Nevada Real Estate >> Las Vegas Real Estate Specialist: Nevada: Las Vegas: North Las Vegas

Yesterday while showing homes in two subdivisions side by side with high vacancy rates and boarded up homes, it appears there was another recent rash of A/C units stolen for the copper. The units were gutted and the copper was stripped all the way to the home.  We meandered into neighboring vacant backyards to find many units stripped.

Has it come to legislating recycling??

I wish that we could get tougher recycling laws like Mississippi (how sad, I know) where recyclers would have to be registered and perhaps state where the materials came from and the source would need to be verified?

Tough economic times coupled with high recycling payouts due to thirsty third world country demands have forced copper recycling theives to analyze vacancy patterns in distressed neighborhoods. 

This is not a new issue or unique to Las Vegas!!

I realize this issue is not new or unique to the Las Vegas Area.  Copper theft costs community governments, banks, corporate entities, investors and private homeowners a billion dollars a year according to a US Dept of Energy study sited on the (get this) Coalition Against Copper Theft's Website.

Copper thieves will cause tens of thousands of damage to property (tearing through walls, flooring and gutting electrical items like refrigerators) just to receive a couple of grand in loot.

How to protect yourself now!!

It seems like there is a growing industry that is building custom cages to prevent the theft of air conditioning units (if you do a simple google search.)  I suppose to me that if you are spending a couple of thousand dollars to replace a unit that has been gutted it would definitely make sense to spend a couple extra hundred dollars to have a custom cage built to protect the unit.

Backed into a corner!!

So now each one of the sellers of these properties are backed into a corner with their asset that has now lost it's financing eligibility due to the inhabitable nature of their property.  Each one (and they varied from banks to private investors that purchased the property at a trustee sale for flip) will need to decide if they are going to replace the air conditioning units to make the property eligible for 50-60% of the financed buyers in the Las Vegas Real Estate Market or lower the property to rock bottom cash only prices.

copyright 2006-2011 Renee Burrows, REALTOR®, The Force Realty  702-966-2494

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The current mortgage and housing meltdown has been particularly brutal to property owners here in Southern Nevada, home to communities like Henderson, Silverstone Ranch, Anthem, Summerlin, Southern Highlands and Mountains Edge. Nevada has held the lead in most foreclosures by any state for months and that statistic is heavily influenced by Las Vegas valley, the most populous area in the state. Many of those who are still in their homes are often in some stage of the foreclosures process, trying to do a loan modification or have started a short sale campaign. Scores of others are hanging in there, but are trapped because being underwater - the home's value is less than the underlying mortgage - prevents them from selling or even doing a refinance. No one could have imagined that things in the Vegas real estate market could get this severely tangled.

Washington has tried many remedies to help the national housing market, with less than stellar results. It just announced another effort in that regard, this time a more focused one. The new foreclosure-prevention program just announced by President Obama is giving money to the most-affected states - Nevada, Arizona, California, Florida and Michigan - to help them deal with the still roiling housing tsunami. The money, $1.5 billion, comes from the Troubled Asset Relief Program, or TARP, that is being phased out. The basic guidelines are to help homeowners who are either unemployed, are underwater or have second liens that prevent them from doing anything useful. Other than that, each recipient can shape up its own program, so it appears there aren't too many strings attached.  

At this point it's unknown how much of the largesse Nevada is going to get. Obviously the initiative isn't going to reach everyone who could use it, but it can make a rather substantial impact on the foreclosure front in the Las Vegas valley. Those mortgage borrowers who have already lost their homes are unhappy that they weren't offered anything like this. The ones that are now doing a short sale, a home loan modification or are in a pending foreclosure situation might qualify for this, although the specific guidelines have yet to be announced by the housing agency handling this program in Nevada. Still, it can help firm up the base for the state's real estate market and prepare it for a tentative recovery.

Home loan modifications have the potential to remedy the housing market swoon currently severely affecting most of the nation. They have to be done right for them to work, though. Thus far the government has been the driving force behind loan mods, urgently pushing the private mortgage sector to follow its lead. But the response has been disturbingly lukewarm, so far.

Innovation in the home loan business has been robust in the past but somehow now that new ideas are desperately needed there isn't much to write home about. Option ARMs, Alt-As, NINA products and many others flooded the real estate market not so long ago and smoothly fueled a tremendous bubble. To be truthful, the subsequent Armageddon wasn't entirely their fault. These exotic programs were practical in certain niche situations, but were roundly abused and flat out over-hyped.

Now it appears that the mortgage industry is slowly getting into gear to find creative solutions to this meltdown. One idea to go along with loan mods is a shared-appreciation mortgage, or more affectionately SAM. In its present simple form it lowers the borrower's payments in exchange for a share of any future appreciation going to the lender, conditional on the home's value climbing over the existing balance. That's basically it. For the homeowner it would avert a foreclosure that has many undesirable side effects. The mortgage bank would sidestep high carrying costs and possibly pick up a slice of equity down the ways. And reap some goodwill, too. They sure haven't got much of that lately.

