This from the Northern Nevada Business Weekly: "A Las Vegas investment group known as NV-Reno Industrial LLC bought 20,000 acres in Tahoe Reno Industrial Center — by far the biggest land purchase in the center east of Sparks — and plans a development that includes residential, professional and light industrial uses. The land is on the Lyon County side of the center."
So, if there are any speculators still standing, that whole corridor along US 50 between Dayton and Stagecoach holds a lot of long-term promise. The developers of the adjacent Reno-Tahoe Industrial Park are under pressure from Wal Mart to cut a road through connecting I-80 and US 50 because it saves the behemoth retailer almost an hour of trucking time to Southern California markets. I think they’ll do it even if they have to pay for it themselves (though they will try to get the government to ante up). But this road will come down through the aforementioned development somewhere, connecting new jobs to (so far) still affordable housing in Dayton Valley.
Understand, this industrial park is the size of three Reno-Sparks metro areas, development has been funded largely by cash, it has all the power and water rights it needs, and developers are aggressively recruiting major companies to the region with ongoing success. Yes, a lot of these will result in average-pay distribution jobs, but each company seems to bring a few hundred people who need a place to live. Once they cut that road through, Dayton-Stagecoach may be the closest, most affordable option, which may put pressure on pricing there at some point in the future.
Reno Ignoramus
‘Alan Carter, director of development for Southern Utah Title Co., says “Absolutely, the market has turned here. There are whole subdivisions filled with spec homes that in one case don’t have a single home sold.”
“Carter blames southern Utah’s wild housing ride on real estate investors, who bought up hundreds of properties with the intention of flipping them. Last summer, roughly 40% of the people purchasing….were investors.”
“Carter believe the Salt Lake region is prone to what he calls a ‘trainwreck now hitting Las Vegas and Phoenix.’ His advice to people looking to buy a home in the Salt Lake region is to wait until next Fall. “You guys are going to hit the wall between April and June next year’, Carter said. ‘Its a huge problem.'”
“Clark Ivory, CEO of Ivory Homes, the state’s largest homebuilder, agrees that investors in the Salt Lake region have created what he calls ‘artificial demand.'”
“‘Builders don’t realize that many of those people that were buying their houses had no intention of occupying them. The builders are ramping up production to meet a new demand, which is an artificial demand. The whole thing is artificially inflated, and then all of a suden there is this surge of supply’ he said.”
Desert News
September 6, 2006
Of course, it is different here in Reno. Here in Reno, all of the builders at the 95 or so new subdivisons only sold to people who actually occupied the house. No flippers here in Reno. No artificial demand here in Reno. We are different here. No trainwreck coming here.