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VEGAS INC C OV E R STO RY Southern NEvada Home Values Like Las Vegas, real estate values in Boulder City, Pahrump, Mesquite and the Laughlin area, including Bullhead City, Ariz., peaked in the mid 2000s but crashed during the Great Recession. 400,000 Boulder City Bullhead City Mesquite Pahrump 350,000 300,000 250,000 200,000 150,000 100,000 $50,000 January 2000 November 2005 July 2013 Source: Zillow, Credit: Kyle Hansen has sold 18 homes in Bilbray Ranch this year, up from 16 in 2012, President Robb Beville said. Beville said he expanded south because he saw Laughlin as a low-risk investment. He builds homes only after they sell. And business is better than anticipated, he said. Going in, Beville expected to sell only six houses a year. "It's not like Laughlin's economy is booming," Beville said. Boulder City Boulder City is a 15-minute drive from the valley but seems a world away. Gambling is banned, and city officials impose strict building restrictions. Just 120 permits a year can be issued for commercial housing construction, and no developer can build more than 30 homes annually. What's more, the city owns most of the vacant land in town, and officials need voter approval to sell anything more than an acre. Locals say that's unlikely to happen since they want to protect their community's small-town atmosphere. "We don't have to allow the growth," said broker Cokie Booth, owner of BC Real Estate. Because of the hurdles, builders tend to avoid the city. Its population rose less than 1 percent from 2000 to 2010 and | 30 SEPTEMBER 2013 20130930_VI01_F.indd 15 | hovers around 15,000. City Hall issues five to 10 permits a year to commercial developers and another three to six permits to people who want to build their own homes, said Brok Armantrout, Boulder City's director of community development. "We really haven't had anyone approach us," Armantrout said of big builders. The only large project started in recent years was the 47-home Tuscany Retreat. Developer Randy Schams bought the site from a private seller rather than the city. Construction began several years ago but stalled during the recession. Only recently has it resumed. Despite the dearth of new projects, property values skyrocketed in Boulder City during the flush years. Boulder City's median home value rose from $135,900 in 1996 to a peak of $351,800 in 2006, according to Zillow. It was is $207,800 in July, down 41 percent from 2006 but up 20 percent from the previous year. Strict development laws crimp the supply of homes for sale, keeping prices higher but making it difficult for many buyers to find affordable homes. This month, only 74 houses were for sale citywide, Booth said. Booth sells homes in the valley as well to stay afloat. "I could not stay alive just in Boulder City," she said. Pahrump A few miles west of Highway 160 in Pahrump, Beazer Homes cleared land for a Las Vegas-style subdivision of modern houses. The project, Burson Ranch, got government approval in 2005, and developers were set to build 586 singlefamily homes. But the economy had other plans. Today, the site appears abandoned. Just a few dozen homes sit among large swaths of vacant land, and the roads are unpaved and laced with weeds. Near the main entrance, a Beazer sign and fence are knocked over. Pahrump's real estate boom and bust mirrored Las Vegas' more closely than other rural Southern Nevada communities, in large part because of projects such as Burson. An unincorporated town in Nye County with strong libertarian leanings, Pahrump for years had practically no building restrictions. People built where and what they wanted. Offices, retail centers, medical buildings and casinos are sprinkled along the town's main corridor with little sense of organization. When Las Vegas real estate started booming, Pahrump was seen as a cheaper alternative, a far-flung suburb from which people could commute to the big city. Prices soared as investors from around the world bought homes, and subdivisions sprouted frequently. In June 2004, The Wall Street Journal ran a front-page story calling Pahrump the second-fastest growing "micropolis" in the country. "We're under a huge building boom," a Nye County planning official said in 2003. "Quite frankly, it's frightening because we have no standards." Nye County commissioners approved at least nine housing developments in Pahrump from 2002-08, allowing more than 17,000 homes to be built. Real estate agents, overwhelmed with clients, sold houses every day. Homes that today would list for $150,000 sold for $500,000. "It was insane," said Opatik, owner of Realty Executives. From 2000-10, Pahrump's population grew 48 percent to 36,441. But Pahrump's economy imploded after the economy crashed. Real estate there flatlined six to 12 months after it did in Las Vegas. Many new projects, including Burson Ranch, got mothballed. Builders left town. Today, only one subdivision is under construction. William Lyon Homes is building 14 houses in the Mountain Falls master-planned community. Pahrump's foreclosure rate is higher than both the state's and other outlying towns'. About 0.19 percent of homeowners in Pahrump received a foreclosurerelated filing in July, compared with 0.09 percent in Laughlin, 0.11 percent in Boulder City, 0.12 percent in Mesquite and 0.14 statewide, according to RealtyTrac. Many residents have abandoned their homes. Still, the market is slowly turning. Opatik's group sold about 40 homes last month, far more than they sold last year. Pahrump also has seen an influx of investors looking for deals after the housing market crashed, although rebounding prices now are causing them to taper back. Additionally, Beazer officials recently visited Mountain Falls on a scouting trip. William Lyon sales agent Debbie Davis said they told her they were looking to restart construction at Burson Ranch. William Lyon agents try to sell a house a week at Mountain Falls. Buyers include retirees, people who work from home and those who don't mind commuting to Las Vegas. "They've made this a lifestyle choice," William Lyon Nevada Division President Mary Connelly said. 15 9/26/13 2:09:46 PM