Stable Development, LLC has pioneered a model for business owners to build equity in commercial property. Instead of paying rent to a landlord, clients of Stable Development’s Shared Equity Program receive ownership in the building they occupy, essentially becoming their own landlord. And, the program doesn’t require these new owners to make down payments or guarantee loans.

To expand the development of the Shared Equity Program, Stable Development has added Michael Young and Ryan Gould to its team. Young and Gould will manage and raise awareness of the program throughout the Las Vegas Valley and nationwide.

The latest example of Stable Development’s Shared Equity Program is Corporate Center at the Curve, next to the I-215 beltway at Sunset Road. A few dozen business owners have signed 10-year occupancy agreements in exchange for a portion of ownership in one of the eight Corporate Center at the Curve buildings.

Stable Development partners with the tenant/owners to create custom office space with generous tenant improvement allowances. The developer’s unique Shared Equity Program offers the benefits of real estate ownership to occupants of Stable Development properties. These benefits include: income from rent payments, profits from the sale of the buildings and tax benefits. Most importantly, Stable Development provides the capital and guarantees all loans.

Continue reading "Stable Development adds experts for its Shared Equity Program" »

Posted April 29, 2008 11:37 AM by Pete Codella | Permalink | Comments (0) | Email This

Abandoned homes were once a rare sight, but are becoming increasingly common as the number of foreclosures continues to rise across the country. And while an abandoned property is a sad enough sight, the growing number of vacated homes is starting to have detrimental effects on neighborhoods.

The NPR recently reported that when owners are forced into foreclosure, they sometimes trash their homes before repossession. Cabinets, windows, AC units and other fixtures are sold off, giving homes the look of disrepair, which hurts neighborhoods.

Continue reading "Neighborhoods marred by rising number of abandoned homes" »

Posted November 12, 2007 11:25 AM by Kevin Chomintra | Permalink | Comments (0) | Email This

1,399 new home sales - that’s the lowest total since January 2000. September numbers are in and they aren’t promising.

The Review Journal reported today that existing home sales are down 50 percent, while new home sales were down 52 percent. Median prices have dropped 8.9 percent to $263,075 and 3.3 percent to $312,639 respectively.

Although none of this is really anything new, it looks like the sales and discounts being offered by builders are beginning to stimulate sales a bit.

Continue reading "Las Vegas builders try to stimulate home sales with discounts" »

Posted October 24, 2007 2:56 PM by Kevin Chomintra | Permalink | Comments (0) | Email This

So I read yet another article about home prices dropping 20 percent in the near future. This time the article was from the Review Journal.

I’m as tired of the loathsome news as the next man, but was pleasantly surprised that the article calls for us all to simply accept it. That’s good advice if I’ve ever heard it.

Continue reading "The good part about the expected 20 percent drop in home prices" »

Posted October 10, 2007 10:21 AM by Kevin Chomintra | Permalink | Comments (0) | Email This

I know I’ve said it in previous posts, but it doesn’t look like the housing market will see much improvement in the near future.

New and existing home prices have been dropping since mid-2006 and are looking to continue falling, according to a report in the Las Vegas Sun. According to the article, analysts are expecting prices to drop another 5.6 percent by May and some are predicting 15 to 20 percent drops by 2010.

We wrote a previous post about the predicted drastic price drop here.

Continue reading "Las Vegas Sun reports dismal housing marketing; Astoria Homes holds its first home sale" »

Posted October 8, 2007 12:29 PM by Kevin Chomintra | Permalink | Comments (0) | Email This

Nonresidential and nonbuilding construction has been on the rise in the first eight months of 2007, increasing five percent over last year, according to the September edition of the McGraw-Hill Construction & Housing Review.

The credit crunch plaguing residential sectors hasn’t effected nonresidential construction nearly as severely. Nonresidential building and public works construction are expected to grow at a moderate pace this year.

Continue reading "While residential construction continues to drop, nonresidential is on the rise" »

Posted October 5, 2007 10:34 AM by Kevin Chomintra | Permalink | Comments (0) | Email This

Governor Gibbons met with lenders in Las Vegas on Thursday to discuss the foreclosure crisis, KVBC reported. He’s working with the lenders to solve the foreclosure problem and help keep people from losing their homes.

