Real Estate Briefs: Feb. 3

Nevada Realtors fly to France for conference

Leading Realtors from throughout Nevada will be showing off real estate and investment opportunities in the Silver State by attending MIPIM, the world’s leading global real estate market, business conference and networking event, being held March 13-16 in Cannes, France.

Nine Nevada real estate leaders are attending the event, representing the Nevada Realtors, the Greater Las Vegas Association of Realtors, the Reno-Sparks Association of Realtors and the Commercial Alliance Las Vegas.

They include Nevada Realtors CEO Teresa McKee; GLVAR CEO Wendy DiVecchio; 2017 Nevada Realtors President Greg Martin; 2017 GLVAR President David J. Tina; 2017 CALV President Jennifer Ott, CCIM; 2018 RSAR President Doug McIntyre; Diane Brown, of the Northern Nevada Realtors, who has chaired the state association’s Global Committee; and Rena Levy and Tamara Larisa Tyrbouslu, Las Vegas Realtors and longtime leaders of the Global Committees for both GLVAR and Nevada Realtors.

These Nevadans will be part of a growing USA pavilion, hosted by the National Association of Realtors, the nation’s largest real estate trade organization. NAR will be among 3,100 exhibitors at this year’s event.

This will be the third year Nevada Realtors have attended MIPIM, said Heidi Kasama, 2018 president of the Nevada Realtors. This year, she said Nevada’s representatives will bring more information about the most significant real estate and development projects being built or planned in the state. She said examples range from Tesla’s gigafactory being built near Reno and Sparks to the $1.9 billion stadium being built near the south end of the Las Vegas Strip, to billions of dollars in other, less well-known but still significant developments.

About 24,000 leading real estate executives from 100 countries, including thousands of investors, are expected to attend the annual gathering of the global real estate industry. The event brings together investors, developers, occupiers, architects, hotel groups, public authorities, city mayors and property associations from around the world.

“The U.S. remains the top-ranked market for real estate investors,” said Elizabeth Mendenhall, 2018 president of the 1.3-million-member trade association. “Despite potential risks associated with emerging technologies, e-commerce, the sharing economy and geopolitical events, foreign investors in a recent survey named the U.S. the most stable market for real estate investment and the best opportunity for capital appreciation.”

“Overall, the market is healthy, with commercial property prices rising 90 percent in the last seven years,” Mendenhall added. “Multiple years of steady job growth and the strengthening U.S. economy — albeit at a modest pace — make commercial property a good bet for foreign investors looking to diversify their portfolios and generate returns outside their country of origin.”

Kasama pointed out that prices for Class A properties in many large U.S. markets have surpassed pre-recession levels, while many mid-sized and smaller-tier markets like Reno and Las Vegas “still have room for prices to appreciate” and could benefit from increased interest from foreign commercial property investors.

Mendenhall explained that “current interest in industrial and logistics properties due to the growth of online shopping creates opportunities in markets not traditionally identified as a destination for foreign investment.”

In addition to Nevada, markets featured in the USA pavilion include the states of Arizona, Illinois, Missouri, North Carolina, Rhode Island, Virginia and Washington, and the metro areas of Beverly Hills/Greater Los Angeles, Coastal Carolina/Myrtle Beach, Northern Virginia and San Antonio. Markets participating in the USA “zone,” adjacent to the USA Pavilion are Florida State, Miami and San Diego, along with the CCIM Institute and the Society of Office and Industrial Realtors.

Inspirada, city of Henderson to host Munchies 4 the Military

Inspirada and city of Henderson will sponsor the fifth annual Munchies 4 the Military event at Liberty High School, 3700 Liberty Heights Ave., from 1 to 3 p.m. Feb. 10. The drive, which was founded by the Douglas J. Green Memorial Foundation, aims to collect items for care packages, which will be mailed to active servicemen and servicewomen who are deployed overseas. This year, the goal is to assemble a record-breaking 2,000 care packages that will be assembled by volunteers at the event.

Items, such as breakfast items, snack foods, beef jerky, nuts, dried fruit, protein and granola bars and wet wipes, are being collected and can be dropped off at various Inspirada and other Henderson locations. Community members can also contribute by making monetary donations, which will help offset the cost of postage — approximately $17 per box.

The Douglas J. Green Memorial Foundation was created in honor of SPC Douglas J. Green, who was killed in action during his second tour of duty in Afghanistan in 2011.

Home is Possible Program has helped 15,000 Nevadans

The Nevada Housing Division has helped more than 15,000 Nevadans into homes of their own through the Home Is Possible program. Since the program launched in the fall of 2014, 15,162 clients have utilized the program including 892 veterans and active military personnel through the HIP For Heroes program; and 388 Nevada teachers in 21 Nevada communities through HIP For Teachers.

Matt and Melissa Fitzgerald, along with their 1-year-old daughter, purchased their first house in Southern Nevada in 2017.

“We bought our home because we were tired of paying rent for someone else’s house,” Matt Fitzgerald said. “I’ve lived here almost my entire life, but I’m not sure we would have been able to buy a house without help from the Nevada Housing Division.”

The Home Is Possible program provides bonus money of up to 5 percent of the loan value for Nevada families with a household income of less than $98,500 and a minimum credit score of 640, purchasing a home for less than $400,000. The money, forgivable after three years, can be used for down payment and/or closing costs and comes with an attractive 30-year interest rate. The buyer must meet standard underwriting requirements, complete a homebuyer education course and live in the home as their primary residence.

The typical Nevadan benefiting from the program:

■ Average purchase price of home: $221,600

■ Average qualified income: $59,900

■ Average age of primary borrower: 38

“We’re very happy that we have been able to serve so many first-time, boomerang and other buyers throughout Nevada,” said NHD Administrator Stephen Aichroth. “And we’re thrilled that our veteran and teacher programs are helping to make Nevada even friendlier for vets and teachers. With the ongoing support of our partners, we’re looking forward to helping even more Nevadans in the years to come.”

The program is made possible through the use of a private/public partnership model, which has funded $124 million toward down payment and closing costs, for a total of more than $3 billion in closed mortgages since the program was founded.