Las Vegas housing market

[THAY3R]

I will try to make this quick :

I am graduating in the Spring, and plan on moving to Vegas when i graduate. I plan on purchasing a house. I have the money to do so immediately, would it be in my best interest to get the house now, or wait until I graduate? I have a friend who lives in Vegas, so upkeep won't be a problem. I'm just wondering what people project how the market will change, and if It's a good idea to get a house now.

I'm a noob at stuff like this so what I am saying may seem really stupid, so feel free to inform me [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

[rocketlaunch]

I'm currently in the process of buying a house here in Vegas.

The market here is really softening. This article lists projections for certain housing markets for the next year, and Las Vegas is projected to fair the worst, at -5.7%. Depending on how much stock one puts in those projections, it would suggest perhaps waiting is the best thing to do.

[DesertCat]

If I was a gambler, I'd bet on Las Vegas, San Diego, and Phoenix (where I live) as having the biggest drops in home prices over the next year. They are three of the markets with the largest amount of speculators who were buying homes with short term ARMs or interest only loans. Now they are finding they can't "flip" the properties for a quick profit, while their ARMs are adjusting to substantially higher payments.

They'll either have to dump them, or try to rent them at prices that don't come close to covering their payments. Most of these investors don't have the capital to subsidize their rentals for long either. I expect more and more of these properties will be fire-sale-ed (firesold?) or auctioned by the bank this fall and and winter.

[BigBiceps]

San Diego has already declined more than 10% in most areas in the last 9 months.

[IronFly]

I think renting for a year so you can take time to get to know different areas and the market is a good idea.

[Recliner]

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I think renting for a year so you can take time to get to know different areas and the market is a good idea.

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I'm going to second the renting idea for two reasons.

The first, how familiar with Vegas are you? Have you lived there before/done other things than being on the strip. I think it would be good to make sure you get a house in the location that you are going to be happy with.

The second, you can get a 3-month lease in Vegas very easily. (At least compared to the Chicago area, in my experience.) This gives you more flexibility as you will be able to know the area better and be able to view more homes than if you fly in for a weekend.

[sprmario]

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Miami has already declined more than 10% in most areas in the last 9 months.

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same.