Kirk Sanford News

According to the Las Vegas Review-Journal, things are not looking up for the Nevada housing market.  Nevada ranks first across America in residential foreclosures and second in delinquencies for the second quarter of 2010.

As Stephen Brown, the economist who just became the director of the Center for Business and Economic Research at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, said, “The Las Vegas housing market is pretty close to a bottom.” He doesn’t expect to see residential real estate begin to recover for another three years or so.

Unfortunately, Nevada is in good company with their foreclosure rates.  RealtyTrac, a foreclosure listing service, reports that more than 2.3 million homes have been repossessed by lenders since the recession began in December, 2007.

Many banks have tightened their lending standards as a result of these real estate issues.  Certainly, some companies are able to help with these real estate issues. Sightline Acquisition, Inc. with Kirk Sanford, for instance, is a privately held Las Vegas-based investment fund specializing in the acquisition of distressed commercial and residential real estate. While benefiting from a depressed market, companies like this one with Kirk Sanford can, hopefully, help to breathe life into the real estate market and boost sales.

Certainly, the real estate market is one that has been hard hit by the economic downturns. One interesting option for developers and for condo owners is to turn to the rental market in Las Vegas. A number of luxury condo projects have begun renting portions of their units. Several developers are also looking into the idea of time shares.

Housing analyst in Las Vegas, Steve Bottfeld, sees this rental trend as one that will continue. This can become a way to generate revenue for developers.

This information mostly affects developers, but is also of interest to companies such as Sightline Acquisition with Kirk Sanford and others who are interested in real estate in Las Vegas.

There is some promising news for the real estate prices in Las Vegas, but they still seem to have a ways to go. In April, Las Vegas home prices edged up slightly as measured by the Standard & Poor’s/Case-Shiller Home Price Indices. However, Vegas still trails behind other big cities in the recovery or residential real estate prices.

S&P did indicate that Las Vegas prices increased .2% from March to April, a positive sign that is certainly encouraging for businesses like Sightline Acquisition with Kirk Sanford and others.

However, looking at a year-over-year basis, Las Vegas prices were down 8.5% in April, in comparison to a 3.8% average increase for 20 other markets that were included in the report.

For anyone looking into getting a mortgage, or concerned about the future of their mortgage rates, there is good news.  Reports have shown that: “30-yr fixed mortgage rates continue to hold at a record low 4.375% for well-qualified borrowers paying a standard .07 to 1 point origination. 15-yr fixed mortgage rates have dipped once again, setting a new record low, at 3.75%, down from 3.875.”  This definitely spells good news for home owners and those looking to possibly invest in the property market.

Certainly, whether you are shopping for a new house or wondering about the value of your current one, it’s helpful to know what the market will bear. Individuals, and companies such as Sightline Acquisition started by Kirk Sanford, want to know where to invest their money.

One new interesting study points to the walkability of the neighborhood. A company called ceoforcities.org has created a report showing that home values go up as the walk score in a neighborhood ascends. The walk score shows how walkable a neighborhood is.

They found, for instance, that each additional Walk Score point adds somewhere between $500 and $3000 to the value of the home. Walkability helps homeowners because it allows you to reduce your car dependency, cut transportation costs, and help the environment.

Community leaders are hopeful that the depth of the recent economic crisis in Las Vegas and Southern Nevada will motivate politicians and local government to finally take steps to assure that the economy begins the crucial, stabilizing move to diversification.

The Lied Institute for Real Estate Studies, an affiliate of the University of Las Vegas, presented a report based on the opinions of 70 local businessmen, politicians and academics. There was no question, according to the experts, that the road to diversification is the road that is needed to be taken.

It was noted that the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority spends about $90 million each year to promote the resort industry all over the world, but the Nevada Economic Development Commission only spends about $6 million each year attracting businesses to the area.

Kirk Sanford is one of those rooted and invested in the strength of the economy of Las Vegas and its surrounding areas. As an investor in real estate in Southern Nevada, it would benefit Kirk Sanford along with other local businesses for the economy in the region to weather the storms of economic crisis with stability and resilience.

According to the opinion of 70 leaders in the community of Las Vegas and Southern Nevada, economic diversification is an idea whose time has finally come to the area.

In a report entitled “What Happened? What’s Next? Can We Hit the Reset Button?” academics, business leaders and politicians expressed their views, coming on strong on the side of diversification as a stabilizing factor in the health of the economy.

The report was conducted by the Lied Institute of Real Estate Studies, which is part of the University of Las Vegas. The bad news is that in order to get to the goal of a healthily diversified economy, more money must be spent, especially on public education K-12 and higher education, too. Why is improved education so crucial? According to John Restrepo the principal of a consulting group, in order to attract a larger variety of businesses into the area there must be a higher quality workforce available to fill the positions new businesses would create.

As a member of the business community in Las Vegas and Southern Nevada, Kirk Sanford would certainly like to see greater diversification and stability in the local economy as well as a strong recovery nationwide.

As part of many people’s New Year’s resolutions, you can add home buying to the list. 18% of Americans, according to a survey on Move.com, say that they are ready to become first-time homebuyers in 2010. With mortgage rates at a record low and prices down a great deal, this is, undoubtedly, a smart move.

Kirk Sanford, the Chairman and CEO of Sightline Acquisition Corp, is certainly looking ahead to the market in 2010. Sanford and Sightline Acquisition Corp specialize in acquiring distressed property in Las Vegas. At the moment, Vegas is the perfect location for their ventures due to its rapid population growth, its mature market statistics, and its present low prices for real estate.

In addition to home buying, many people say that they want to start home improvements in 2010. Nearly 40% of those surveyed said that they home to start home improvements and they hope to use cheap home equity money to do the job.

With the establishment of Sightline Acquisition Corporation Kirk Sanford ventured into the exciting world of Las Vegas real estate. If Las Vegas is nothing else, it is surely exciting.  For instance, despite an increase in the number of home sales, prices have continued to decline in the city known for its casinos and legal gambling. The decline is actually officially the steepest in the nation, just passing Phoenix as the city with the fastest home price decline.

The statistics read like this: Since August 2006 which was the peak in home prices, the cost of a home in Las Vegas fell 54.3%. In June 2006 Phoenix reached its own home-price peak, and has since slid down by 53.9%, just a tad less than in Las Vegas.

In an apparent contradiction, despite the price declines numbers of home sales continue to increase. July marked the eleventh month in a row in which home sales increased, with a total of 29% increase since last year.

The discrepancy is easily explained: Most of the home sales are foreclosures, which sell at discounts. Two thirds of Nevada’s mortgage holders actually owe more on their homes than their homes are worth, leading them to foreclosure. Conclusion: More sales, cheaper prices.

Sightline Acquisition, with Kirk Sanford at the helm, is keeping up with the latest news in the Las Vegas real estate world. And the news is good.

Check out the latest headlines coming from the GLVAR, the Greater Las Vegas Association of Realtors. According to their statistics, the month of June, 2009 set a record for number of home sales in the local Las Vegas area. Nevertheless prices appear stable as the number of homes available for sale declines.

The month of June scored a record 4,702 homes, condominiums and townhouses sold. July 2009 registered in as the second highest amount of sales in a single month with just 100 less homes sold, 4,602.

The value of the transactions for just single-family homes, which are the majority of home sales, was lower than last year, but still quite impressive. June’s total value came to $634 million. July posted lower at $611 million worth of home sales, which is 3.6% less than July 2009, and 7.4% less than in June, 2008.