Whether you’re seeking land for sale in Las Vegas or are looking to list your lot, understanding the land market plays a key role in paying a fair price for property in Las Vegas or extracting the most value from your land. At Sunbelt, focusing solely on land sales in our Valley for decades has allowed our team to develop a comprehensive understanding of the market and—in particular—its leading indicators. Today, then, we’re talking land market leading indicators—what they are, why they’re important, and what different indicators can tell you about a constantly shifting market.
What are leading indicators, and why are they important?
A leading indicator is a factor that changes before a larger market shift occurs. Leading indicators can help us make sound predictions about how a market—in our case, the land real estate market in Las Vegas—might behave in the future. A change in a leading indicator can signal an upcoming shift in the market—so keeping a close eye on leading indicators is a critical part of understanding when it’s the most prudent time to buy land for sale in Las Vegas versus when you should sell your Las Vegas property. Leading indicators also help us develop sound, accurate land valuations for anyone hoping to list their land for sale in Las Vegas, and allow us to ensure buyers pay a fair price when they purchase Las Vegas property.
How do the land market and the residential real estate market compare?
While the land market closely follows the residential real estate market, the residential market is much more high-volume. A higher number of residential properties than land parcels means market trends and shifts usually appear more clearly and sooner in the residential market than they do in the land market.
What indicators do you watch for the land real estate market?
Keeping a daily eye on the following data points ensures we have real-time, actionable information about the land real estate market in Las Vegas that we can share with buyers and sellers:
- New & existing home sales: Analyzing our market’s recent home sales gives us a comprehensive look at what’s happening with the residential real estate market—and helps us draw parallels with the land real estate market. We look at home sales in Las Vegas, in xNevada as a whole, and nationally. We compare new home sales to existing home sales and also keep an eye on the housing opportunity index (the number of households in a market that can afford a median-priced home in that market).
- Interest rates: In January and February of 2018, we saw interest rates rising consistently nearly every day as a result of worries about inflation after the 2017 tax plan. Rising interest rates—and higher monthly mortgages for buyers—can signal a slow down, as higher interest rates can negatively affect demand.
- Traffic numbers crossing stateline from California to Nevada: Traffic numbers offer a simple, straightforward metric for understanding Las Vegas’ economy as a whole. Higher traffic numbers mean more hotels occupied and more money spent in our city—while low traffic numbers indicate falling visitor volume, lower occupancy rates, and a possible future slowdown in local development as a result.
- Important indexes: We keep a close eye on the southern Nevada construction index and tourism index—as well as the coincidence index and leading index. These indicators take into account everything from the unemployment rate to the volume of commercial and residential permits and, together, give us a comprehensive view of the how the Las Vegas economy is performing, as well as help us predict shifts we may see in the land real estate market in the future.
In addition to the above, we leverage relationships with decision makers, tap into our vast network of local developers, and collect real-time data from our marketplace of buyers and sellers to get an even more in-depth and nuanced understanding of what’s currently happening with land for sale in Las Vegas—and what’s likely to happen in the months and years ahead. From yet-to-be-announced development projects to exclusive off-market listings, our position as Las Vegas’ premier land brokerage firm allows us to arm our buyers and sellers with the industry information they need to make the best possible decision.
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