that is investors knocking on the door Is very it's, it's it.

Speaker 2: 24:24

that is the price range that just flies.

Speaker 1: 24:26

Yeah, you can't keep those on the shelves and that's our fastest moving price point. But our luxury price point, starting at that million dollars, is so healthy and robust in this Vegas, yeah, and it's only getting better and it's only getting better. So people who grew up here and you know went to Tropicana as a kid and you know you went to Tropicana as a kid, then that price point of almost $480,000 seems scary, like, oh, how am I going to get a house at that price? But people are transplanting from here. That is so inexpensive compared to the bigger cities that they're coming from the New York, the Chicago, the San Francisco, la area that those luxury home prices are like. And I have clients in Canada and they sent me some information and it said that in Toronto you'd have to save for 33 years in order to purchase a house. I'm like, send them to Vegas, send them all to Vegas. They can have an investment property here and rent up there.

Speaker 2: 25:26

I don't know, know, and I hope it lasts forever. But really Las Vegas has always been an opportunity city, but it just seems like everybody that moves here, they literally double their income in some way or fashion, by losing extra bills or whatever, and end up in a bigger, better house too than they had been previously, for less money and with equity in it. So I mean, I came here 17 years ago and stayed. I love Las Vegas. And it is an opportunity city for real estate, which is why investors love Vegas too.

Speaker 1: 26:01

Yeah, investors love Vegas and people who love the outdoors. If they want to go hiking or they want to go to the lake or they want to cycle or whatever, then we have those options available. It's a pretty damn great place to live, in my humble opinion. So if you're thinking of moving or relocating to Las Vegas and you want to talk to Mia about getting a property Mia, how do people get ahold of you?

Speaker 2: 26:24

Well, you can call me, you can text me, you can email me or, the best way go to Instagram and just type in my name, you'll find me.

Speaker 1: 26:33

That's true. You do love social media, All right. Well, if you wanted to get a hold of me, you can give me a call or shoot me a text at 702-379-9948. And then we can talk all things. Real estate Also. If you haven't yet, you can go check out realtycheckvegas and that is where you'll find our link tree, our socials. You can add listener questions If you're out there and you're, is it a horticulturist that does plants? Is that?

Speaker 1: 27:04

what they're called. Okay, that sounds good, we'll just go with that. If you do know what's going on with the Vegas plants and why, after the heat wave, we're having a second spring, I would love to know that information. I'll probably go down a rabbit hole and research that tonight, like two in the morning I'll be like why do we have a second spring? But if I don't get a chance to do it and you know the answers, please, please, please, send that at therealtycheckvegas, so that way we have that information to share too. So that's it for our September numbers update. We appreciate you tuning in and we will see you next week. Bye, vegas, bye.