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Away from the flashing lights of the famed Strip, thousands of signs in front of single- and two-story homes illustrate a glut of available properties, many of which are now vacant. Along one stretch of six homes on Edgeworth Place in south Las Vegas, four show "for sale" signs.
After more than half a year on the market, one house is in the process of being sold after the owner dropped the price from $324,000 to $250,000, broker Doug Helen said: "They literally wanted to get rid of it."
Another owner on the street moved back to his native Singapore because he thought his children could get a better education there, his broker, Betty Chan, said.
The situation has also been tough on builders, who continue to expand into the desert around Las Vegas. Robert Toll, chairman of Toll Brothers, recently told analysts the new home market in Las Vegas rated an "F minus minus."
"What are we doing about it? We are out there with the rest of the builders in Vegas praying. There's not much you can do," he said in August. "You can't advertise your way out of that situation. You just have to wait for the market to come back."
According to the Southern Nevada Home Builders Association, new home sales are down by nearly half between January and August this year compared to the same period in 2006. Existing home sales for the period are down more than 37%.
The group's spokeswoman, Monica Caruso, said Las Vegas had about 24,000 existing homes and 6,000 new houses on the market.
In an interview, Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman said he was "very bullish" about the city's economy but paused when it came to real estate. "We have a bit of a blip as far as our housing market," he said. "Houses over a million are still going fast. It's slow in the $400,000 to $700,000 area."
Many sellers, naturally enough, feel downbeat. Web designer Fillmore is borrowing money from her parents to pay her mortgage. "I'm extremely worried now," she said, adding she may move back to Minnesota. "Vegas has not been lucky for me."
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