By VERNON ROBISON
The Progress
The Clark County Fair is a great expo for small town life. Every year, the annual events bring people out of more urban areas to try on country life for a day or two.
Many of those folks end up falling in love with the rural life and deciding they would like to make it permanent. Of course, the next stop is to local realtors.
During the week of the Fair, and more especially in the weeks that follow, real estate agents get busy trying to accommodating these kinds of people.
“We have seen a lot of change in real estate over the past several years,” said Janet Marshall of Foremost Realty, who has been working in the local market for more than 30 years. “But one thing that hasn’t changed is that people want to come out here. They see the quality of life we have out here, they compare it to what they have in the city. Of course, they want to be here. That brings them to our door.”
Even the current ongoing period of higher interest rates hasn’t put a chink in that local demand.
“You would really never know that the interest rates are the way they are, really,” said Clea Whitney, owner of Clea’s Fabulous Moapa Valley Realty with offices in both Overton and Logandale. Whitney also sells a good deal of real estate for clients in Las Vegas.
“I will give you an example,” she said. “A $300,000 home right now works out to a payment of about $2,100 a month. That is pretty high for a young family. But a fairly-priced home in that category out here doesn’t stay listed for long; they go pretty fast. So young families are taking the plunge because, look, that is about what the rent price is out there, the rents have gone so high. So they’d rather just buy and bet on refinancing later.”
Both realtors say that the only moderating effect on a hot Moapa Valley real estate market has been limited housing inventory. As of the end of last week, there were only 27 homes on the market and only 70 vacant land listings of various kinds.
“I think that it is the inventory being so low that is keeping the demand up and the prices up,” Whitney said. “So we are still selling property despite the interest rates. In fact, it is really moving out here. I think that I am ranked number 24 in the number of sales in the whole Las Vegas market. And that is predominantly from my sales out here.”
The Realtors both noted that the buyers they see are wanting more space which has drawn them to Moapa Valley.
“They don’t really want to be in a subdivision,” Marshall said. “They are done with that life, coming from Las Vegas. They want land and a subdivision won’t do.”
With housing inventories being what they are, that has driven people to seek open land and building lots.
“In the last couple of years, we have sold more land than in the last 19 years, at least that I remember,” Whitney said.
But Whitney cautions that the land is not inexpensive. “With the less expensive land you end up spending more to get utilities hooked up to it,” she said. “So sometimes the cheaper land ends up costing you more than buying something more expensive but ready to build.”
“I can tell you, if there is land where it already has utilities hooked in, we are getting good money out of those,” Whitney added. “They are moving fast.”
Whitney emphasized that she will have a booth at the Clark County Fair this week for people to stop in and get information about the community, as well as real estate info.
“We don’t really make a lot of sales that week because people are here for the Fair,” she said. “But it is a great place to make contacts where we can send them listings. We hear back from a lot of those in the months afterward.”
For more information about Foremost Realty listings visit foremostrealtynv.com.
To view listings for Clea’s Fabulous Moapa Valley Realty check out cleasmoapavalleyrealty.com.