In Las Vegas valley - hosting communities like Spanish Trail, Mountains Edge, Rhodes Ranch, Summerlin, Henderson and Southern Highlands - it would probably find many takers as long as the mortgage lender would agree to a long-term contract that would allow the housing market to sufficiently recover to lift prices over loan balances. Homes built here in the last seven or so years ago were way overpriced and are now, today, desperately underwater, so to do a SAM on them would require a lot of patience. The home loan providers, for that reason, might for the most part shun Las Vegas. And some of the other harshly-clobbered areas as well, like Florida and California.

As a fresh idea from the private side to deal with this perilous mortgage market situation SAM is good news. This mess is not going get resolved solely by the government with its deep pockets, deep but not bottomless. Wall Street has to show that it can be a responsible partner in this, and act accordingly. SAM just needs other similar initiatives to complement what it aims to do. 

A new twist is emerging in the ongoing real estate overload. There have been a few of them already as mortgage borrowers wrestle with all sorts of challenges that can put their home ownership in jeopardy. This probably won't be the last one, either. Times are rather unusual and fragile not only in the housing market, but also in the beat-up financial industry and the entire economy.

Historically mortgage payment has ranked as the number one priority for consumers, to be made before any other financial obligation. It assures that the roof over the head of one's family stays there, an important incentive. It also makes up for most the largest debt commitment they'll ever agree to and therefore is given extra weight, as it should be. Unblemished mortgage payment record can be a symbol of financial responsibility, and of pride, too. When FICO software figures out a score it thinks in those terms as well.

Mortgage payment has now lost its seemingly everlasting top spot, though, as was disclosed by Auriemma Consulting Group, or ACG, in its latest market research report called Cardbeat. Credit card bills have come from behind and cruised right past it, leaving it fuming in second place, and stunning some industry observers. Struggling consumers have obviously shifted their priorities in a major way.

Take the Southern Nevada - with communities like Henderson, Southern Highlands, North Las Vegas, Summerlin, Rhodes Ranch, Silverstone Ranch, Anthem and Mesquite - real estate market for instance and there are some clear answers to that change. Scores of homes are underwater - the home is worth less than the mortgage balance - quite a bit and with that comes the unfortunate feeling that making payments on a losing asset isn't that prudent any more. The more underwater the property is the more likely it is that the payment will lose weight. Also, it's possible the housing recovery here in Las Vegas will be slow and bumpy, offering little help for homeowners to erase all the negative equity any time soon.

The weakness of the national economy has left the consumer short on cash and left many of them jobless, too. Now they are thinking that credit cards will help them better with everyday living expenses. If something has to give, it's the mortgage payment before plastic. Besides, banks are canceling accounts for late payments, or for no reason at all, and often cut credit lines without blinking an eye. Those rascals. So card holders do their best not to fall behind.

The consumer is responding to what is happening around him in order to survive, that's all. In time the economy will grab and claw itself out of the murky depths and then the mortgage payment will again claim its spot on top of the list.

When the Southern Nevada - including Southern Highlands, Summerlin, Henderson, North Las Vegas, Anthem, Mountains Edge and Green Valley - housing market tripped into a free fall it was a foregone conclusion on many lips that scam artists would soon surface to try take advantage of the situation. And have they ever. What the local media has reported on the magnitude of the issue is undoubtedly only a tip of the iceberg. This, of course, isn't only a Las Vegas problem either, it covers the whole nation.

The scam artists generally employ a few basic practices that have all too often worked on unsuspecting homeowners facing mortgage payment challenges. One of them is the promise that the shady operator guarantees to put a halt to a foreclosure or to modify a home loan. Another is where he requests a large advance fee. They also like to ask for the borrower to stop paying the mortgage lender and send the payments to them instead. All of these are red flag events for homeowners thinking about foreclosure rescue or home loan modification.    

In addition, some operators will brag about their excellent track record and pledge to make refunds in case they fail to deliver the goods. And then there are those who say they are affiliated with the government or the mortgage company in question, when they are not. It's important to check on the legitimacy of any foreclosure rescue shop or home loan modifier before engaging them.

Because mortgage-related scams just continue gaining speed the FTC, or Federal Trade Commission, has launched a new program to attempt to slow things down. It's called Operation Stolen Hope. It was recently announced in a press conference held in Las Vegas, one of the cities most affected by the housing collapse where many hustlers have set up shop to ply their slimy trade. FTC is actually joining forces with at least 25 state attorneys general to thwart these deceptive, fraudulent and unfair business practices the scammers like to pull off. 

Operation Stolen Hope must be the result of ever increasing amount of mortgage borrower complaints. What FTC has done so far obviously hasn't been enough. Sometimes people wonder why regulators have to receive thousands of complaints before they start taking their mandate seriously. Why not do their job right from the get-go so there won't be that many disgruntled mortgage borrowers to make those breathless phone calls? Anyway, if FTC has the resources, organization and will it can make a big difference on the struggling homeowners' behalf.