Dave wrote on July 04, 2008 10:56 PM: Time to build some new trailer parks!

Kelly wrote on July 04, 2008 04:45 PM: While real estate prices kept soaring at ridiculous rates, people used their home equity as a credit card. Now it's time to pay up, and the house isn't worth nearly what it was 2 years ago, and they can't keep up with the payments. Was that brand new Navigator worth the now lost equity on a home? People just need to stop worrying about what the Joneses do or buy or where they go on vacation and live within their means. Vegas is a pretty reasonable place to live, much more than California and even Reno and Tahoe (I know, I've lived in all these places), just as long as we know our financial limits.

Vegas is Bargain? wrote on July 04, 2008 01:46 PM: Whenever I hear people mention affordability and low wages, I think of how the debt/income ratios have always been higher in many cities in CA, like San Diego, Los Angeles etc. Makes Vegas look like a bargain. How about you move to CA, and you will probably quickly move back to the more affordable Vegas.

Car Buyer wrote on July 04, 2008 01:33 PM: Anyone know where I can get a fairly new, upper-model Mercedes for $20,000?

Any loan officers or realtors wanting to sell? Let me know. Serious. I prefer black or maybe silver or grey, under 20,000 miles.

Survivor wrote on July 04, 2008 01:31 PM:
"Live like no one else, so you can LIVE like no one else."

It's all common sense or as the article points our a lack thereof .

Thank you Dave Ramsey, except for my house... "I'm debt free!!!"

Don wrote on July 04, 2008 11:40 AM: This is something I've preached forever. Maybe homes were historically cheaper here for a reason. People can't manage their finances here and have higher personal debt per capita. The mentality here more than anywhere else I've been is you must have what your neighbors have. Higher personal debt loads and lack of ability to manage personal finances cause borrowing ability to be lower and hence prices must be lower.

Just as introducing lower interest rates led to raising home prices because one could now "afford" more the inverse is true. If people on the whole can't afford higher home prices because of the aforementioned issues that prices stay lower.

So when someone comes in and says that prices are lower than the national median maybe there are factors creating that and a blanket appraisal that they must rise might be based on incomplete assumptions.

Last but not least; who cares what others say. Filter the information for yourself. I filtered the information for myself when I came here and hence I never bought a home. We own our home where we moved from and rent here.

I'm glad to see some filtering the information for themselves. I've long said those jobs created on the strip once the construction is done won't create the job pay needed to enter the housing market where it's been. Glad to see people not accepting rubbish as fact.

joe wrote on July 04, 2008 10:23 AM: This is because everyone and their dog suddenly though they were real estate agents a couple years back when the market was hot and bought homes when they were at their highest looking for a quick buck. Now they're stuck with mortgage payments at those high prices yet the homes are selling for half of what they paid for. Most are losing thousands by just off-loading the home or filing for bankruptcy just to stop the bleeding. I know 3 people I used to work with who quit a good-paying steady job to become real estate agents and now are asking me if there's a chance they can come back.

The Vegas area really isn't that bad for most of the stable folks who have lived here a while and bought thier homes before 2004, they're doing just fine. One thing you have to remember is that our numbers are skewed by all of those from other cities (probably from the least-debt list) who come here with a ton of debt looking for a way out because of the number of jobs created here. Besides, looking at the least-debt cities list I see 1 I'd want to live in anyway: Honolulu, which is a town of the haves and have-nots, no debt worry when you have nothing in the first place.

North and South Dakota? Nebraska? Kansas? Are you kidding me? And -20 degree in the winter Montana and Maine? Forget that! Hicksville West Virginia and crime-ridden Yonkers N.Y.? I'd rather live here with a little debt than be debt-free in any of those holes anyway!

Mike Heath wrote on July 04, 2008 09:17 AM: I think another Men's Health survey, which rated Las Vegas as one of the least educated cities in America, may help explain the high incidence of indebtedness.

ex gambler wrote on July 04, 2008 08:43 AM: People like to go to the bar, buy drinks, gamble, food, tip good and so on

Tip good? Where do you go? Most Las Vegans have the shortest arms and the deepest pockets. Cheap scum want to go out for a night on the town, for free. If they can't afford to tip, they need to stay home and watch reruns of Roseann on TVLand.

Insidetrack wrote on July 04, 2008 08:18 AM: Its the Barfly attitude that reigns over vegas. People like to go to the bar, buy drinks, gamble, food, tip good and so on. In most cities this crowd is the 20/30 somthing crowd but for some reason in vegas its the 40/50 somthing crowd who floods the bars. These are the same people that cant decide weather to pay the mortgage or go out to dinner at a nice place. I personaly enjoy seeing all these people driving cars they cant afford and living in houses they cant aford to live in. It makes me and my wife look like financial guru's driving in paid off cars and living in a mortgage free house. :o)