[JonathanLB]

$300K in Summerlin? Well yeah, no wonder! Out of pure curiosity what the median home actually looks like I did a $200-300K budget range search. I found one house in Summerlin that was pretty solid, I mean it wasn't a total pile anyway, and it was $280K. It was very small, like 1,600 square feet, but did look nicely kept and perfectly pleasant. I think it's extremely tough to get into Summerlin no matter what your wants or needs are for under $300K though.

You are completely correct about a backyard big enough for a pool. Nova Ridge is where I was looking and in the $1M+ range and those lots are borderline not big enough for a pool. Their pictures show this pathetic little hot tub sized pool and although the backyard is yours to do with as you want, there is arguably not enough space there for a pool, hot tub, and fire pit, even with zero other space. I think it's possible we could make it work depending on the lot, and a more premium lot may be available near the end of the build out (I'm not sure, just my agent speculating), but she told me that you get far less space in Summerlin than you do in Henderson for similar budgets. It does seem to be the case. I'm shocked honestly by the tiny lot sizes even at large budget levels.

It seems more or less like a large budget gets you a very well built house in a very good gated community, but it certainly doesn't get you much separation from the neighbors or any guarantees of a real backyard. I think by far the most pathetic houses I've seen over $1M are all in golf course communities. First of all, I'm not going to be lounging in the pool in the middle of the fairway, no, I'm sorry. I play golf, I know how easy it is to hit houses. I've hit dozens of them in my days. Right off rooftops or into backyards. I don't want to be hit on the head and killed by drowning in my own pool. Second, though, half the houses in those golf course communities don't even have any backyard at all, like they may have a tiny patio or something that backs up against the edge of the rough and the golf course, but that's about it.

It's a surprisingly challenging market. I honestly had no idea, but the idea that Vegas is a cheap market is definitely dead. The recession is over. It's inexpensive compared to SF or NYC, some parts of LA, sure, but also I think the "averages" don't line up. The average American home is 2,200 to 2,400 square feet, but the average price in Vegas is $280K for a house. The houses at that budget range are never as big as 2,000 square feet, they're always anywhere from 980 I saw to 1,800 maybe, with most of them tiny little 1,350 square foot places with no lots. So if you wanted the average sized American home in Las Vegas, you wouldn't be looking at $280K, you'd be looking at probably $400K to $500K.

[airics]

300k in Summerlin? Not any more unless you want a small ordinary home with 8 foot backyard. Heck, 300k in the valley is going to be tough

I believe you will see the prices start to settle in the valley for 400ish. Next year you will see homes in NLV Start hitting the 300 range

I agree with Jonathan, at the 800 range, you get bigger homes but not truly desired ones. Those are over a mil

[spectras]

Originally Posted by JonathanLB

The average American home is 2,200 to 2,400 square feet, but the average price in Vegas is $280K for a house. The houses at that budget range are never as big as 2,000 square feet, they're always anywhere from 980 I saw to 1,800 maybe, with most of them tiny little 1,350 square foot places with no lots. So if you wanted the average sized American home in Las Vegas, you wouldn't be looking at $280K, you'd be looking at probably $400K to $500K.

As I already mentioned, we were looking for small sq footage. We are all different with different tastes - I was checking home 1600sqf, and it was too huge for me and my hubby. We don't like large homes where "you can get lost" (that is how I see it) - we like cozy (as you call them "tiny" ) homes, so we were looking something between 1300 to 1500 sqf. It is not standard american home size, and we did not look for "standard".

With that all, it would not be surprise if we could find it in Summerlin - and we really did, but they were not gated..or they did not have backyard..
And, additionally we did find them in Sun City Summerlin, but did not qualify for 55+

[JonathanLB]

Hahaha 1,600 feet huge, wow you guys are crazy. I’m assuming you must do everything together at the same times or be able to sleep through anything and neither of you has indoor hobbies or collections Our last condo was 1,700 square feet and while big for a condo that’s still a tiny space! We were always on top of each other and wanted to kill each other half the time. Never again to that, it was awful.