According to the report, the governor hasn’t set a time frame for his solutions, but warned that the problem wouldn’t be solved overnight.

Continue reading "Governor Gibbons meets with lenders in Las Vegas to discuss foreclosure situation" »

Posted October 5, 2007 9:15 AM by Kevin Chomintra | Permalink | Comments (0) | Email This

According to the September edition of the McGraw-Hill Constructions & Housing Review, residential housing starts is down 6 percent, that’s $240 billion at an annual rate, with single family housing down an additional 7 percent.

It’s a buyers market with the inventory rising and home sales dropping. The increasing rate of foreclosures is only making the problem worse. Until the excesses are worked off, don’t expect construction starts to go up for at least a year.

Continue reading "McGraw-Hill Review: residential construction starts dropping" »

Posted October 4, 2007 1:08 PM by Kevin Chomintra | Permalink | Comments (0) | Email This

The housing market just can’t seem to catch a break. According to an article in the Review Journal, since mid-2006, home prices have slipped further than they did during the 1990-91 recession.

Professional traders expect a drop of 10 percent more next year. One West Coast university economist predicted a home price drop of 20 percent in Nevada in the next few years.

Continue reading "Housing market still dropping; Nevada home values expected to drop 20 percent" »

Posted September 27, 2007 12:01 PM by Kevin Chomintra | Permalink | Comments (0) | Email This

A report at Bloomberg.com indicates that housing prices in Las Vegas could drop 5.6 percent by next May. According to the article, the Las Vegas market may be an indicator for what happens to property values nationwide in 2008.

Patrick Newport, chief U.S. economist at Lexington, Massachusetts-based Global Insight Inc. says that despite the city’s economy, he expects the housing slump in Las Vegas to last until 2010.

Continue reading "Las Vegas housing market may indicate national trends in 2008" »

Posted September 26, 2007 12:31 PM by Kevin Chomintra | Permalink | Comments (0) | Email This

NuWire Investor recently reported that Las Vegas is the number one spot on its list of the top five overbuilt cities. According to the article, the home inventory reached 23,642 in June, 40 percent of which were vacant.

The article also says that condos and townhouses have been overbuilt and are spending an average 335 days on the market. Average single-family homes were spending about 115 days on the market.

Continue reading "Las Vegas tops list of overbuilt cities" »

Posted September 24, 2007 2:02 PM by Kevin Chomintra | Permalink | Comments (0) | Email This

Work has begun on another mid-rise condo project in southwestern Las Vegas. The Mercer will feature 113 units and is located on Tropicana and Grand Canyon Parkway.

Unlike other mid-rise and high-rise projects that have been delayed by financial difficulties, The Mercer is fully financed by First American Bank in Chicago. The $50 million project has begun construction.

Continue reading "Construction started on mid-rise luxury condo project The Mercer in southwestern Las Vegas" »

Posted September 24, 2007 11:45 AM by Kevin Chomintra | Permalink | Comments (0) | Email This

Although Las Vegas had the lowest number of foreclosures this year in August, Nevada is still leading the country in the number of foreclosures per household. Congress has passed legislation to help ease the crises, but some people claim that bailing out delinquent borrowers could do more harm than good.

Continue reading "Legislation to help lenders met with praise and criticism" »

Posted September 20, 2007 12:33 PM by Kevin Chomintra | Permalink | Comments (0) | Email This

The Review Journal reported today that while local home sales are still down, condos are pushing the median home price up.

Luxury high-rise condos have raised the median home price up 4 percent to $338,560. Meanwhile, the number of new home sales has dropped to 1,970, a 39.9 percent drop from the same month last year.

Continue reading "Las Vegas median home price increases; new home sales drop" »

Posted September 20, 2007 12:12 PM by Kevin Chomintra | Permalink | Comments (0) | Email This

A six-building condominium/office project in northwest Las Vegas was bitterly opposed by residents who were concerned it would bring too many people and too much traffic to the suburban area.

