Las Vegas Economy Free Fall

People Who are Out of Touch With Reality want You to Think Las Vegas is Okay

Ah... here is some forward thinking from the University of Nevada Las Vegas - Blame the American Public!

That's because consumers nationwide continue to hoard their cash, said Keith Schwer, director of the Center for Business and Economic Research at the University of Nevada-Las Vegas.

Is anyone going to tell the people that live off Public Money – You know like State Funded University Professors - that the average guy isn’t “Hoarding Cash”… the average guy doesn’t have cash to hoard! Seriously there is this mentality that everyone is just sitting on their cash, like it’s all nice and safely tucked away in a bank vault somewhere and they are just waiting to spend it. Where do they come up with this? Schwer is an idiot.

But the King of all Idiots is Fed Chariman Ben Bernanke

Though Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke said Tuesday that the national recession is "very likely over," - September 2009

Another idiot from the hallowed halls of education. Bernanke is a bold face liar. He knows the Federal Reserve created the current Economic Crisis. Trusting in Bernanke is like trusting in Satan. Bernanke is bought and sold by Corporate Bankers and could care less about the American Tax Payer. Bernanke is Satan’s helper. Strong words? Hardly. And the fact that Obama reappointed Bernanke to Chairman of the Federal Reserve just shows that Obama is nothing more than a Puppet to the Corporate Bankers. Obama is a mouthpiece that will tell you whatever you want to hear, while the Corporate Banking Elite continue their business of staking claim to the Worlds Natural Resources. The Federal Reserve has got to be abolished, eliminated, destroyed before there will ever be a sustainable long term recovery.

Jobs in Nevada as Reported in September

Officially, 183,000 Nevadans were out of work and actively hunting for jobs in August. In Las Vegas, 135,100 residents were unemployed. The state has lost 84,400 jobs in the past year, including 31,000 construction jobs, more than a quarter of the sector's work force, and 24,000 jobs in leisure and hospitality. Government employment dropped by 3,500. The current unemployment rate in ClarkCounty is 13.9%. And that does not include people who are looking for work, but who are not eligible for benefits. The real unemployment rate is over 20%!!!

135,100 Unemployed in Las Vegas is astounding. Yet in media story after story there are countless “experts” saying how the Economy is going to “Bounce Back”. How? There were over 1 million Bankruptcies in the United States already this year. 1 in 68 Homes in Las Vegas is in Foreclosure! These people now have terrible credit and can not borrow to buy anything? People without jobs are eating through any existing savings they have… even if they get another job they won’t have any money to make down payments for years to come. Where is this mentality that people somehow have money stored away and they are just waiting the economic downturn out? Ordinary people live month to month, paycheck to paycheck.

Housing Units For Sale in Las Vegas

According to research published by the UNLVCenter for Business and Economic Research Las Vegas leads the country in available housing.

• Listings: 16,765
• REO Listings: 16,835
• Auction Listings: 14,879
• Notice of Default: 21,135
• Total Shadow Inventory: 52,849
• Total Inventory: 69,614

Shadow inventory is an estimate of units that are vacant, but being held off the market. It’s pretty easy to see that the Housing Market in Las Vegas is declining and has not hit bottom. Realtors keep pretending this isn’t a real problem and keep telling people to buy now. WRONG! If you make your living in Real Estate you would be saying the same things, but the economic reality is Las Vegas has a lot further to drop before housing bounces back.

Banks are playing games with people that do want to buy now, and it’s a pathetic example of the mistrust of American Tax Dollars. One scam is to require people bidding on a bank owned property to finance through that bank so they can jack up the fees. When you stipulate only one source of financing you are being anti-competitive.This is not representative of a free market. But banks are under no pressure to loan because they are sitting on billions in free government money – your money? Why should they sell? The Bailout money has given them zero incentive to correct their risks taking practices. Nothing has changed.

In Short, Las Vegas is not the place you want to be. Las Vegas will continue to suffer and decline for years to come. Las Vegas is overbuilt and under capitalized relying too heavily on the discretionary dollars of the average American. And none of the above numbers account for the Commercial Real Estate Market which is continuing its free fall as well.

Las Vegas Hotel Occupancy Rates

Room occupancy in August was 81.4 percent, down 6.9 percent from a year ago, despite various promotional activities used by casino operators to spur visitation during the summer months. Convention business also took a hit in August. Attendance was down 58.9 percent with almost 300 fewer conventions held in Las Vegas during the month. For the year, convention attendance is off 30.2 percent.

USA Today reported Thursday that Las Vegas is losing convention business to cities deemed to be not as lavish or those that might raise concerns that companies are frivolously spending travel dollars.

Yes Las Vegas is a gamble not worth taking.