Taking the bus to foreclosureville

Those realtors will try anything to make a sale.....

The housing market in Las Vegas is pretty bleak. Many real estate agents are looking to find new ways to attract buyers into the glacially slow real estate market. One such “hook” that has popped up in a few places all over the country such as Stockton, San Diego, Palm Springs and now Las Vegas, are foreclosure bus tours. If you’ve loved partying in Vegas, riding through the suburbs might be a good way to see what you’re in for before your wild hair leads you to something more permanent. And then again, it could also help those in search of the never-ending Vegas party.

I recently took a “Foreclosure Express” tour in Las Vegas. Partially out of interest in the concept, and partially because with Vegas being one of the slowest housing markets in America, I wanted to see just how bad it had gotten. Or, for some people, how good it had gotten. Information provided by the sponsors of the Vegas Foreclosure Express said, “there is one foreclosure for every 152 households, giving the state the highest foreclosure rate in the nation.” Filings in 2007 were up 16% from the year before, they said