Wealthy Leaving Las Vegas Mansions as Foreclosure Pain Spreads

[The Straight Story]

Nicolas Cage, the Oscar-winning star of “Leaving Las Vegas,” bought a seven-bedroom home with a panoramic view of the city’s casino-lined Strip in 2006 for $8.5 million. By January 2010, it was in foreclosure.

The next owner, who property records show paid $4.2 million, has put the house on the market for $7.9 million -- an “unrealistic” price, according to Zar Zanganeh, the broker handling the listing.

...

“You feel like a sucker if you’re paying a $5 million mortgage on a house that’s worth $2 million,” Zanganeh, 28, said while showing the grounds of an 11-acre Las Vegas estate built by Prince Jefri Bolkiah, brother of the Sultan of Brunei. “These days, there are no traditional sales. They’re all short sales or bank-owned.”

The estate -- with 18 bedrooms, 36 bathrooms, a 20,000- bottle wine cellar, an 11-car garage and air-conditioned stables for 10 horses -- sold for $14 million in 2004 to Eric Petersen, who owned Consumer Credit Services Inc., a Las Vegas-based catalog-merchandising company that closed in 2008. Petersen, 44, said he spent $20 million to make the estate habitable.

It’s back on the block for $25 million -- $9 million less than his investment -- with an offer “for considerably less on the table,” Petersen said in a telephone interview from Las Vegas. He has slashed the listing price four times since October from an initial $37.5 million.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-04-26/wealthy-leaving-las-vegas-mansions-as-pain-of-foreclosure-crisis-spreads.html

[pitohui]

1. nicolas cage a bad example, he lost his houses in new orleans not just in las vegas

the las vegas real estate market is awful and a big house certainly isn't worth much in vegas but he also lost his homes in new orleans a few months ago

i am going to suggest that while he may be a fine actor, he is an irresponsible buyer who gets impulses to buy everything he sees

example, he bought a two-headed snake and later donated it to the audubon institute, i guess he realized WTF did i just buy a two-headed snake? what am i gonna do with THAT?

i think he owed $4 million on the new orleans homes when he got foreclosed...the real estate market in new orleans didn't tumble, remember, we actually lost a lot of housing stock in 2005, so our houses are pretty firm

cage just plain doesn't have the money to buy everything he sees, NO ONE DOES, a shopping addiction is still an addiction

as for paying $25 million for a house in vegas, that's just stupid-ass, you could stay in fine hotels the rest of your life for that and never have to worry about property tax, etc. you could just come and go as you please when you have that much money to spend...i have no sympathy for some dumb fuck who buys a $25 million house...

[kestrel91316]

3. What pitohui said.......

[dixiegrrrrl]

5. Worse yet, the article says he stayed in the Las Vegas house only 4 weekends.

More money than brains, indeed.

[Scuba]

2. Lemme look under the cushions of the couch.... Nope.

[donco]

6. careful

you might find a two headed snake.

[SoCalDem]

4. People who "buy" in that range could probably afford to pay cash for those

Of course if they paid cash, they could not just walk away when they get tired of them or they lose value on paper..