The Raider Effect?

So, unless you’ve been living under a rock in Las Vegas the last few years, you have heard the news that the Raiders are coming, the Raiders are coming. It’s true, starting in the 2020 NFL Season, the Oakland Raiders will be officially moved down to Sin City, rebranded as the Las Vegas Raiders, and will play games in the beautiful stadium that’s currently being built just West of I-15 and The Las Vegas Strip.

The Stadium is currently ‘still on schedule’ to be ready for Opening Kickoff in the 2020 season (https://www.reviewjournal.com/business/stadium/1-8b-las-vegas-raiders-stadium-on-schedule-for-completion-1670168/). I say still on schedule, because this IS a construction project, and a large one at that. But just like The Las Vegas Ballpark, which opened in April this year, things generally do get done at the last minute, especially with important deadlines looming.

One of the questions I get on a regular basis, from current clients as well as people that inquire about property here, is do we anticipate the value of property to RISE due to the Stadium. While the answer is not cut and dry, I think the answer is that the prices have ALREADY risen due to the news. I don’t think we will see any significant bump in property values, especially for those not immediately adjacent to the Stadium. Let me explain why.

Just like the Stock Market, most price adjustments happen on the announcement of news, not throughout the progression. The NFL approved the move from Oakland to Las Vegas a few years ago. Stadium sites were being thrown around and rumors flew. THIS is when the general market saw a bump in values. Look back at our market over the last 2-4 years, and we had double digit growth year over year. This was in part, due to the Raiders (and the Golden Knights, and the Las Vegas Convention Center expansion, etc, etc).

We would get calls regularly inquiring about properties surrounding the Stadium and the idea of buying an investment on Daily Rentals (AirBnB, VRBO and the like). For those around the country, this made immediate sense. Buy something, rent it out on the BIG Weekends (8 regular season games, 2 pre-season games, and playoffs, PLUS a Super Bowl every few years and Bowl Games). The problem with this? Short Term Rentals, especially near the stadium, are practically outlawed, or outright illegal, depending on the zoning for the community.

Don’t get this twisted though; there are some areas that have seen a bump, far higher than the rest of the valley. It’s a lot of the commercial and industrial areas immediately surrounding the Stadium, and not necessarily the Single Family house values in the suburbs.

Remember, the Team is coming, along with its staff. But that’s only a few hundred people. Stadium employees will be hired from our local communities. Construction crews, which were hired to complete the project, have ALREADY come into town to work. Game days will be big, but there are only 10 SCHEDULED Raider games a year at the Stadium. The impact to our economy will definitely be great, but this alone will not have enough juice to increase the value of your home in Summerlin or North Las Vegas or Green Valley, etc. That jump was seen when the team made the announcement a few years ago.

We had an unbelievable ride up in values since the market bottomed out. In January 2012, the Median price for a Single Family property was $118,000. For May of 2019, about 7.5 years later, we’re sitting at an even $300,000. That’s an increase of 254%. For those concerned about the Raiders, or even looking at a comparison, no Football team will ever help an economy like we’ve seen over the last 7 years.

Agree with me? Disagree with me… Would love to hear your comments!