Las Vegas Housing Bubble Update

[Pill]

I’ve lived in Las Vegas for 12 years and had the rare opportunity to watch our Valley housing market explode with the largest, quickest, most irrationally exuberant run up in prices ever witnessed (back in 2005 Lost Wages {Vegas} was rated the fastest growing city in the US and housing prices better than doubled in less than five years).

Knowing that prices were rapidly rising and with interest rates soon to rise, I started (in late 2003) seriously researching housing issues. Eventually I decided to act on my basic understanding of the problem and ultimately sold my home late in the mania phase (end of 2004–just a bit early, but no one can pick THE top), and made out quite well.

Later, though completely out of the housing ownership market and now renting, I continued on with my voracious research and gained a much better understanding of the myriad of complex economic issues that impacted this housing bubble. I eventually tried to pass my knowledge on to those around me, but to many, I was merely a gibbering lunatic who didn’t know what the heck he was talking about. In due time, I became frustrated with my unsuccessful attempts in convincing these media-hyped & fed, brainwashed individuals, so I decided to take to the web–to possibly help others who were themselves trying to understand the developing situation. Ultimately, I started this Blog back in December 2005 with my first post.

Though I didn’t specifically target Las Vegas’s housing bubble in my routine posts, I did occasionally address this booming Valley bubble market (see links below):

Las Vegas – A House of Cards Bound to fall

Las Vegas Housing Inventory Breaks 20,000 Mark

Las Vegas Housing Party is Nearly Over

Today’s post (LV housing bubble update) is based on recent developments in the market, so please allow me to share with you some new data and current media releases that (I believe anyway) irrefutably prove that my Las Vegas bubble predictions have been correct (thus far anyway – as we have much farther to deflate):

Full article : safehaven.com/article-8934.htm

[Green_Bear]

I wonder how Harcourt is doing

PAT DOHERTY’S Harcourt Developments is to follow Michael Flatley into the cut-throat Las Vegas property development business.
The Dublin-based firm, which numbers former RTE star Mike Murphy among its executives, has agreed to bankroll an $800m building project in the gambling mecca by lending the entire amount to a local developer.
This represents Harcourt’s largest-ever overseas investment. Glen, Smith & Glen developers has received the financing for a 16.5 acre office, retail and residential scheme at Sullivan Square. >>>>

Harcourt gambles $800m on Las Vegas deal
Sunday September 17 2006
independent.ie/business/iris … 34803.html

[Blue_Horseshoe]

Maybe they can blame global warming for any property price drops …

Lake Mead is one of the main reservoir lakes on the Colorado River system. It is right beside the Hoover Dam, just a 30 minute drive from Las Vegas. The region is entering its eighth year of drought. The lake is at 49% capacity. A visible ‘bathtub’ ring clearly marks a 30-meter drop on the brown and ochre cliffs which ring the blue waters of this man made oasis.

rte.ie/news/2007/1212/vegasg … rming.html

Blue Horseshoe

[Septic_Crank]

I wonder how Harcourt is doing

Having rather a torrid time of it in Jersey right now, dear boy:

Pat Doherty, one of Ireland’s biggest property developers, made a surprise appearance before parliament this week – not in Dublin but in Jersey, where his company is bidding to build a £330m ($651m) financial services centre.

The disarray is causing alarm among local business people. John Clennett, a former treasurer of the parliament, said he was “gobsmacked” about the goings-on and described the project as “the biggest financial venture ever undertaken by the island, at least in recent times, and one which could cripple the island’s finances if it were to go awry”.

Source (FT)
ft.com/cms/s/0/1d6d9b8e-3f23 … ck_check=1

[verbatim]

Nine seek return of Las Vegas deposits
independent.ie/national-news … 77856.html

By TIM HEALY

Thursday March 19 2009

NINE people are seeking the return of deposits totalling €268,710 which they paid on apartments in Las Vegas USA, the High Court has heard.

The nine – three couples and three individuals – claim they paid deposits on residential purchase agreements for condominium apartments at a complex known as the Borgata Condominium at 4400 South Jones Boulevard, Las Vegas, in the state of Nevada.

They claim they signed purchase agreements in 2006, with property agent David Tracey, trading as DTS International Property Services, Pembroke Road, Dublin who they are suing.

