[jfkIII]

LV is still a one-trick pony town. Many cities in the 19th and 20th centuries put all their hopes and dreams into one industry and built big and successful towns around them. But....when that one industry got hit hard...so did the city. That is a BUST.

Detroit had the car industry.
Pittsburgh had the steel industry.
Silicon Valley (CA) had the chip industry.
Heck...even Scranton PA once had the coal and RR industry at one time.

Las Vegas has the casino industry.

My grandmother used to say "Don't put all your eggs in one basket. If it gets dropped...they will all crack, and you'll have nothing but useless and cracked eggs."

Las Vegas has put all their eggs in the casino basket, just as the aforementioned cities put their own eggs in their respective industrial baskets.

Good luck....the city was built on it.

[AA702]

Originally Posted by jfkIII

LV is still a one-trick pony town. Many cities in the 19th and 20th centuries put all their hopes and dreams into one industry and built big and successful towns around them. But....when that one industry got hit hard...so did the city. That is a BUST.

Detroit had the car industry.
Pittsburgh had the steel industry.
Silicon Valley (CA) had the chip industry.
Heck...even Scranton PA once had the coal and RR industry at one time.

Las Vegas has the casino industry.

My grandmother used to say "Don't put all your eggs in one basket. If it gets dropped...they will all crack, and you'll have nothing but useless and cracked eggs."

Las Vegas has put all their eggs in the casino basket, just as the aforementioned cities put their own eggs in their respective industrial baskets.

Good luck....the city was built on it.

Do you think Silicon Valley has gone bust because the put all their eggs in the chip industry? Remember, the tech industry is not just chips but its also hardware and software plus R&D. Last time I checked, the tech industry is doing well.

[AA702]

Originally Posted by airics

for crying out loud, enough with the bust.. the problem is all the people who bit off more than they can chew with the arm loans that are skyrocketing or the ones that refied and took all the invisible equity.. i believe the reason the house values are going down is the number of repos.. how low can the prices go.. do you really think you are ever going to buy a house (not a repo) in a gated community for 150k.. maybe a 1000sf one, but not a normal sized home.. avg is still 296k in vegas.. heck this is the best time to buy in my opinion

There are a lot of people who are "haters".. they just dont want people to do well so they can feel better about themselves. I personally hate it when I see people hurting from this "bust", but its just material things to me. Even if I loose all my material things, I am just gratefull that I still have my health. A healthy mind and body can rebound from financial loss.

[yasudab]

Japan went thru the same type of economic cycle and it took 15 years to get out of it. What makes anyone think that in America, things will miraculously turn around in 1 year and all of a sudden, prices will rise??? I think they are lying to themselves. Seriously, look at all the inventory. It will be at least a few years to get rid of all this excess inventory and prices will not rise, but will continue to fall. Anyone who says differently are probably people who are trying to make money off of real estate.

[Eric Young]

Identifying the similarities with our current economic challeges with economic challenges that have occurred in the past or in other countries is extremely helpful, but identifying differences is equally important.

For a short but balanced presentation of both, the following article from 2005 may be a good start for those seeking to understand the Japanese land bubble of the 1990's:

http://archive.mailtribune.com/archi...ries/02biz.htm

Indeed, that today's central bankers and policymakers are able to look back to see what yesterday's central bankers and policymakers did right and wrong in response to the crash of Japanese land values in 1991 is a benefit to us.

[SHEPNYC]

Simple formula, 3 year down (2007-2009), 3 years flat (2010-2012), 3 years up (2013-2015) to get back to 2006 prices.

[Chest Rockwell]

Heck...even Scranton PA once had the coal and RR industry at one time.

Of course, now Scranton is famous for its Dunder-Mifflin Paper!

I understand that this is all general discussion of the real estate market, but isn't it important exactly what the individual houses are priced at and what they look like? I think there's a lot of naive sellers with trashed/neglected homes out there listed at 2005 prices, and if a home is updated, cleaned up, and priced in accord with the recent downward trend, it stands a much better chance of selling in this market. Am I correct, or is it really just near impossible to sell unless you're giving a home away at this point?

It's one thing to say that there are 24000 homes on the market, but easily half of them are priced ridiculously and many more of them look like hell. If I were shopping for a home, this would be my opinion.

[airics]

You are correct in my opinion. I have a house that i bought in 2/06 for 260. I thought about selling it and a realtor told me that the houses in the development were starting at 230 and thats were i would have to be. What he didnt tell me is that the house for 230 was a repo and was trashed.. I found this out because i ended up buying the 2nd house which was a repo (immaculate one though) and that agent showed me the 230..

this is what is lowering the averages.. another example is cars, you may have duplicate 2005 camry's.. the one that is clean and has 30k sells for more than the one that is trashed and has 100k.

[airics]

incidentally we are renting the first house

[Randy Culture]

Housing prices will keep falling for at least 5 or 10 years. The builders must keep building, or they go bankrupt. So they keep building, and many will go bankrupt when they cannot sell their newly built houses, but at least they go down swinging.

This was a bubble of historical proportions, and anyone who thinks it will correct quickly is naive.