Workshops focus on maintaining home values

By Jeremy Twitchell

Wednesday, June 3, 2009 | 2:17 p.m.

As home values in the Las Vegas Valley continue their downward slide, the city of Henderson is offering free classes this month to help homeowners preserve what value they can.

The initial Maintaining the Value of Your Home Workshop will be offered tonight from 6:30 to 7:30 p.m. at the Black Mountain Recreation Center, 599 Greenway Road. It will be repeated at various locations throughout the city on June 8, 17, 23 and July 1.

Though there is no cost, class sizes are limited to 30 people and registration is encouraged.

Henderson Parks and Recreation spokeswoman Kim Becker said the workshop will focus on the small things homeowners can do that can have a major effect on a home’s value — things as simple as enlisting the city’s help to keep homes around them maintained and tapping city resources for help to improve their own home’s appearance.

“Sometimes it’s just little things you can do to enhance the value of your home, things that many homeowners may not even know about,” she said.

The two-pronged class will begin with representatives from the city’s Code Enforcement Department telling residents what they can do about foreclosed properties around them that slip into disrepair.

“We have a lot of residents in neighborhoods where there may be a lot of foreclosures, so we get a lot of calls from residents concerned about stagnant swimming pools or trash accumulating around a home that the owners may have just up and left,” Becker said.

Becker said many residents don’t realize that Code Enforcement personnel have the tools to help with those problems.

“Code Enforcement has a number of steps to work with neighbors to clean up the neighborhood, so that’s part of (the workshop) — to let neighbors know that Code Enforcement is there to help them,” she said.

The other half of the workshop will bring in representatives from the Neighborhood Services Department to talk about grants and programs the city has available for neighborhoods and individual homeowners to beautify and improve their property.

Among the assistance available are a $2,000 matching grant for neighborhood groups for permanent beautification projects such as landscaping and a $5,000 zero-interest loan to help qualifying homeowners install desert landscaping in their front yards.