[Ivor_Lot]

Very interesting! A couple of years ago Mrs. Lot and I were in Las Vegas. We were in the hotel lobby checking in, when a guy in a suit came over and asked us were we staying in the hotel and then brought us over to a desk offering us free tickets to a show. The guy at the desk had an excellent patter and was scroling through a screen to see what show we might like to see, none really appealed but anyway in the middle of it all he slipped in a bit about going to see a presentation about apartments.Turns out they were timeshare! I smiled and finished the conversation there and then. The whole thing was very smooth and I’m not surprised they got a few suckers. But I was annoyed to be confronted with this as a paying guest in the hotel. All very tacky! I can see how it might appeal to Mr. and Mrs. Canny McSavvy though!
All in all, I wasn’t a big fan of Las Vegas to be honest, spent most of the time by the pool enjoying the sun for a few days.

[EI321]

Very interesting! A couple of years ago Mrs. Lot and I were in Las Vegas. We were in the hotel lobby checking in, when a guy in a suit came over and asked us were we staying in the hotel and then brought us over to a desk offering us free tickets to a show. The guy at the desk had an excellent patter and was scroling through a screen to see what show we might like to see, none really appealed but anyway in the middle of it all he slipped in a bit about going to see a presentation about apartments.Turns out they were timeshare! I smiled and finished the conversation there and then. The whole thing was very smooth and I’m not surprised they got a few suckers. But I was annoyed to be confronted with this as a paying guest in the hotel. All very tacky! I can see how it might appeal to Mr. and Mrs. Canny McSavvy though!
All in all, I wasn’t a big fan of Las Vegas to be honest, spent most of the time by the pool enjoying the sun for a few days.

I actually worked in a hotel like this for a few months in 2005 while in college (I was on one of those student summer visas), in South Carolina. And the timeshare guy in my hotel did the EXACT same routine that you described. He even used to throw in a free buffet breakfast if the guests attended a timeshare presentation. It was on a beach resort that was going through a big redevelopment boom. However, most of the new developments were being built on the site of existing older hotels that were due to be demolished, including the one I was working in. I wonder what the place is like now, Id imagine its full of halted building sites.

[Stifster]

I actually worked in a hotel like this for a few months in 2005 while in college (I was on one of those student summer visas), in South Carolina. And the timeshare guy in my hotel did the EXACT same routine that you described. He even used to throw in a free buffet breakfast if the guests attended a timeshare presentation. It was on a beach resort that was going through a big redevelopment boom. However, most of the new developments were being built on the site of existing older hotels that were due to be demolished, including the one I was working in. I wonder what the place is like now, Id imagine its full of halted building sites.

Tried google maps?

[Ivor_Lot]

Very interesting! A couple of years ago Mrs. Lot and I were in Las Vegas. We were in the hotel lobby checking in, when a guy in a suit came over and asked us were we staying in the hotel and then brought us over to a desk offering us free tickets to a show. The guy at the desk had an excellent patter and was scroling through a screen to see what show we might like to see, none really appealed but anyway in the middle of it all he slipped in a bit about going to see a presentation about apartments.Turns out they were timeshare! I smiled and finished the conversation there and then. The whole thing was very smooth and I’m not surprised they got a few suckers. But I was annoyed to be confronted with this as a paying guest in the hotel. All very tacky! I can see how it might appeal to Mr. and Mrs. Canny McSavvy though!
All in all, I wasn’t a big fan of Las Vegas to be honest, spent most of the time by the pool enjoying the sun for a few days.

I actually worked in a hotel like this for a few months in 2005 while in college (I was on one of those student summer visas), in South Carolina. And the timeshare guy in my hotel did the EXACT same routine that you described. He even used to throw in a free buffet breakfast if the guests attended a timeshare presentation. It was on a beach resort that was going through a big redevelopment boom. However, most of the new developments were being built on the site of existing older hotels that were due to be demolished, including the one I was working in. I wonder what the place is like now, Id imagine its full of halted building sites.

Yep! We got offered the breakfast as well! Once we sat through a three hours sales pitch! I would rather have breakfast in Guantanamo! It’s obviously a tried and trusted method! Managed to reel in a few cute hoors from Ireland anyway!

[Green_Bear]

Harcourt was ‘misled’ over US condo plan
Gareth Naughton
tribune.ie/business/news/art … ondo-plan/

Development firm claims partner misrepresented pace of sales

https://media.tribune.ie/site_media/photologue/photos/2009/May/16/cache/pat_doherty008954_display.jpg

Harcourt Developments, one of the largest property development companies in Ireland, has sensationally alleged that its partners in a $1bn Las Vegas development made false representations to persuade it that the scheme was viable.
Harcourt Developments is led by Pat Doherty.
In a counterclaim lawsuit filed at Nevada’s Clark County District Court, Harcourt claims that Glen, Smith Glen Development (GSG), a US development company, knowingly misrepresented the pace of sales for a $1bn dollar condominium development at Sullivan Square in Las Vegas.