Las Vegas Houses Get Cheaper: Back to 1998 Levels!

Do you ever wish you'd bought a cheap house in sunny Las Vegas back before the city's real estate market started exploding in the early 2000's? Well you're in luck! Home prices have dropped like a rock since the Great Recession began and over a decade's worth of value growth has basically been wiped out!

In fact, according to the Standard & Poor's/Case-Shiller home price indices report, average home values in the Las Vegas Valley have dropped back to the same levels they were at in October 1998. A single family home is now going for about $123,000... about 60% below their August 2006 peak.  It's a post-recession low in the nation's epicenter of the foreclosure crisis. While almost every other big US city is seeing slight increases in home values, Las Vegas dwellings are still worth less and less every day.

This is not real great news for a city that's dealing with huge numbers of "underwater" mortgages and about 14% unemployment rate. Las Vegas's economic boom of the late 90's and early 2000's has turned into an absolute nightmare with no end in sight, especially considering that Las Vegas only has 2 real industries -- casinos and construction -- and 95% of new building has ground to a halt.

We say: Vegas home values need to hurry up and bottom out. Harry Reid and Co. need to get some major construction project going (high-speed rail to LA anyone??) to help out all these out-of-work construction guys. And Vegas needs to do some quick and dirty development of small new industries that will lead to job growth. Until those things happen Vegas is going to remain in big, big, BIG economic trouble!

Learn some mo': Las Vegas home prices dip to October 1998 level