On the market

Our house is officially on the market tonight. It's quite an interesting feeling to be selling your biggest asset. All sorts of fears creep in, doubts about the listing price (is it too high for the market and no one will even make a bid; or is it too low and we won't get the full value for the property?), and there are the hopes as well.

We live in Las Vegas. The housing market here is definitely a seller's market. New homes can only be built as fast as the lumber (and labor) can get here. Prospective owners camp out at the sales office with just the rumor of a new development opening. It is estimated that there are 5,000 home buyers in the market (investors and families) and only 2,000 homes available at any time. So this has led to a rapid inflation of housing values in the Vegas valley. Even the slow climb of the mortgage rate hasn't put a dent in the market's ascent.

We were fortunate enough to buy our home in an area of the valley where demand is currently high. The schools around here are the best, the traffic is decent, and the potential for future increase in value is great. Plus we own the largest land lot in our subdivision. If you want property this large today you have to buy a custom home lot and potentially shell out 500-800K just for the priviledge of hiring a builder and paying them another 800-2000K to build something for you. Those and other factors (Comps, etc) have made us pretty happy about the chances of a quick and profitable sell for us. But we're keeping our fingers crossed just the same. Wish us luck.