I was just reading a report on Home Foreclosures. Vegas is WAY up there.

Number of filings for the three months ending June 15 for Vegas zip codes are:

89031, N Las Vegas - 575

89131, Las Vegas - 488

89148, Las Vegas - 393

89129, Las Vegas - 372

89108, Las Vegas - 337

89032, N Las Vegas - 318

89141, Las Vegas - 313

89147, Las Vegas - 283

89117, Las Vegas - 270

89139, Las Vegas - 264

89183, Las Vegas - 252

89128, Las Vegas - 237

There's many more of these. I'm not picking on Vegas but the basis of this article is that forclosures used to effect mostly the rust belt and that's shifting to the sunbelt.

Cleveland and Detriot are still the worst. Florida, California, and Nevada are quickly catching up.

Texas can't be far behind. Last Tuesday 1166 forclosures were auctioned off of our court house steps in our county alone. IMHO, I blame our lawmakers for alot of this - there should be no such thing as "interest only" loans or "adjustable rate mortgages". Taxes and maybe even insurance would have to figure into all of this also. With all of these things being "legal", are our lawmakers really representing us????

Wendell,

In my opinion, the No Money Down programs are the biggest problem. The things you mentioned are certainly a problem also but when people have no money invested in their home, many feel they are basically renting and if things get tuff, they just move out.

You could be seeing the resort of speculators hoping to flip those houses for a quick profit. I know in FL there are houses sitting that have never been lived in. People bought the homes thinking land prices would appreciate enough to sell them for a quick profit in a few years. Then the bubble burst (or at least let a little air out).

I know that maybe five years ago, we were looking at homes in LV with the thought of relocating there. At the time we could have bought a new build in Henderson, approx. 1600 or 20 sq ft (I forget which houses we priced out) for around $200,000. If I had purchased and then sold in 3 years I would have made a fair profit.

My cousin, who now lives in Vegas, was trying to get us to buy land there as a "sure thing" for making money. If everyone thinks this and everyone buys property not to live in but to hold and resell, then more homes are built than are needed. If everyone tries to sell at the same time then it becomes a buyers market. Especially if the sellers finances have become strapped for whatever reason.

Several years ago (1980's I think) a similar real estate bust crippled a few large insurance companies that had over invested in real estate. Took down some Japanesse companies that had been buying up U.S. property as well if I remember correctly.

It would seem that the innovative financing is ruining both the borrowers and the lenders. Every week you read about some equity firm or hedge fund getting killed by sub-prime loans.

There also was the frenzy about making a killing in real estate. I remember seeing a show "Flip This House" that showed various people paying high prices for junk houses, pouring money into them and then always turning a healthy profit.

Eric

Sometimes I wonder if "Flip This House" is for real or do they inflate up the figures just to make the show ratings go up.

I know what you mean Ralph. One show they were talking about what they paid, what they spent and listed the profit but I noticed the figures didn't include minus realtor fee's.
Another thing is these properties are bought on auction (low bid). So there only buying foreclosure, or hud stuff.
There not buying a home from John Doe and trying to fix it up and then sell it.

PS We have foreclosure issues here in Minnesota too and the market has definitely slowed, not to a crawl, but its slowed.

Hey Jeff, Just wondering if you have anymore current numbers to share with us???

Las Vegas documented the third highest foreclosure rate among the nation's 100 largest metropolitan areas, with one foreclosure filing for every 31 households during the first half of 2007. The metro area, which comprises Clark County, reported 22,928 foreclosure filings on 13,028 properties, a 72 percent increase from the previous six-month period and more than twice the number reported in the first six months of 2006.

This got to drive the price of homes down. I'm guessing there are still a lot more of these to be filed. Who would have thought people with bad credit would have trouble paying for thier houses?

Just wait until the intrest-only loans start comming due.

What I found interesting was how many of the properties had more than one mortgage on them. Look at # of foreclosures vs. # of properties.

I understand that in October ten of thousands of loans that are variable rate will be going up as well so that should cause some problems in the next several months when these people can no longer pay the higher payment nor can they re-finance due to less than desirable credit.

I think its going to get a little worse before it gets better. Great time to buy if you don't have something to sell.

I'm not surprised that people have been buying more home than they could afford - after all, the credit card companies have been training people for years! Can't afford it? Charge it!

I am surprised by how many people still opted for the adjustable-rate mortgages when traditional rates have been relatively dirt cheap and so close to the ARM rate for for the last 2-4 years.

I think it's going to get a lot worse (ie, downright ugly) in the next couple of years, and it will trickle down to all of us. It's not just the people that can't make payments, there will also be the people out of work as a result - less construction jobs, less auto sales/manufacturing, less retail jobs and so on.

prices just went up in california and note there is no smiley face after my comment!!

Can't help myself, But I'm going to say it anyways,,,,
Cal., # of foreclosures just went down. I was wondering how meny of those fires were set due to foreclosure.

Chris,

The reason many of the ARM buyers can't refinance isn't credit, it's that they owe more on the house than it's worth.

Areas like Vegas that experienced very rapid home price increases are most suseptable to having the bubble burst and have values drop significantly.

When values go up, too many poeple look at their home as a ATM machine, pull out all the equity, and end up upside down when the market softens.