Analysis of the real estate market in Las Vegas: Bubble, seasonal patterns, and prediction of the CSW indices

We analyze 27 house price indices of Las Vegas from June 1983 to March 2005, corresponding to 27 different zip codes. These analyses confirm the existence of a real estate bubble, defined as a price acceleration faster than exponential, which is found, however, to be confined to a rather limited time interval in the recent past from approximately 2003 to mid-2004 and has progressively transformed into a more normal growth rate comparable to pre-bubble levels in 2005. There has been no bubble till 2002 except for a medium-sized surge in 1990. In addition, we have identified a strong yearly periodicity which provides a good potential for fine-tuned prediction from month to month. A monthly monitoring using a model that we have developed could confirm, by testing the intra-year structure, if indeed the market has returned to “normal” or if more turbulence is expected ahead. We predict the evolution of the indices one year ahead, which is validated with new data up to September 2006. The present analysis demonstrates the existence of very significant variations at the local scale, in the sense that the bubble in Las Vegas seems to have preceded the more global USA bubble and has ended approximately two years earlier (mid-2004 for Las Vegas compared with mid-2006 for the whole of the USA).