If you have been following the news on the hot housing market in Las Vegas and Henderson you will see homes selling within days of being listed and offers on houses exceeding the listing price by thousands of dollars. Even with the median price of a house in this market shooting up to $405,000 last month, the values are still below the bubble 15 years ago.

In typical housing-bubble conditions, there is a decline in demand and a large supply. The risky loans back in 2007/2008 had people buying multiple houses when they really weren’t qualified.

During the excited mid-2000s, the market soared on pain-free income. For all intents and purposes, anybody could get a home loan, as banks oftentimes opened the vaults without checking borrowers’ pay.

Las Vegas manufacturers were definitely setting up a bigger number of houses than they are currently, engineers imagined acres of condominium towers in the valley, and house flipping was a simple moneymaker.

Today we have high demand and tight supply and loans are scrutinized. You have to prove that you can make the payment. There is a big difference between slower appreciation (which will come) and decline in prices. With the great rates/low payments that buyers got over the past couple of years, there would be little reason to sell. The rent would most likely be the same or higher than the payment.

Las Vegas’ present furor will end sooner or later, but how or when is impossible to say. Until further notice, because of modest acquiring costs that have allowed purchasers to extend their spending plans, costs continue heightening and houses are selling quickly.

I am also looking at the continued growth of people moving to Las Vegas and Henderson from other states like California, to pay fewer taxes and to get more bang for their buck by purchasing homes here. Clark County recently forecast an additional 1 million people moving here in the next 40 years.

And industry is moving here from other states. You can see the commercial construction going on all over the outskirts of the Las Vegas Valley, especially between St. Rose Parkway and Inspirada.

I don’t see a bubble coming. I see the market possibly slowing down a bit, but with property values continuing to rise.