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Downturn depletes ranks of Las Vegas millionaires
Fri, Aug 7, 2009 (3 a.m.)
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Only Orlando, Fla., had a steeper decline in its percentage of millionaires than Las Vegas in 2008, according to Capgemini, a consulting firm that publishes U.S. Metro Wealth Index.
The percentage of local millionaires declined 38 percent in 2008, second only to Orlando’s 42 percent. Phoenix was third, losing 34 percent of its millionaires, according to Capgemini.
The firm said it is telling that the areas where the millionaire population declined the most is places where it had grown rapidly in preceding years. Most of the declines were attributed to real estate declines and other factors such as a drop in tourism in 2008, said William Sullivan, Capgemini Financial Services’ head of global financial services and market intelligence.
Overall, the number of the nation’s millionaires declined 18.5 percent in 2008. Millionaires are defined as those with $1 million or more in investable assets, not including primary residences.
Those heavily invested in Las Vegas real estate have taken their lumps with housing prices down more than 50 percent since the peak in 2006. Commercial property and land values have fallen sharply as well.
New York has the most millionaires at 561,000, down 14 percent from 2007. Los Angeles ranked No. 2 with 208,000, down 18 percent. The firm won’t release the number of millionaires in Las Vegas, other than to give a percentage decline in 2008.
Home inventory
Applied Analysis reports that the number of properties on the Multiple Listing Service slid during the last week of July to 12,939, an 89-unit decline from the previous week. The inventory is down 9,400 units or 42 percent in the past year. Supply hasn’t been this low since 2005, the firm notes.
There are more pending sales than units listed, but many of those sales could fall apart, the firm says. The Multiple Listing Service has 13,650 units as contingent or pending and 6,405 units listed as short sales that require lender approval.
Medical office market
Medical offices fared better than the rest of the commercial market in Las Vegas during the second quarter.
CB Richard Ellis reports the average vacancy rate decreased slightly from 16.5 percent at the end of the first quarter to 16.1 percent at the end of the second quarter. Nearly 300,000 square feet of office space was leased throughout the valley in the second quarter.
The southwest valley was worst with a 35 percent vacancy rate. North Las Vegas had a 1.1 percent vacancy rate.
Lease rates for medical offices declined to $1.86 per square foot in the second quarter, down 50 cents from the first quarter. North Las Vegas had the highest lease rate at $2.43 per square foot during that time.
Landlords have increased tenant improvement allowances and free space to attract tenants, says Bruce Follmer, CB Richard Ellis’ medical office expert.
Medical office buildings are a sought-after investment because of the stability of the profession, Follmer says. Office buildings near medical facilities are preferred, but stand-alone buildings in well-located areas are being sought, he says.
In other news:
• Breslin Builders completed a commercial park near Dean Martin Drive and Southern Highlands Parkway. The Dean Martin Commercial Center cost $3.6 million for more than 26,000 square feet of commercial office and restaurant space.
• Cashman Equipment has launched a Web site to sell Caterpillar-branded merchandise. Cashman already sells the merchandise at its stores, but added www.getthegearonline.com.
• Elected to begin serving on the board of the Greater Las Vegas Association of Realtors in 2010 are Christine McNaught of Windermere Prestige Properties, Fafie Moore of Realty Executives of Nevada, Trish Nash of Exit Realty Unlimited, Cheryl Smith of Act 1 Realty and David Tina of Realty One Group. Those who will continue on the board in 2010 are Forrest Barbee of Prudential Americana Group, Heidi Kasama of Prudential Americana Group, Kolleen Kelley of Realty Executive of Nevada, Norma Opatik of Action Realty and Debbie Zois of Keller Williams Realty. Robin Civish of Prudential Commercial Real Estate was elected president of the group’s commercial alliance and will represent commercial real estate interests on the board. Scott Beaudry of Universal Realty was elected director of the Multiple Listing Service.
• CB Richard Ellis has been named facilities’ manager at the Cleveland Clinic Lou Ruvo Center for Brain Health.
• Gensler’s office in the Hughes Center has received a Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) gold certification from the U.S. Green Building Council. It is the first LEED-certified space in the business park, the firm said. The space features angled walls in the reception area and a curvilinear wall that undulates through the design studio. Gensler is a design and planning firm.
Brian Wargo covers real estate and law for In Business Las Vegas and its sister publication, the Las Vegas Sun. He can be reached at 259-4011 or at wargo@lasvegassun.com.
