Foreclosure and implosion in Las Vegas

LAS VEGAS -- Change sometimes happens fast in the real estate market, as noted in an earlier blog post about the implosion of the New Frontier casino-hotel here in the wee hours of the morning.

Annie Hanna Cestra, a manager for Howard Hanna Real Estate who participated in a panel of brokers at the annual National Association of Realtors conference, referred to the demolition in describing actions that brokers must take to control their own destiny in the real estate marketplace: "We as brokers need to make change happen."

Meanwhile, some changes occur too fast for real estate market participants to react. Daniel H. Mudd of secondary mortgage giant Fannie Mae addressed a roomful of Realtors today and described his tour of Las Vegas neighborhoods that featured home after home with for-sale signs. The issues surrounding the Las Vegas housing market, he said, are "emblematic of issues we're seeing around the country," noting that the Las Vegas area has one of the highest foreclosure rates in the nation.

In one new-home development area, he said, "there are for-sale signs in a lot of streets. "A pretty slow-moving tragedy is playing itself out, and I don't need to tell a roomful of Realtors about these challenges."

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