With rising prices, should you consider buying a new home?

The truth is 2015 was a big year for Las Vegas homes: Owners have seen the median price of homes throughout every ZIP code in the valley increase by 8.9 percent over 2014 figures.

Five years ago, area outsiders may have thought that an unlikely scenario for this town. But for many who know Las Vegas well, it really comes as no surprise. It’s one of the reasons longtime locals like Rick Piette, owner of Premier Mortgage Lending, have been encouraging “undecided” potential homebuyers to make the move into ownership.

“Buying a home is a big step,” Piette said. “It should be a move toward building equity and stability, and in Las Vegas that is happening again. New industries are coming to Southern Nevada, unemployment rates continue to drop, credit is finally loosening up, and the Fed just confirmed that interest rates won’t be rising — at least for the time being.

“So even with the news that the price of homes in Las Vegas has begun to see an increase, and our economy isn’t perfect (yet), I believe we’re on a path to a fantastic 2016-2018, with all the right ingredients in place for the valley to see a sustained period of steady growth.”

Piette goes on to add that, “The number of home sales in Las Vegas over the past couple years has been good. Not awesome, but good in the sense that it has been a slow and steady increase; not the wild gains that occurred prior to the housing crisis. And since the recession, many potential buyers have been sitting on the fence trying to decide the ‘absolute, perfect moment’ to buy a home. Unfortunately, that’s the sort of thing that can really only be known in hindsight.

“What is more common is that people miss the right time for them to buy a home, and they pay for that indecision in the form of higher prices, higher interest rates, and often the regret that they didn’t act sooner. Those who have been watching and waiting for that perfect moment should be aware of all these factors, and act now to get into a home of their own.”

The first order of business, of course, would be to contact a Realtor, because it’s important to find an experienced professional who knows the city and the neighborhoods where you’re interested in living.

But right on the heels of that choice, buyers also need to do their homework about finding the right mortgage lender.

As Piette said, “Back in the day, it used to be that virtually all mortgage lenders were on a level playing field; they all had the same rates and fees, and one loan was pretty much like the next. However, the new federal regulations enacted in 2014 changed all that. Now, depending on the type of lender you choose — a bank, a mortgage bank or a mortgage broker — the costs and interest rates for a mortgage loan can now vary by literally thousands of dollars.

“Often, buyers simply take their real estate professional’s word about where to get their mortgage loan,” he said. “But today, that decision can turn out to cost you dearly. Why? Because your Realtor may not always be acting in your best interests, or they may not even be aware of the huge differences in loan fees between lenders. They may send you to a particular lender, explaining they’ve “worked with them for a long time.”

That’s a situation that might be more convenient for your Realtor, but they’re not the ones who will be making your loan payments.

“When you get down to it, there are only two things that buyers need to know in order to get the best deal on their mortgage loan: First, the cost of the loan fees, which matters before you close escrow. Second is the interest rate, which matters after. At Premier, we actually offer competitive interest rates with our true “No Fee” traditional loan, which means $0 for loan origination, document and underwriting fees. And that’s where buyers save big money.”

For more information, call 702-485-6600. Or, apply at www.premiermortgagelending.com. To discover the facts about mortgage costs, visit www.KnowBeforeYouOweNevada.com.

Premier Mortgage Lending, NMLS No. 393282, is at 701 N. Green Valley Parkway, No. 125 in Henderson. The full-service lender is a member of the Las Vegas and Boulder City chambers of commerce, Better Business Bureau and Southern Nevada Home Builders Association, as well as an affiliate member of the Greater Las Vegas Association of Realtors.