According to a report from Realtor.com, the official website of the National Association of Realtors, a third of all people looking to relocate to Las Vegas are searching online for houses from the Los Angeles, Long Beach, and Anaheim area (24%) and San Jose-Santa Clara (9%). The other 23% of searches from out of state are from Phoenix, Chicago, Seattle, New York, Denver, Tucson, and Dallas. Nearly 40% are searching from Las Vegas, with 3% international and less than 1% from elsewhere in Nevada. Searches by potentially outbound Las Vegas residents are highest in the Phoenix metro area at 6% (Las Vegas isn't hot enough for them in July), Riverside-San Bernardino (4.3%), and Tucson (4.2%).
The selling price of a Las Vegas single-family house held steady in June, matching May's all-time high of $490,000. It's roughly $5,000 more than June of last year. Unlike other areas in the country, Las Vegas is experiencing a relatively tight housing supply and consistently strong demand from buyers. Sales were up nearly 20% year over year for houses and a point or so for condos and townhomes. Inventory of 7,000 unsold properties is up 2% from last June.
The USA is a -130 favorite over Belgium in today’s match to advance to the World Cup quarterfinals. The Total is 2.5.
We'd been hearing rumors of this sort for a few weeks and now AV magazine, a trade pub for audio professionals, reports that Elton John "has signed a multimillion-pound deal for a Las Vegas residency at the new Hard Rock performing as a hologram." The 79-year-old Sir Elton retired from touring in 2023 (his eyesight is failing), so this allows his fans to get up close and personal again, at least to a computer image. Elton, along with duet partners Dua Lipa singing "Cold Heart" and Kiki Dee singing "Don't Go Breaking My Heart," will record at the UK's Pinewood Studios in the next few months, with an eye toward opening with the Hard Rock by the end of next year.
We've been receiving a number of questions about the two blockbuster deals that would take Caesars Entertainment and MGM Resorts International off the NASDAQ and New York stock exchanges, respectively. Though not outside of our wheelhouse, we're holding off on answering them until these transactions are closer to fruition. In the meantime, long-time Las Vegas and gambling-business reporter Howard Stutz posted an extensive analysis of the two takeovers, which you can read here if you're following these deals. One thing we can say is that LVA correspondent Bradwww tells us that Tilman Fertitta and Barry Diller "are taking us back to the days of the Mob and Benny Binion." How so? By taking the companies private, they no longer have to play the quarterly earnings game, "having steady income over every single quarter or else your stock gets killed." Rather, private companies "can do crazy things, like take million, five million, even 10 million dollar bets, which will all profit in the end." And it doesn't stop at the casino. "Also, they'll probably get rid of the resort fees, because they know people hate stuff like that. Weekdays will be cheap again. They won't nickel and dime -- as if that was still an accurate phrase! They'll give good value, necessary in this day and age, because casinos are in nearly every state now. The only way they can win big is by taking big chances. I believe that's the opportunity they see, because I see it and it's obvious." The whole Las Vegas Strip time traveling back to the Binion model? We'd be surprised, but again, we're wait and see.
VitalVegas reports this morning that the Luxor Sky Beam, which has been bright white for its 33-year lifetime, is getting "its first splash of color." Red, apparently, will debut the eventual color scheme and will be tested, according to VV, over the next couple of weeks. Read the whole story here.
The venerable Sinatra restaurant at Encore is now serving breakfast and lunch. Called Sunrise at Sinatra, the meals are served from 7:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. in the Sinatra-themed space, complete with a terrace and bar. The online menu at WynnResorts.com actually has prices -- a miracle. It's also a miracle if you can pay them. For breakfast: coffee $6; orange and green juice and smoothies $15; Bloody Mary $25; oatmeal $22; French toast, egg dishes, pancakes, quiche $27-$31; steak and eggs $48. For lunch: soup $17, salads $24, sandwiches $26-$29, pasta $29, salmon $39, fries $12-$15. In short, for eggs and a shared Bloody Mary or sandwiches and fries for two, expect to pay $100 before taxes and tip.
Las Vegas' America250 fireworks display was, by all accounts, a dazzling eight-minute show comprising bursts of color, light, and sound. Fireworks by Grucci put on more than 70 fireworks shows around the country, with Las Vegas's their biggest. You can get a small-screen idea of the extent of the display in a 2:25 compilation video.
Today we're in the middle of an eight-week celebration of the 250th birthday of these United States. The fireworks began on Saturday June 6 and have continued every Saturday since, with tonight's show the climactic display, launching at exactly 9 p.m. from nine Strip rooftops: MGM Grand, Planet Hollywood, ARIA, Caesars Palace, Treasure Island, Venetian, Resorts World, Fontainebleau, and The STRAT. The displays are synchronized to music broadcast on three local FM stations (KOMP 92.3, 97.1 FM The Point, and 98.9 HANK), with coordinated red, white, and blue building lighting and a 30-minute show on marquees along the Strip. In addition, Sphere's exosphere will light up throughout the evening with complementary fanfare. The fireworks continue on Saturday nights through July 25.
