Small-town atmosphere has driven home prices sky-high

Jeffrey Libby

Tuesday, July 23, 2002 | 11:11 a.m.

In this town of two street lights and roving troops of tree-planting volunteers, young couples will pay $160,000 for a 60-year-old house with no garage, a dead-end electrical system and a punky roof. They consider themselves lucky.

So what if the same $160,000 in Henderson buys a new home with nearly twice the square footage and a two-car garage?

They get in line for the fixer-upper tottering on a postage stamp of land in downtown Boulder City. They have to.

With the average selling price of Boulder City homes up 18 percent this year -- far outstripping the 3 percent rise in Henderson and 6 percent increase in the rest of the Las Vegas Valley -- young families looking for starter homes are lucky to find anything affordable here.

The small pool of homes, the unique lifestyle and the willingness of families to wait -- many keep watch from out-of-state locales -- is helping drive up prices, Realtors say.

A strict growth control ordinance in Boulder City dating to 1979 also drives up prices by limiting new home construction to 120 units per year. But the torrid housing market in Boulder City has some calling for the town to relax those tight guidelines. Others worry that high prices are discouraging younger home buyers, which hurts the town's diversity.

In Henderson alone, crews frame up closer to 4,000 homes a year.

"Right now the hottest market is anything under $200,000. It could be a home that's 20 years old. It may need some repairs. But if it's priced right it's selling within a week," said Chad Blair, a third-generation home salesman and president of the Boulder City Chamber of Commerce.

"We're the only non-gaming community in the state. There's no smog, no traffic and no crime. They're buying Boulder City."

The average selling price of existing Boulder City homes jumped to $287,000 as of earlier this month, up from $244,000 last year and $219,000 in 2000. In the greater Las Vegas Valley, homes sell for an average price closer to $180,000.

Realtor Joanne Levy, president of the Greater Las Vegas Association of Realtors, explained the pricier market by recalling a recent trip to Boulder City for a wedding.

"It was like falling in love all over again," she said. "It's just that hometown, Midwest feel. You can't find it in Las Vegas."

That clear-skied appeal has beefed up the Boulder City market to the point where Boulder City developers and Realtors, at least informally, are calling for a loosening of the growth control ordinance. Over the past decade the ordinance kept Boulder City's growth to 20 percent while the Las Vegas Valley's population doubled.

"It's (the high prices) pushing out the young people that want to live in Boulder City," homebuilder Randy Shams said.

Shams' planned 33-home development is the talk of the town. More than 70 people have expressed an interest in the homes, which start at $180,000.

"There's a select group of 'no-growthers' from California that want to shut them (young families) down," Shams said. "I don't want to throw darts, but we need to sit down and create a movement to bring families back to Boulder City."

Boulder City does have a large population of retirees, some from California. In 2000, the 55 and older crowd made up 37 percent of the population of 15,000. People 55 and older make up only 25 percent of Clark County's population.

Meanwhile, in the last five years, the number of children attending Boulder City schools has remained almost flat, dropping by 10 students to 2,311 students in grades K-12.

But none of that means City Hall will join Shams in his quest to build affordable housing to attract young families.

"Unfortunately, I don't see any major relief for them any time soon," Mayor Bob Ferraro said.

Instead, Ferraro said, he expects to see a trend emerge here that is already unfolding in cities such as Dallas. He says as available land is eaten up, more affluent consumers will assemble lots in the downtown area, tear down the houses and build a single home in their place.

In the meantime, young families determined to live in Boulder City will find the few affordable homes.

Twentysomethings Troy and Ginny Parsons, an air conditioning repairman and a manager of a dog grooming shop respectively, bought a home in Ginny's hometown for $127,500. On Sept. 1, they move into a doublewide manufactured home with a two-car garage built in 1986. They knew they would pay more for it in Boulder City.

"We didn't even look. I didn't want to leave," Ginny said. "It's comforting, not like Vegas or Henderson. You go into any store here and you go 'How's so-and-so?' "

But the Parsons' buy was a rare find, said their Realtor, Cokie Booth. Many other families with similar incomes are forced to buy elsewhere, she said.

"We have very little for younger families here," Booth said. "It's unhealthy for a community. We need babies as well as grandmas and grandpas. If we don't, who's going to mow the lawn?"