Is Las Vegas Going Under?

Source: (Excerpt Below) http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/07/27/nevadas-economic-misery-m_n_661043.html

It's hard to find a home bought before 2009 that isn't underwater and very few landlords, when running credit checks, look for foreclosures or short-sales on a tenant's record. Otherwise, a manager couldn't fill a building.

Nevada has a greater concentration of economic misery than any other state. The state's unemployment rate, which in June edged up to 14.2 percent, has risen faster during the past year than it has anywhere else, and nearly six percent of all homes across the state's desert landscape received a foreclosure filing in the first six months of the year.

While the concentration of misery may be greater in Nevada, it was caused by the same unchecked housing bubble and unregulated financial gambling that brought pain to the rest of the country. If present trends go unchecked, Nevada is America's future.

The jobless rate would likely be much higher, say residents, if Nevada were not such a transient state. When folks lose their jobs and their homes, they often pack up and move in with relatives..."Nevada was pretty much a growth economy for most of the past two decades," says Steven Horsford, the Nevada State Senate's Minority Leader, a Democrat who represents North Las Vegas. "When the financial crisis hit, it disproportionately affected Las Vegas because of our growth rate."

Horsford says the local economy is struggling not because fewer tourists are coming to Vegas, but because the people who do come are spending less money. (A cab driver complains that he doesn't have many fewer customers, just more families haggling over the $60 fare.) Horsford said Vegas needs to switch from relying on casino tourism to green energy and medical tourism.

"We were used to being able to help virtually all segments of our population get a job if they wanted a job, have benefits, earn money to put their kids through college -- we called it the Las Vegas dream," he says. "From a leadership standpoint, knowing that two-thirds of all homes are either upside down or are in foreclosure is one of the most humbling realities we are dealing with."

The decay in Vegas doesn't stay there: It reverberates throughout the state. "Coming Soon" signs have been pulled down across the city, because nothing is coming soon other than more foreclosures. The Nevada landscape is pockmarked by empty condos and casinos, some of them fully built and sitting there empty, others are shells frozen in time. When analysts talk abstractly about Wall Street sucking capital out of the real economy, these stalled construction projects are the on-the-ground reality. "60% Reduced Prices" promises one empty condo development...

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[jedirifleman]

@dominatorishere really? I thought (D)Pelosi was speaker since 2006 and basically in charge of any budget expenditures,(D)Franks(D)Dodd & gang ran freddie and fannie,(D)Carter created the CRA (the vehicle that made bad loans mandatory) and (D)Clinton signed deregulation...sorry YOU are the idiot...maybe you should have paid attention instead of trying to sex your teacher, especially since you were home schooled.

[slcmetalhead1]

@MiracleMile90 First off, I'm not uneducated, so don't bother playing the "ignorant bigot" card with me. I've lived in all-black and all-Latino neighborhoods, and it's precisely those experiences that convinced me that the various groups of humanity that reside in the U.S. are simply not compatible with one another. Combine that with a corrupt and incompetent govt. and revolution seems like a pretty reasonable option. The alternative is a more 3rd-World America, which doesn't appeal to me.

[Fernadds]

watch?v=yDrsCSpkTyw&feature=fe­edu

[Dfrost0921]

If you really think about, Indian casinos are taking away Vegas business. Why spend that extra money to go travel when they have hotels built and show stoppers. I really feel that Las Vegas should have been the only place to go and gamble. I live in Phoenix, Az and we have 5 casinos that really close to each other.

[mytube0000000000]

Las Vegas is like latex condoms it will never go under. 

[alphabet661]

Well we went to the Paris in 2011 and we got a great deal of $50 a night in March during the middle of the week. Is that too good a deal? The price jacks right up to $300.

Note, Atlantic City was doing that - offering rooms for practically nothing to senior citizens. It is doing better its casinos but many parts of that city has not recovered too much.

[Partyffs]

The howl of the US is going under?

Party time :D

Europe is making more and more money :D

[sckrbt]

It costs too much to fly out to Vegas to gamble. I can do that on any of the riverboat casinos near where I live. Im going there soon for a Bachelor party. Hotels are cheap but plane tickets are too expensive.

[RomanianDaci]

fuck everyone who says vegas is going down, I was and born and raised here

[MrBiggdogg84]

This was a year old. Look at it now.

[MrUnidyne]

I live just outside of Las Vegas. A co-worker took the closing of the Sahara as a sign. He's moving to live with relatives in Utah, where he will get his Commercial Driver License and become a long-haul truck driver.