Hmm. Up most of a percent in Reno, half a person in Clark and half a percent in Carson City but the state is up only a tenth of a percent.

Does not compute. Not possible.

This article is substantially misleading. To permit an unpermitted but completed home improvement is a very difficult decision. While one should rationally always get a permit for an improvement if you have an unpermitted improvement you have a big problem.

It is quite possible to exceed the original cost of a correctly done improvement in order to have it permitted. Getting the permit is not the problem...it is the inspection that result from the permit. They well may require that the improvement be removed and redone.

It is also routine to transfer houses with known non permitted improvements. No one checks such things. Inspectors generally specify that the do not check permits of work done.

Glaring defects may lead to difficulties with some mortgage financing but they really have to be glaring.

A client for instance bought a rather nice home in Summerlin which had a garage that had been converted into a family room. It was in fact unsafe for various reasons and the client had it converted back to a garage. But they bought the place with a VA mortgage and no problems were raised.

So permit up front...but if not be careful about trying to permit it later.

If concerned about safety or structural integrity hire a consulting engineer...but think carefully before attempting an after the fact permit.

At present it is very difficult for an owner occupant to buy a home below 75K and practically impossible below 50K.

Why?

Because investors with cash have taken over that market and have moved the terms and conditions out of reach of the owner occupant. You simply can't buy anyting with an FHA mortgage.

So the latent demand at the bottom is there and will likely be stoked well up by the present situation. It all keeps indicating stability sometime soon.

As to LasVegasMax's views...we do agree on one thing. This all comes to a head in July/August...will the tens of thousands of missing foreclosures fall from the secret closets of the bankers?

Or will things roll along with less and less foreclosed inventory and stabilization?

Stayed tuned...won't be long.

The 12 to 20 million are here to stay. Their removal is completely impractical. They are well embedded and have a few million American children.

That they would self deport is the redneck fairy tale. The outcome of tougher enforcement will simply drive the illegals from taxed payrolls to untaxed ones. Half are already on the untaxed side...if this idea worked why have they not gone home?

You might want to note that initial Summerlin occupancy occured prior to 1990...roughly a thousand homes by that time.

Crime viewer can be reasonably misleading. Crime tends to cluster on main streets. Thus a bubble with Charleston included will show much higher numbers than one displaced a bit to leave Charleston out.

For comparing neighborhoods zip codes are more rational. Note crimeview is strange. There are no homicides for instance...and no category for sex crimes.

Note that while the famed incident of the 311boyz occaured in Summerlin the Boyz were mostly from Centennial...not Summerlin.

One should note that this is all probabilistic. The liklihood that your kid will get shot at PV is much less than at say Las Vegas High. It can happen at any high school but is less likely at some than others.