http://latimes.image2.trb.com/lanews/media/acrobat/2003-06/8306315.pdf
Posted on 10/28/2010 2:41:18 PM PDT by Libloather
Once-Booming Las Vegas may be Reduced to Ghost City
by Kathy Jones
October 24, 2010 at 5:49 PM
The housing market in Las Vegas is on the slide and many have already left for greener shores.
Earlene Howard is the only person left living in a house on her block in Sin City, and she's not sure how much longer she'll be there as the once booming Las Vegas housing market continues to spiral downwards.
The rest of her neighbors have seen their homes repossessed by lenders, and she's already behind two months on her mortgage after her husband lost his job with a local construction company.
"I think we may need to move back to Denver," said Howard, 42, who uprooted to Las Vegas in 2005 because jobs were plentiful here then. "This city is not in good shape. Not at all."
Howard lives in the epicenter of America's prolonged economic downturn.
The once-booming Las Vegas region has for 44 straight months led the United States in home foreclosures, and 80 percent of houses here are figuratively underwater -- worth less than the debt owed on them.
A staggering 23.6 percent of Nevada mortgages are in some form of delinquency or foreclosure, significantly higher than the national average of 14 percent, according to data from the Mortgage Bankers Association.
It's a confusing, devastating turn of events for a city that for two decades was the sterling example of an American boom town.
With only some brief pauses, this gambling and convention destination has enjoyed continuous visitor increases and population growth since 1989, when the first mega-resort, The Mirage, opened on the Las Vegas Strip.
Is that alot?
2/10 - Mayor 'bans' Barack Obama from Las Vegas for sins against the city
Yeah, but be SURE and re-elect Reid. He cares./s
I’m neither a gambler nor a drinker, but I do like to go to Las Vegas to see shows and eat and relax. I’m really alarmed that the city has been hit so hard by Obama’s and Reid’s policies. I have friends who have been in the hospitality or gambling industry virtually all their adult lives—since high school or college. They are long gone and pursuing school again or looking for work. There’s not a lot of call for a guy who started off as a dealer and became a pit boss. Not a whole lot of crossover skills. He became a greeter for awhile, but even after awhile, they had to lay him off from that.
Well O wants all your money to go to him and his thugs. You don’t need no stinking disposable income, he’ll dispose of it for you!
Under the old system all those mortgages would be held by local banks where someone might well care what's going on in Las Vegas.
Now they may well have sold them off in tranches to outsiders, but that would be business between themselves and other financial institutions and investors ~ they'd still be involved locally with some of the RISK attached to themselves.
Hussein and Reid can take the credit when SEIU thugs and goons in Las Vegas don’t have work. LOL
Nevada voters that want to watch their state go down the sewer can vote Reid so he can expedite the state’s demise.
http://latimes.image2.trb.com/lanews/media/acrobat/2003-06/8306315.pdf
As much as I despise both of them, this is much larger than the Kenyan Pirate or Reid; in tough times, entertainment spending is the first to go. They’ll probably try what they tried up here in the NYC area; cater to foreign tourists (and let Americans work fetching them drinks and such). Unfortunately, it really isn’t working here; foreign countries are having a tough time, too.
Come on man,
I haven’t seen all the Cirques there,
Please don’t close the place down yet.
I’ve never understood how Las Vegas expected to expand past its basic entertainment infrastructure.
There is little built there or done there, except hotels, shows, and gambling (or stuff to support them). That’s a fine adjunct to an economy, but it’s not really a sound footing overall.
I was in Las Vegas on business 8 years ago. Looking around I gave it 10 years before it collapsed.
Me either but I would like to go and see the Pawn Shop and any of the guys. I have heard different stories about visits there good and bad and other. Granted what is seen on TV and reality may be two different things.
Come on kearnyirish2,
Today Drudge reports Germany has a 3 percent unemploment rate.
They be a cutting their budgets.
Bingo. this was pure froth on top of the Greenspan bubble. There is nothing fundamental about this expansion.
Ironically, Nevada will probably gain a Congressional seat from Illinois, New York or Massachusetts.
• Nevada: 21.5 %
We’ll see how it shakes out.
Thanks for posting the link. I knew Reid was a scumbag who had profited off of his connections, but I didn't know the specifics.
Is it just me, or does anyone think this could be a perfect way for a bunch of rich muslims to buy up lots of housing and land on the cheap and settle right in, sending over some of their own or helping those already here move there?
I'd buy used power tools from them at the start of the season. Sell them to other guys when I was heading back to the National parks.
I bailed out of the casino end of things when the IRS got chummy with the owners about tokes (tips). In the early 80’s, the dealers took care of all their own tips. Then the house got involved and we had to start being a little more honest about how much we made.
The entire industry is built on the premise that you never lose and things are always gonna get better. What could go wrong with that philosophy ?
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