Wishing you'd left the game earlier is a time-honored Las Vegas tradition. Today, that's true not only for gamblers but for homeowners there. The last time Las Vegas properties were worth more than the average mortgage? August 2003.
Blame overbuilding and risky loans, a gambling mentality or even the desert sun, but based on today's results from the S&P/Case-Shiller home price index, which measures metro home prices in 20 cities through December 2008, Las Vegas is the weakest market in the country. Prices are dropping quickly (down 4.81% since last month and 33% in the last year); the pace of decline is accelerating at the third-fastest rate in the nation; and based on lost equity, homeowners are out 65 months of mortgage payments.
All signals that things aren't likely getting better any time soon.
"Vegas is a market unto its own," says Steve Cesinger, chief financial officer at Dewberry Capital, an Atlanta-based real-estate investment firm. "I don't know what those guys were drinking when they thought all this building made sense. If it does work out soon, then there's some force out there in the universe that I'm not aware of." Forbes
Wishing you'd left the game earlier is a time-honored Las Vegas tradition. Today, that's true not only for gamblers but for homeowners there. The last time Las Vegas properties were worth more than the average mortgage? August 2003.
Blame overbuilding and risky loans, a gambling mentality or even the desert sun, but based on today's results from the S&P/Case-Shiller home price index, which measures metro home prices in 20 cities through December 2008, Las Vegas is the weakest market in the country. Prices are dropping quickly (down 4.81% since last month and 33% in the last year); the pace of decline is accelerating at the third-fastest rate in the nation; and based on lost equity, homeowners are out 65 months of mortgage payments.
All signals that things aren't likely getting better any time soon.
"Vegas is a market unto its own," says Steve Cesinger, chief financial officer at Dewberry Capital, an Atlanta-based real-estate investment firm. "I don't know what those guys were drinking when they thought all this building made sense. If it does work out soon, then there's some force out there in the universe that I'm not aware of." Forbes