Your gated community idea is kind of bizarre though, like the whole point of a gated community is to keep the riff raff out but to people in gated communities of $1M houses, the people who can’t afford $400K houses ARE the riff raff! If everyone who bought a $250K tiny home was in a gated community then literally every neighborhood would be gated. It’s like saying you want your neighborhood to be special but you want to spend an average or below average amount of money. Well if you want special it’s top 5% of the market prices to get that. That’s kind of the point of gated communities - gated against your average Joe or Jane. I’m not saying that’s right or wrong or making any judgment about that, only that it’s the way the people in general would see it. If every neighborhood was gated then gated communities wouldn’t be special, really.

[kcoliver]

On the boarder of Summerlin, 89129 homes that are "small" about $240 (or so says Zillow), but they go fast! They are on small lots, but not really THAT bad. Lone Mountain.....houses this low in price go FAST so I suggest you contact realtor and tell them you want to look around there. Many are not gated (some are) ...check it out on line!
Good luck!

[spectras]

Originally Posted by JonathanLB

Hahaha 1,600 feet huge, wow you guys are crazy. I’m assuming you must do everything together at the same times or be able to sleep through anything and neither of you has indoor hobbies or collections Our last condo was 1,700 square feet and while big for a condo that’s still a tiny space! We were always on top of each other and wanted to kill each other half the time. Never again to that, it was awful.

It is probably about the personalities - we are different.

None of us could imagine living in huge house - we like small sweet homes with warmness - large houses feel empty to us... Maybe it would be different if we would have 6 kids

[SportyandMisty]

Originally Posted by MissTee_

Great point there. For ROI purpose, I'm not sure how beneficial it is to go with the bigger sf vs smaller one.

On a separate note, why are single story houses so much more expensive here in LV?
I just saw a 1,400sf that costs more than a 2 story 2,500 sf.

If you start with raw land, it turns out building a single story house is more expensive than building a similar size two story house. It is the cost of the larger concrete slab of the single story home compared to the cost of the smaller concrete slab of the two story home, even though the two story home will have more expensive framing.

[SportyandMisty]

Originally Posted by MissTee_

I'm even 40 yet and already am complaining about having to climb up the stairs back to the bedroom at night LOL

I rented a single story house when we first moved here, and discovered my physical conditioning took a hit. Going up and down the stairs a dozen times/day helps very much with physical conditioning.

[BBMW]

Is the LA market still going up linearly? I would expect that to top out and maybe start drifting down. The housing market in NYC has. The boom has caused something we've never really seen here, oversupply (at least at the top of the market.) Places that were post-industrial wastelands have significant skylines (for those that know the area, Long Island City, Jersey City.) High rises are sprouting like weeds, and they're now having some trouble filling them.

I would imagine this has to be happening in LA also, but I'm not close enough to that market to know.

[JonathanLB]

Originally Posted by SportyandMisty

If you start with raw land, it turns out building a single story house is more expensive than building a similar size two story house. It is the cost of the larger concrete slab of the single story home compared to the cost of the smaller concrete slab of the two story home, even though the two story home will have more expensive framing.

I'm a little bit surprised that Vegas doesn't build up more often than they do. I don't know if it's the strong retiree community that helps drive sales / resales, or whether it's a cultural thing, but it seems to me with land being very expensive because of the difficulty / expense of running the water mains, sewer lines, electricity, and all of the lot preparation in general that the builders would consider two and three story homes more often. There are a fair number of two story homes, but there are just about 0 three story homes no matter what your budget range might be. Even the $5-10M mansions appear to be sprawled out onto two floors, which is fine, I'm not saying I object to that design at all (that's probably what I'd do too), but it's interesting from a design perspective as large houses where I'm from would be 3-4 stories routinely and I'd argue that in my market, a one story home almost automatically makes someone think "poor area" or "poor house." In Vegas, that's definitely not true, there are many luxury places that are all on one floor.

I assume on a purely practical level one reason is the lack of basements because of the expense of digging into the ground in Vegas from what I've heard, so if you have no basements than you have 1-2 stories instead of 2-3 stories in other climates as "the standard." I still think there would be opportunities to maximize some of the more valuable land with 3-story homes, though, building up more than out, and you could preserve enough space for a pool or small backyard by putting 2,500 square feet over 3 floors instead of 1 or 2.