The newest and most dramatic trend in home ownership in the Las Vegas Valley is the high-rise condominium. As the valley has grown and the need for a diversity of living styles has increased, the developers have chosen to take their construction projects up rather than out. The high-rise condominium offers enhanced security, a wide variety of personal services and other amenities not afforded in other lifestyles.
The population boom and a fast-paced economy are transforming every sector of the region's real estate. Higher land prices and record levels of new-home construction are expanding the region's boundaries as developers scramble to accommodate the influx with new malls, offices and schools.
"The city is changing from a gaming community into a metropolis," said Richard Lee, vice president of First American Title Co., which provides real estate consulting to the local hotel industry. Though Mr. Lee said he believes casinos will always be a core part of the economy, "the new Las Vegas is not just about casinos."
The housing market has experienced some of the region's most astounding growth. According to the National Association of Realtors the median home price almost doubled in three years to $300,100 in the second quarter of '05 from $159,800 in '02. That's still below the median of $312,600 in the western U.S.
Some 120 mid- to high-rise condominium projects are planned in the region, while conversions of rental apartments into condos helped lower the apartment vacancy rate to 4.1% in the third quarter, the lowest in 54 major markets surveyed by Property & Portfolio Research Inc., a Boston-based real estate research firm.
With land prices rising at annual double-digit rates and 80% of the region's land under federal government ownership, home builders are focusing on higher-density projects and are pushing beyond the mountains that ring the valley into former farm towns such as Mesquite and Pahrump, says Monica Caruso, a spokeswoman for the Southern Nevada Home Builders Association.
Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman, a former criminal-defense lawyer, also is working to revitalize the city's downtown, which he sees as a place where locals can live and work. He says he has gotten tougher on crime and encouraged the revitalization of the older buildings and casinos along Fremont Street, the city's main drag. "People euphemistically called it mature, but it was seedy," Mr. Goodman said.
He also says he hopes to expand downtown's boundaries with a project called Union Park that will include a performing-arts center, an Alzheimer's research clinic and a new city hall on 61 acres of former rail yard just west of the existing downtown. Mr. Goodman's ambitious vision has had some setbacks lately. Long-running negotiations with Related Cos., one of the country's biggest developers, broke off recently, and the city has decided to act as its own developer.
A booming job market, especially in tourism, construction and services, increased employment by 7.7% in the 12 months ended in June, the fastest growth rate of any major city, according to PPR. Office buildings have also benefited from the job growth, with vacancies declining almost three full percentage points to a below-average 13.6% in the third quarter from the year earlier. Developers are responding. Work is set to begin this year on a 265,000-square-foot downtown office tower near the proposed Union Park project, and Qualcomm Inc. plans to begin construction by the end of this year on a facility on 32 acres in North Las Vegas.
