That 28% of home mortgages are underwater doesn’t surprise me. But this does:
In Las Vegas, 85 percent of homes with mortgages were underwater, the most of any city tracked by Zillow. Other metropolitan areas in the top five were Reno, Nevada, at 73 percent; Phoenix at 68 percent; and Modesto, California, and Tampa, Florida, both at 60 percent. Zillow has tracked negative equity since the first quarter of 2009, when more than 22 percent of homes were underwater.
Basically, this translates to 85% of Las Vegas home owners are trapped in their homes and can’t leave to take another job or for any other reason. It’s like Sin City is the Hotel California.
those numbers are staggering.
yeah, the whole city is fucked.
Why do you think a sane person would have beat Harry Reid last year?
He is so lucky.
I always strike up conversations with the cabbies whenever I’m in Vegas. One that I talked with was a realtor – cab fares and tips paid better than the what used to be the day job for him. Impression I got was that the real estate scene there was bleak and probably would be for a while to come.
My friend in Vegas, who owns her house free and clear, says that there are at least 6 abandoned properties on her block alone.
But i don’t see why they can’t leave to take another job elsewhere: if the house is underwater, send the keys back to the bank and let them take their property back. better than throwing good money after bad, for something that’s worth less than what you paid and on which you’ll never see a profit or break even.