Foreclosure central

Thursday, July 31, 2008 | 2:05 a.m.

A national real estate company whose online tracking of the foreclosure market is used by many news services published grim facts last week about Nevada.

In its “U.S. Foreclosure Market Report” covering April, May and June, RealtyTrac reported: “One in every 43 Nevada households received a foreclosure filing, the highest foreclosure rate among the states and nearly four times the national average.”

In the Las Vegas area, one in every 35 households received a foreclosure filing during the quarter, the company reported. It added that foreclosures in this area were up more than 25 percent from January, February and March, and up nearly 144 percent from the second quarter of 2007.

More grim news followed this week from the Standard & Poor’s/Case-Shiller 20-city index. This index gauges the rise or fall of home values around the country by tracking the sale prices of the same homes over the years. It reported that home prices fell by the steepest year-to-year rate ever in May, adding, “Las Vegas recorded the worst drop, with prices plunging 28.4 percent in the month.”

Projections about the immediate future are no better, with many national analysts saying foreclosure rates have not yet hit their peak, despite a housing bill passed Saturday by Congress that is intended to stem the tide.

Threatened amid all of this bleak news are neighborhoods, where abandoned homes sit like beacons to vandals and other criminals. Additionally, their deteriorating conditions contribute to falling property values.

Las Vegas offers an example for all local governments in Nevada. Its laws governing abandoned property allow for steep fines against property owners, which increasingly are banks, if warnings to bring abandoned buildings and grounds to at least minimal standards go unheeded.

The City Council is enforcing the law, as demonstrated this month when three owners of abandoned properties were slapped with $500-a-day fines until the blight was eradicated. For neighborhoods to survive the foreclosure crisis, such enforcement is necessary.