Once again, Glenn Plantone has been featured as an expert commentator in a recent article from CNN Money. This piece by Les Christie was featured in CNN Money on Nov. 11, 2011 and is titled "Is Las Vegas' Housing Market Ready to Make a Comeback?" Excerpts from the article follow:
"NEW YORK (CNNMoney) -- Las Vegas has suffered through the housing bust like few other places and still has further to fall. But these days many real estate investors and home buyers are betting that it's poised to stage a comeback.
Sin City's metro area led the nation in mortgage defaults for 22 straight months through August and home prices plunged a whopping 60% from their 2006 peak, according to RealtyTrac. And prices still have further to fall. Financial analytics company, Fiserv, projects home prices in Las Vegas could fall another 16% by next June.
But to investors and home builders, there are enough positive signs to start betting on Vegas now.
Home sales, especially of bank repossessions, have picked up signi cantly. Nearly 36,000 homes have been sold so far this year through September 30, an 11% increase compared with the same period in 2010, according to Lawrence Yun, chief economist for the National Association of Realtors.
Glenn Plantone, a Vegas-based broker and investor who deals mostly in foreclosed properties these days, said he's seen an infl ux of foreign buyers, especially from Canada and China. Last year, he brokered 25 sales but this year he's already up to 65.
"I'll triple my business this year," he said.
According to CoreLogic data, 63.3% of homeowners there are underwater on their mortgages. As a group, Las Vegas mortgage borrowers owe about 20% more on their mortgages than the value of their homes. Many will lose their homes to foreclosure.
But for all of those who lose their homes, there are others who see it as an opportunity. More than 50% of all sales in town are foreclosures, said Plantone.
Recently, he had a client who made bids on 40 diff erent bank-owned properties. He was outbid each time. The investor wound up buying four new 1,400 square-foot homes in North Las Vegas for $140,000 each instead. He rents them out for $1,495 a month apiece, which give him immediate returns on his investment.
Once the housing market recovers he could sell the properties for a healthy return, too. It's hard to beat those kinds of odds."
