Once-Booming Las Vegas may be Reduced to Ghost City, 80% of homes are underwater

[Liberal_in_LA]

Once-Booming Las Vegas may be Reduced to Ghost City
by Kathy Jones on 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.

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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.


Read more: Once-Booming Las Vegas may be Reduced to Ghost City http://www.medindia.net/news/Once-Booming-Las-Vegas-may-be-Reduced-to-Ghost-City-75771-1.htm#ixzz13gRrfjqe

[NV Whino]

1. This is astounding.

[Liberal_in_LA]

4. And this is also why Harry Reid is struggling to win re-election. Times are tough in Vegas

[SoCalDem]

33. Not really, if you look at the history of any boom.. Booms come with Bust built right in

Booms are all about "fast money" for the ones in the beginning..by the time the destructive phase kicks in, they are already gone & on to the next Boom. It;s very much like a ponzi scheme..get in, grab as much as you can, and then beat it before the ones at the tail end figure out they have been screwed.

[WCGreen]

2. Recommended just so people understand that building a

company on vice doesn't always end up nice...

So many things are going against Vegas now that almost every person lives within 200 miles of some kind of gambling.

The glitz may not be there but the mom and pop gamblers don't care if Wayne Newton or for that matter anyone else is performing.

[Lance_Boyle]

3. the irony - majority of homes 'underwater' in a desert city with no water

Las Vegas could stand to be reduced by about 80%. Maybe more. The hubris of building a metropolis (even a chintzy plastic one like Vegas) in such an unfitting environment is astounding. Stupid humans.

[jdlh8894]

8. Stupid Humans? How about NOLA?

Build a house that is already below sea level(under water to start with)Now THAT'S F'king STUPID!!!

[Name removed]

10. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[jdlh8894]

11. uninformed?ignorant?Clueless?

Don't get me wrong,but anybody that lives BELOW sea level is just on borrowed time.
JMO

[bluedigger]

20. Ever hear of the Netherlands?

A lot of folks living there would disagree. (Or are at least willing to take the risk.) Comparing New Orleans and Las Vegas is silly anyways. One was founded several hundred years before the other, with completely different aims, as well as far different levels of knowledge to anticipate future problems.

[DCKit]

19. Exactly. I'd rush in to scoop up one of those oversized tract houses on the cheap...

but won't live anywhere the water supply might fail at any time.

It may surprise some people, but I feel exactly the same about Florida.

[Dappleganger]

25. FL will come back.

But from the looks of things around here it will be a solid decade before businesses begin looking to move back in. Probably another decade after that for real estate to begin picking up. It's still going downhill here in NE FL, far worse in central and south FL. Central FL has the Mouse and Bugs Bunny (Disney and Universal) for tourist-y things, those aren't going anywhere. The big lesson here is concentrate on diversification and higher education, plus investing in our future infrastructure.

One of these days I'm going to do a piece on how Jacksonville went from a once-promising Southern city to a gutted-ghost town in one decade.

[truedelphi]

5. K & R but Please don't use the term "underwater" with regards to

Las Vegas homes.

Las Vegas is using up the local water supply far more than the environment can afford.

[Angry Dragon]

6. Once one gets away from the Strip or Freemont ST.

Las Vegas was no different than any other city.
People lived no different than others in other cities.
Every time I flew into Vegas one could see more and more houses going up.
They just really over built too fast.

[Hannah Bell]

7. when gambling was deregulated, the special gambling enclaves took a hit: that's one reason.

[dkf]

34. Only Hawaii people need to leave the state to legally gamble.

The rest of the states have their own gambling.

[cyr330]

9. Too fucking bad, So Sad. . .

And now those idiots are going to vote in Sharon Angle?????? They fucking deserve her!

[WinkyDink]

12. Many of these homes were huge, all stucco and "open floor

plans," many over $1M.

[dgibby]

13. There are going to be a lot of ghost towns before this is over.

Las Vegas is just the canary in the coal mine.

[Pathwalker]

14. Detroit was the parrot, then?

:shrug:

[reggie the dog]

21. Flint, Cleveland, Toledo, East Rutheford, Trenton

am i missing some????

[Dappleganger]

27. Let's not forget Pittsburgh...

that canary nearly bit the dust but they turned it completely around. We need to look at how they did it, too.

[reggie the dog]

29. yep

i think i mentioned pittsburgh somewhere else on this thread too,http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x9407525
i would add my hometown of chicago because downtown has its fancy office jobs but the west and south sides lost their economic base when the city's economic backbone, factories and steel mills, closed down or drastically cut back operations....

[Dappleganger]

31. Another great reference...

thanks for more great reading! A local forum I visit has regular articles about other cities in similar situations and discusses how they turned it around (this forum is very transportation-centric/downtown issues-focused). There have been articles on Charlotte, Indianapolis, Pittsburgh, etc. Of course we can put our heads together on the internet and solve all these problems (ha) but convincing the mostly-republican city council, mayor and voters of Jacksonville is another story. This is the first city I've every lived in which died due to voters hating themselves. :eyes: :banghead:

[WinkyDink]

24. Parakeet. :-)

[taught_me_patience]

15. Sounds like a good time to buy

Articles like these often signal the bottom of a downturn.

[slackmaster]

16. Hail Atlantis

Let us rejoice and let us sing and dance and ring in the new.

[FarCenter]

17. All those gambling tourists flying to Las Vegas contribute to global warming

Online gambling from your PC is much better for the environment.

Atlantic City is another "gambling mecca" that should go away.

[bluedigger]

18. It's obsolete.

Las Vegas is the city gambling built, and now gambling isn't that hard to access. They have tried to recast it as a family vacation destination, but with the slogan "What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas" they haven't had much success. :shrug: When the economy went south the writing was on the wall for Vegas. Unless they figure out another way to diversify their economy (solar?), they are doomed.

[EmeraldCityGrl]

22. Good riddance. Couldn't happen to a more deserving

hellhole. Many of those homes were bought by flippers or people wanting second homes in Vegas.
Vegas is an unsustainable town in todays world.

[madrchsod]

23. there`s at least 8 or more brand new or rebuilt

casinos within a 8 or less hours from where i live. why would anyone take the trouble to fly to vegas?

[proud2BlibKansan]

32. Because it's Vegas

Not everyone goes there to gamble.

[felix_numinous]

26. And where did all these people go?

THAT is a story in itself, the invisible people who are now living in their cars and in tent cities. If they are not on the streets, they live with someone else.

[Dappleganger]

28. It certainly is...

the shadow people.

[Cali_Democrat]

30. Many comments in this thread are sickening

Do some of you idiots realize there are struggling people in Vegas who are losing their jobs and their homes? To read things like "good riddance" makes me sick! :mad: