By Scott Burns
LAS VEGAS. If you'd like to learn about adapting to change, spend an afternoon with Jennifer Martin, Realtor. You might also buy a condo or house while you're at it. Priced to insane levels at the top of the bubble, lots of Las Vegas real estate is now available, cheap. If Las Vegas is where you'd like to be, someone else's disaster may be your bargain.
How big a bargain?
Try this. The National Association of Realtors says the median Las Vegas home price declined from $317,400 in 2006 to $181,700 by last December. The decline is confirmed by the Case-Shiller index for Las Vegas: It is down 44 percent from the 2006 peak. In fact, those figures understate the decline for the growing number of houses and condos that are now owned by lenders. Prices for some of the condos Ms. Martin showed me were down nearly 80 percent.
The city has one of the highest foreclosure rates in the country. Jobs are disappearing. People are burning their cars for the insurance. If you live in Dallas and want to move to Las Vegas, it's a cheap move— $777 at U-Haul. But leaving Las Vegas is more expensive, $1,183, because all the trailers are heading elsewhere.
That's why Ms. Martin bought a bus— to bring new buyers in by the busload and tour the troubled bargains.
Is this a great country, or what?
The resourceful 35-year-old Realtor and mother of three has offices on the far west side of town at the corner of Sahara and Durango, names that suggest adventure. When I called, she was putting the tour together, previewing offerings to make sure they were worth seeing, could be accessed, etc. I asked if I could go along. She explained that the safari approach works. "We wear safari outfits. We wanted to do something that was fun— out of the box."
While the foreclosure safari bus will hold 25 people, she limits the number to a maximum of 20 and has done tours with only a handful of people. Many, she explained, are second-home buyers. Others are investors looking for good rental properties or homes to fix up and resell.
And they come from all over. She said she had clients from Singapore, Italy, Ireland, Mexico, England, Canada, and Australia. As a consequence, she has also started to manage property for distant owners.
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