Las Vegas has a $1 million home problem. Yes, they're not selling. But perhaps not for the reasons you might think, according to a story in the Los Angeles Times.

It's not that buyers don't want to spend $1 million plus in today's market. Apparently, when it comes to luxury homes in Las Vegas, what's worth $1 million changes so quickly that what was ultra-luxe a few years ago is not worth the money today.

Las Vegas has one of the nation's more troubled housing markets, thanks largely to rampant new home construction and speculators. But in the high-end category, shoppers want new and so the homes built during the boom sit. According to the story, about 1,000 houses are listed for sale in Vegas for $1 million or higher, with more than 600 of them built since 2004. In an MLS search today, I found 383 homes in Pierce County listed at $1 million and up.

In a town of excess it should come as no surprise that bigger is better. But four years old and outdated?

My favorite part of the story:

Michael Lemoine, an architect who specializes in custom houses for the wealthy, says he has clients who build houses as often as some people buy cars.

"New neighborhoods pop up that become the place where these people want to live," he said. "They move from one to another because they want to be with their friends, then in five to seven years' time they go to another community."

To be considered a premium home, "8,000 to 10,000 square feet is the new threshold," Lemoine said. It was 5,000 to 7,000 square feet just five years ago, he added.

Buyers today want two sets of refrigerators and freezers, two game rooms (one for the kids, another for adults) and showers that are at least 7 feet by 7 feet, he said, adding, "Laundry rooms now are better than kitchens were five years ago. They have stainless steel cabinets, glass tiles."

Find the full version here.

An Atlantic Monthly story not yet online but in the March issue tries to make the case that home owners are increasingly inclined to head out of the suburbs and into urban, walkable settings. The result, according to author Christopher B. Leinberger, a developer and professor of urban planning? Today’s suburbs and subdivisions could become tomorrow’s “slums characterized by poverty, crime, and decay.”

He cites a study showing one third of respondents prefer an urban, downtown-type setting while just 5 percent to 10 percent of housing stock in most metropolitan areas is located in such places. He also points to lackluster construction materials used on suburban homes that will show their wear far sooner than older, city homes. Leingberger, a visiting fellow at the Brookings Institution, says the characteristics of suburbs likely to decline are ones far from a “central city, not served by rail transit, and lacking any real core.”

Such characteristics could certainly apply to many of the South Sound’s suburban draws. But I often think that when national real estate stories take issue with suburbia, they are envisioning the developments I saw in the Riverside, Calif., area, where homes stretch to the horizon by the thousands. Suburbs of such scale are less common in Pierce County, though many hundreds of such houses have gone up in recent years and there are plans for more. Talk to anyone who makes that nightly drive down Meridian to a subdivision home and, after a few years, they might be thinking a city home and a train ride sounds appealing. (Leinberger does say that homes near Redmond will hold their value, because Redmond is close to a major city and near a walkable core. Microsoft might have something to do with it, too.)

Any thoughts? Are the Southland’s suburbs headed for slum status? Or will people continue to gravitate to big homes with big yards far from work and city cores?

UPDATE
The link to The Atlantic story was just made available. Here it is.

Last year I helped secure the permit for a "little house". It was kind of funny when we rolled out the plans at the Pierce County annex. The first thing the plans examiner asked was, "how big is this thing anyway?" "Oh, about 15,000 square feet", I said with a big grin.

The second thing he asked as he crooked his head sideways was, "how many garage stalls did you say there were?" As I recall, there were 11 garage stalls drawn on the plans.

Knowing that particular client, he's probably added a few more bays by now. But then again, he can pretty much afford whatever he wants, so it's not much of a stretch to imagine him throwing in helipad too just for the heck of it.

Here's an interesting twist. A couple of weeks ago I got a flyer in my inbox for a new development in Auburn called Pinnacle Estates. Steve Jensen Homes, (who happens to be one of my favorite builders), is the general contractor and the homes are "priced from the $700's"… (you know what that means, lol).

Anyway, I was reading through the features list and it looked like pretty standard fare for the price range, but then my eyes just about bugged out. Up to 6 car garages available! Whoa, hold on there trigger, did I read that right? Six car garages?

Yup, turns out it's a pretty popular option according to the listing agent. Now these are tandem style garages mind you. That is, they're basically "double-depth" 3 car garages. But if you back all the cars out you could still host a neighborhood roller rink night in that puppy.

I told my wife I need more garage space because my measly little 3-car garage just wasn't cuttin' it anymore. She reached into the cupboard and grabbed a frying pan to hit me upside the head… so I decided to drop the whole idea. :)

Submitted by Steve Hurley

www.Tacondo.com (it's a secret, but you can look)