Las Vegas is ground zero for America's housing collapse

hvactec

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Jan 17, 2010
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Seven out of every 10 homes on the market there are foreclosures or short sales

Nevada families bet on a bubble that burst

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Like thousands of other Las Vegas residents, Jim Tierney was caught in the housing collapse. He bought this home in the Mountain's Edge subdivision in 2007 for $425,000. Today, he is trying to sell it for $214,000.

LAS VEGAS -- If you want to know why this city was the epicenter of America's housing boom and bust, visit the Mountain's Edge community at the southern end of Clark County.

Plunked down in the middle of the desert, the hundreds of Spanish-style homes in Mountain's Edge sprang up at an astonishing pace from 2004 to 2006, selling at constantly escalating prices ranging from $400,000 to $800,000.

Today, even though some streets are still undeveloped, the planned community is already riddled with homes that are up for sale or available for rent. Seven out of every 10 homes on the market there are foreclosures or short sales.

A foreclosure means the bank has taken over the house after the owners defaulted. A short sale means the owner is being allowed to try to sell the house for less than what he owes on it.

Either way, the asking prices have plummeted with skydiver speed. At 9537 Bella Di Mora, a two-story, four-bedroom home, the price has dropped from $726,990 to $429,900; 7671 Windy Meadow Ave. has fallen from $519,975 to $213,400 in five years.

And over at 9280 Moose Country Place, Jim Tierney is asking $214,000 in a short sale for the five-bedroom home he bought for $425,000 in October 2007.

On a sizzling day in late September, his home was filled with boxes as he and his girlfriend prepared to move to a rented house in another subdivision, where her three children would be closer to their school district.

Living underwater

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Vegas is High Profile, not the only one hit. There is plenty of suffering to go around.
 
The City of Buffalo’s Abandoned Housing Crisis
Scope
• The city of Buffalo has the third highest percentage of vacant housing in the nation, following
only Detroit and New Orleans.i
• The number of undeliverable addresses measured by the Postal Service in Buffalo rose from
15,651 to 20,692 from the fourth quarter of 2005 to the third quarter of 2010.ii
• As of 2000, the City estimated 10,170 vacant lots and 8,684 abandoned structures.iii By April
2010, 15,897 lots were listed as vacant in the City’s data base.
• The City of Buffalo now owns over 7,000 properties, roughly 60% of which are vacant lots.iv
• Percentage of housing units vacant, as measured by the Census (this includes units vacant for
any reason; not just abandoned units):v
• 1970 4.4%
• 1980 9.9%
• 1990 10.2%
• 2000 15.7%
• 2006 22.8% (32,637 units)vi
Costs
• The City conservatively estimates its direct five-year costs from a vacant residential property at
$20,060.vii
• In 2006, 250 of 399 arsons were in vacant buildings.viii
• The City’s average demolition cost in 2006 was $13,625 – up from $8,706 in 2004 due largely
to new asbestos regulations from the State.ix

http://www.ppgbuffalo.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/01/Abandoned-Housing-Crisis.pdf
 
They simply expanded too fast. I lived there and know.

They manufactured houses by the suburbs and then moved onto the next BIG project.
Especially North Las Vegas. New house bonanza.

And I know they built a new community over by the new red rock casino. It took a year to build it and wow...
 
They simply expanded too fast. I lived there and know.

They manufactured houses by the suburbs and then moved onto the next BIG project.
Especially North Las Vegas. New house bonanza.

And I know they built a new community over by the new red rock casino. It took a year to build it and wow...



It really does not matter what they built. The problem was people buying homes they could not afford. They gambled and lost. Simple as that.
 

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