The 2009 Las Vegas Perspective lays out both positive and negative real estate trends for the next year. It is only a question of which will have a greater pull on the overall market.  While many challenges lay ahead, it is generally felt that once those hurdles can be passed benefits are just around the corner.

Each data point looks to have a plus and a minus attached.  For example, 2008 saw the loss of over 41,000 jobs in the greater Las Vegas area which led to the shrinking of the area’s population for the first time since 1995.  The flip side to this population decrease was that median home prices fell to a low of $154,000, making the ability for people of Las Vegas to buy a home more of a reality.

These record low housing prices and Nevada’s lax tax system combine to combat this job loss issue.  Somer Hollingsworth, CEO of the Nevada Development Authority, recently told Channel 8 “We have got a really business friendly state and local government here. In California, that has gone away.”  Hollingsworth cites data that place Nevada 3^rd for states with the best tax system, whereas California is all the way at 48^th.

Not all the facts out of the perspective have been given such a rosy tint. Over 16,500 homes in the Las Vegas area are currently bank owned due to foreclosure with 70 percent of all homes for sale on the market vacant.  This is on top off the already startling statistic that 58% of homeowners have mortgages that are underwater, in other words the owner has equity that is lower than what they paid for the home.

It is hoped that the bargain homes prices and increase in new business coming to the region from California will help slow and possibly reverse these numbers.