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For all of the Obama lovers needing to pay for programs, tax the homeowner! Remove the mortgage deduction and make them pay national real estate taxes. This will remove the profit incentive that fuels home buying.
your real estate people drove prices to ridiculous levels, banks gave loans to people who shouldn't have qualified. gees, feel real sorry for these schmucks.
yes, it's the "real estate people" that did it.
i guess you blame fish for the price of water.
Worse, the recession has greatly lowered the number of half millionaires and $100,000 aires. Everyone has less, everyone qualifies for less borrowing and spending and the tax revenues are showing it every month. The economic plans of harry Reid and this White House are dooming us to repeat the fall for years to come.
Obamanomics....it's only going to get worse, unfortunately.
It's not going to be easy cleaning up 8 years of failures caused by Bush/Cheney and the Republican controlled Congress (2001-2007). Not sure why some people think these things can be accomplished in 6 months.
No one forced anyone to buy a house. No one forced anyone to live way beyond their means. I suppose everyone on this board has lots of cash, based on the comments posted, but I doubt it. Just a bunch of bitter trailer trash waiting for the next Republican planned lynch mob.
Boring...... Yawn..... Zzzzzzzz.....
Obamanomics....it's only going to get worse, unfortunately.
****************
Your ignorance astounds me. Actually, no it doesn't. Just another who doesn't want to admit that the Reppublican Party F'd up the country really really good.
We should have hit a "deep recession at least two years sooner"... they all knew it, and lie every time they say they couldn't have imagined or even calculate something this huge to happen. And there hoping American's aren't smart enough to figure that out.
The root problem stands on our dependency on oil. Everything, every price, every single person and job, fluctuated dramatically with it for the last ten years. eg when gas rose from 4x it's price in ten years a trucker who once deliver product for a 1000$ or so all of a sudden cost 4000$. A huge, huge impact to every single thing we produce (plastics, etc.) and deliver. During that time medium income wages never changed, but companies increased cost of product, etc. to pay for the gas, etc... (tacking on a little more for themselves) This made the first round of billionares of the backs of the American people.
They also saw how volotile the American people were, and that the solution, only solution was the single greatest thing America was doing to delay the recession... lend a $#!! load of money to fund whatever... school, business, real estate... whatever. When people struggled they refinanced, and the american and partial global system conspired to do this, hoping to generate enough wealth to offset the impact they saw that was already coming. They were too dumb, because it just caused unimaginable debt that the people who WORK have to pay back.
I have a beef here to... because they say every American has to pay 10K or so back to make up for this recovery. The truth is, only WORKING people are paying, and the ones that pay taxes. If you divide it correctly, the Working individuals, likely the one's reading and writing this, are paying more like 50,000 dollars to support everyone and this package.
Before this crash all the fat cats knew it was coming, but they sorely miscalculated there response. On one hand, they were fighting a war and all oil production countries were extremely volatile. We had two options, face those volatile coutries, and cause more problems for America, which would have possibly bankrupt us, and perhaps start a 3rd world war, or on the other hand, continue to promote refinancing and lending money with virtually no constraints, hopeufully to get past the volatility, and with a huge gamble, profit. Problem was... it took to long, and America was way too far in, and someone f'd up the statistics before they gambled with us Americans.
It was no doubt a combined conspiracy, with the government and banks. We are dumb to believe something this dramatic, this impacting, the deep wasn't seen sooner. They saw it, and don't wnat to admit they f'd up on what they should have done.
Had America not become hated by nearly the entire world, and been in war for nearly ten years, perhaps prosperity would have followed, because American's would have been less afraid of our countries future, and more willing to spend there money.
Damned Obama.
Just think, had he not run for president, none of this stuff that happened before he was elected could be blamed on him.
But, he did run. And he won. And because of that, we are now in a recession. People are losing money and jobs and things don't look so good.
I just wish there was a previous administration that we could blame for some of the troubles the country has experienced between 2000 and 2008... oh, wait... it's that damned Clinton, too.
I don't read as many hack jobs here commenting on the state of affairs left to us by the prior admin. Thank you for trying to get it right....
RustyShackleford
Your post is "tongue in cheek" I take it!
Just think what would have happened if John McLain won? I wonder how many republican party members would be blaming him for the mess we are in today?
Oh yeah- they'd be blaming Clinton.