The project included two 12-story office towers, two 12-story condominium buildings, a parking garage and retail space on the southwest corner of Deer Springs Way and Durango Drive.

Continue reading "High-rise proposal derailed by neighbors' protest" »

Posted September 17, 2007 1:12 PM by Kevin Chomintra | Permalink | Comments (0) | Email This

In a report by the Associated Press, analysis of the housing market indicates that national median home prices are rising faster than median incomes. The gap, which has been growing since 1990, is contributing to the struggling housing market and Southern Nevada seems to be matching the national trend.

According to the report, the national median income grew 60 percent between 1990 and 2006, while median home prices more than doubled. Locally that disparity leaned toward the bleaker side as the median income in North Las Vegas doubled, while home prices increased fivefold.

Continue reading "North Las Vegas home prices rising faster than incomes" »

Posted September 13, 2007 12:35 PM by Kevin Chomintra | Permalink | Comments (0) | Email This

The Commerce Department reported today that new home sales rose nationwide 2.8 percent in July. The big news, however, is what’s happening in the west, with the highest improvement of 22.4 percent.

Nationwide new-home sales fell 4 percent in June. Expectations were for modest improvement in July, but with all the shakeups in the home mortgage industry, making it even more difficult for would-be home buyers to secure mortgages and existing homeowners to refinance, analysts still forecast caution.

For instance, even with July’s increase in home sales, sales are down nationwide by 10 percent from a year ago.

Continue reading "July home sales up 22.4 percent in the west" »

Posted August 24, 2007 8:10 AM by Pete Codella | Permalink | Comments (0) | Email This

Recently I attended a breakfast meeting where a realtor with a couple dozen years of experience recounted from his vantage point how the Las Vegas housing market is doing.

The picture wasn’t necessarily optimistic.

Some of his stats:

• 9,200 foreclosures so far this year


• No more building permits will be pulled until October


• Builders are building only for qualified buyers under contract with a three to six month wait time for a new home


• 23,000 new homes are on the books, including condos and townhomes


• 25,338 resales are on the market; the average is 12 to 24,000, which usually represents a 9-month inventory


• 1,400 single family homes were sold last month, which is down from 7,000 last year


• The median single family home price has declined to around $305,000 and ‘experts’ think it will go down another 40% before the market turns around


• Experts say we have another 18 to 24 months of decline before a turn-around


• Growth in the community remains strong; we still have 5,000 to 6,000 new move-ins each month


• High-rises and custom homes, $2 million and up, are doing well; about 20 to 30 sales each month


• Commercial rental rates are steady at around 2.50 to 2.70 per square foot

Continue reading "Real estate by the numbers in Southern Nevada" »

Posted August 2, 2007 8:33 PM by Pete Codella | Permalink | Comments (0) | Email This

We ran across an article recently that provided some arguments for renting instead of owning a home. In a market flooded with properties for sale, perhaps there’s some wisdom to this type of approach.

The article, from ManagingMoney.com, highlights the pros and cons to renting versus owning.

If you’re like most people who purchase a home with the intent to sell it after five or seven years, your monthly mortgage payments, about 80% of them according to the article, will go towards paying interest. Not exactly an equity building proposition.

And any equity you do build may be eaten up by repairs, taxes and the cost of selling the home.

If you find yourself in an uncertain employment situation, renting has even more positives, since it’s often a short-term situation and wouldn’t require selling a home in a market with 25,000 other homes for sale.

Continue reading "The benefits of renting in Las Vegas" »

Posted July 23, 2007 7:12 PM by Pete Codella | Permalink | Comments (0) | Email This

Home Builders Research announced the average permit count for new homes in the Las Vegas Valley was 1,724 in May. That’s 34 percent less than numbers reported last May.

Based on this year’s averages, the firm’s Vegas Housing Market Letter interpolated new home permits to be at 4,085 for 2007. That would mean nearly an 18 percent decline over 2006.

They’re predicting the permit trend to be flat through the rest of this year, 2008 and into 2009.

Continue reading "New home permits down 34 percent from last year" »

Posted June 20, 2007 11:41 AM by Pete Codella | Permalink | Comments (0) | Email This