Think about it.

A record number of homes for sale.

Home sales half what they were a year ago.

Home prices slashed by as much as 30 percent.

It's a sure bet somebody is making a killing in Las Vegas.

Before you pass Sin City off as just another town sand blasted by the housing bust, the National Association of Residential Real Estate Investment Advisors (NARREIA) suggests you take another hard look at this city.

Scott Meservey with the investment association's development services says foreclosures, short sales and homeowners who've lost their shirts all makes for great media drama.

But there's an untold story about the growing number of buyers slipping into town paying 10, 20 and 30 percent less than what homes cost less than two years ago, according to the association.

And they are not high rollers.

Meservey, a Realty Executives agent in Las Vegas, says only a fraction of the owner-occupied homes in Las Vegas were purchased -- in a short time span -- with funny money from the last housing boom.

Most Vegas homeowners, on the other hand, are just that. They didn't gamble on buying a home. They have conventional financing and are prepared to wait out the market.

It's a lot like a hungry snake gulping down a wayward pig.

It will pass.

Meservey said a minority of properties are bringing down home values region-wide and the fear of buying is as pervasive as speculative buying used to be, but that's created a real housing market sale in Las Vegas.

Dataquick Information Services said November home sales in the Las Vegas area were at a 12-year low in November and the median price dropped at a record 13.5 percent pace during the year.

NARREIA reported recently, the market was awash with nearly 28,000 listings, almost half of which were vacant, indicating speculators simply bailed on the properties.

One door closes and another opens.

Viva, Las Vegas.

Published: January 28, 2008

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Broderick Perkins parlayed a career in old-school journalism into a contemporary digital news service that really hits home. The award-winning consumer journalist, originally from Wilmington, DE, is founder, publisher and executive editor of the bootstrap DeadlineNews Group, a Silicon Valley-based editorial content and consulting service specializing in residential real estate, consumer news and related editorial consulting services. The DeadlineNews Group includes the website, DeadlineNews.com, offering real estate editorial content and consulting services, and its back shop, the Deadline Newsroom, an open house on news that really hits home. Perkins obtained his formal journalism education from University of Delaware and a journalism boot camp, the Institute of Journalism Education at the University of California-Berkeley. He went on to 20 years of service as a daily newspaper journalist at the Wilmington, DE News Journal and San Jose, CA Mercury News. Perkins covered housing on the San Jose Mercury News reporting team which earned a General News Reporting Pulitzer Prize in 1989 for coverage of the Loma Prieta earthquake. He has also produced real estate, consumer and small business content for the Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, RealtyTimes.com, Nolo.com, Better Homes and Gardens, the National Association of Realtors, Homestore/Move and Intuit/Quicken among more than three dozen publications. In addition to managing the DeadlineNews Group, Perkins most recently served as chief editorial consultant for Nolo's Essential Guide To Buying Your First Home, Nolo, and writes real estate television scripts for RealtyTimes.com.