Nothing new, Joey Chestnut is the prohibitive favorite at -4200 to win today's Nathan's Hot Dog Eating Contest. The over/under for dogs downed is 69, a relatively low number due to a projected 93-degree temperature during the competition. Chestnut is seeking his 17th championship. Earlier, Miki Sudo ate 38.75 dogs to win her 12th women’s title after going off as the -1400 favorite.
Circa is running the second Slotapalooza on July 18. “The World’s Largest Slot Party” features a free and open-to-the-public slot tournament (11 am-7 pm) with a grand prize of a video poker machine and $15,000 in free-play split among the top scorers. Several game manufacturers (Interblock, AGS, Light & Wonder) will be there, distributing free-play to guests. The official party begins at 7 pm, with more giveaways and a two-hour open bar.
A pai gow player at the new Vanderpump Hotel (formerly Cromwell) hit a seven-card straight flush to win the progressive jackpot of $813,553 on Wednesday. The player, from Littleton, Colorado, in town with her husband, was dealt the 6 through 10 of hearts, a wild card, and the queen of hearts. She said she'll spend some of the winnings on a European river cruise.
Today's high of 102 is a couple of degrees below normal and a full 14 degrees cooler than the record for the day, set in 1937. For the holiday tomorrow, the high will rise two degrees to 104 and the low will drop to 78; the records are 115 (1973) and 60 (1941). The dry spell continues with no precipitation in the forecast; on the Fourth in 1949, Las Vegas received nearly a fifth of an inch, the most ever. Temperatures will climb steadily through next week and could hit 110 for the first time this year on Wednesday or Thursday.
VitalVegas is reporting this morning that Boomer's, the new (10 months old) independent sports book in Nevada, will assume sports betting operations at the Four Queens and Binion's from William Hill on Sept. 1. This is the first we've seen this information, so we technically consider it a rumor, though VV's Scott Roeben (almost) always has the inside track on what he reports early. Also, we know from recent Nevada Gaming Control Board meetings that Boomer's has been working on approvals for several new sports books around the state in time for football season. So this report makes sense to us.
The Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority is predicting 329,000 out-of-towners for the long Independence Day weekend and a hotel occupancy rate of 88%. Last year saw 310,000 visitors a year ago and the occupancy rate was 85.7%. Typically, the occupancy rate for the Fourth is 91%-95%; this year, Las Vegas has 1,000 more rooms than last year, which skews the comparison slightly. The LVCVA also projects the economic impact from the weekend at $690.6 million, up 5.8% from $652.7 million a year ago.
Since 2003, the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) has held its annual International Builders' Show and Kitchen & Bath Industry Show in Orlando 11 times and Las Vegas 12. It was in Orlando this year in mid-February, with 120,000 attendees and nearly 2,000 exhibitors occupying more than one million square feet of indoor and outdoor convention space. But that's about to change, according to early reporting from Fox35Orlando. From now until at least 2039, the NAHB will hold its convention in Las Vegas, signing a contract for the next 13 shows, with possible extensions. An NAHB executive told Fox that it "needed more space, more hotel rooms, and easier transportation options between those hotels and the venue." The convention typically takes place between Jan. 21 and Feb. 27.
Primm Valley, the last hotel-casino operating in Primm, closed on Monday, completing the trifecta of closed casinos at the state line 40 miles southwest of Las Vegas on I-15. Terrible's, the brand owned by the Herbst family, was approved at an emergency meeting of the Nevada Gaming Commission last week to take over all the operations of Primm businesses from Affinity Gaming as of today, but when that might happen remains up in the air. In a statement, Terrible's wrote, "Our teams are working diligently to minimize disruptions, maintain essential services, and reopen businesses as quickly and safely as possible throughout the transition process.”
With apologies to Sly Stone and his "family" for the title, here we're talking about weather in July. Typically, temperatures this month don't fluctuate too widely, with normal highs between 103 and 105 and lows between 79 and 82. Record high temperatures, however, have risen all the way to 120 (July 7, 2024) and for the first time ever, the average daily temperature was above 100 degrees (100.1 to be exact, also in 2024, breaking the year-old record of 97.3). Other records from the epic heat wave in 2024 included seven consecutive days of new high-temp records (July 6-12), 11 days in a row of 110 or more (the old record set in 2023 was 10), and 13 days of the low temperature above 90 (breaking the record of eight set in 2023). Record lows for the month have dropped to 56 degrees twice (1937 and 1940) and 58 twice (1938 and 1940). As for precipitation, nearly a half-inch of rain falls during a normal July (fifth-highest total by month of the year), but it depends on the severity of the monsoon season. This year's monsoon is predicted to be ferocious, but that could be wishful thinking.