According to speakers at the 2010 Preview Las Vegas event, Las Vegas will rise up again because of its low taxes, good weather, cheap real estate and tourist attractions.

Rob Lang, director of the Mountain West Initiative at the University of Nevada-Las Vegas Brookings Institution and chairman of the Nevada Vision Stakeholder Group, said that Nevada can actually use its vacant commercial and residential properties to attract investors and potential residents.

Lang cited the case of New York, which almost became bankrupt in the 1970s due to a fiscal crisis, and the cases of Dallas, Denver and Phoenix, which suffered greatly from the 1980s savings and loan association crisis. He reiterated the fact that these cities recovered in part because of the affordable commercial and office space they offered to bargain-hunting investors.

Lang also noted that real property in Las Vegas is now cheaper than in Southern California and that this fact could attract Californians to move to Las Vegas. Retirees and investors looking for bargains can buy bank foreclosed homes and tax lien foreclosures in the city and enjoy the weather, sights and low taxes.

According to Lang, there are things that must be done to restore Las Vegas to its former glory, including building the interstate expressway to Phoenix, investments in higher education, improving transportation to Los Angeles, leading other cities in solar energy development, and building on what the city already has, such as convention centers.

Jim Murren, chief executive of MGM Mirage, also spoke at the event and related how CityCenter almost closed in 2009 because of its staggering $13-billion debt and how it persevered to save jobs. Now, Murren said, occupancy rates, convention bookings and gaming revenues are all improving.

Recently, business leaders and state officials and legislators met to address the huge state budget problem – $881 million in fund deficit.

Last week, HUD Secretary Shaun Donovan also sent several representatives to help Las Vegas carry out the city’s Neighborhood Stabilization Program. In 2009, the Las Vegas area topped other metro areas in pace of defaults and auction foreclosures, with almost 95,000 filings.

With business and government efforts to help Las Vegas recover, investors and families planning to buy bank foreclosed homes in the city can say they are making one of their best decisions.

Based on sales data from HomeData, the median home sales price in the county dropped to $342,000 in January from the $348,000 median in December 2009. The median sales price for condos also dropped to $305,000 from the median of $315,000 in December.

The 8-percent drop in sales volume in January compared to December was normal, according to realtors, because buyers are still in the holiday mood. But the drop in home prices was not normal because home prices in the county have been steadily rising since April last year.

Nevertheless, the median sales price for single-family homes in January this year was higher than the $320,000 median in January 2009, but the $310,000 median price for condos last year was higher.

Analysts said that the rise in sales volume compared to January last year reflected the positive effect of the federal tax incentive for both first time buyers and move-up buyers.

A sense of optimism also pervaded analysts when they saw that the pace of pre foreclosures and foreclosure sales in California slowed down by 24 percent in the last quarter, compared to the third quarter. The default rate decline in the final quarter of 2009 is significant because it meant a slower rate of bank homes foreclosures in the first quarter this year.

In 2009, Los Angeles foreclosures stepped up from 2008 by more than 37 percent, reaching a total of 175,810 filings, representing 3.99 percent of all households in the Los Angeles metro area. The number of filings also marked an increase of 203.4 percent from filings in 2007.

These foreclosures pulled home prices down, including prices of properties in affluent communities. In January, homes in high-cost neighborhoods like Manhattan Beach, Beverly Hills and Brentwood that were previously priced at around $2 million were being sold at around $1.4 million.

Meanwhile, in low-cost neighborhoods, city and nonprofit officials are using Neighborhood Stabilization Program funds to repair fixer upper homes to prevent further erosion of prices. Recently, the city was allocated $100 million from the second NSP funding round to carry out its program. In addition, the Los Angeles Neighborhood Housing Services was also given $60 million to help rehabilitate bank homes foreclosures in struggling neighborhoods.

The average home price in the area dropped in 2009 to $123,057, compared to the average home price of $137,706 in 2005. Aside from the downward price pressure of cheap houses, the price decline was also driven by the sharp drop in sales of homes priced above $250,000.

Total home sales last year also slowed down, compared to sales in 2008. Since 2005, sales have been on a decline. There were only 792 new and pre-owned homes sold last year in the area, down by 12 percent from sales in 2008.

According to Nashville-based real estate executive Tom Pierce, his company posted year-over-year improvements in sales starting July last year, but total sales were still low compared to sales in 2005. He said his firm sold 3,000 new and pre-owned homes last year, down from 5,000 homes sold in 2005.

Pierce also reported that house foreclosures for sale drove the performance of several of his company’s real estate teams last year, with foreclosed properties accounting for around 80 percent of their sales. He said that the more successful agents of the firm were focusing on bank repossessed homes.

Pierce said that the major factors affecting home sales are mortgage rates, available houses on the market and perceived future price appreciation. But he also noted that current unemployment and lack of confidence in the recovery of the job market remain the strongest hindrances to home buying.

Mahmoud Haddad, finance professor at the University of Tennessee in Martin, also insisted that unemployment remains the most crucial factor in home buying. He said that low mortgage rates mean nothing to people if they are unemployed or if they are uncertain about the security of their jobs.

Haddad believes that the unemployment rate in Jackson will still hover around the ten-percent level in 2010 despite the opening by Carlisle Tire & Wheel of its operations in Jackson. The jobless rate, meanwhile, in Madison County, where Jackson is located, reached 11 percent last December.

Home builders in Jackson are also suffering from the effects of the high jobless rate and record numbers of house foreclosures for sale. House builder Joel McAlexander said that many have stopped building new homes, and are now renting out their unsold properties to survive.

Smith contended that the pace of Las Vegas foreclosures this year will not step up as fast as last year and that investors will push first time homebuyers away from the foreclosure market to the newly-constructed home market.

He said that sales of pre-owned homes will rise slightly to about 45,000 units this year, compared to the 44,885 units sold last year, and then will slow down to about 44,000 next year because of the increase in mortgage rates.

Smith also predicted that the prices of existing homes will climb up by over three percent this year to $127,000 and by a further 5.6 percent next year to $134,000. He explained though that any price increase will not be substantial in the next few years.

He expects the price median for new homes to jump by 2.8 percent to $220,000 this year, compared to $216,000 last year, and the number of home building permits to climb up to 4,400 from 3,850 permits in 2009.

Other analysts, however, and local realtors contend that foreclosure homes for sale will continue to grow substantially in Las Vegas this year. In December last year, the pace of foreclosures in the area jumped to 8.53 percent, a substantial increase from 4.2 percent the previous year and far above the nationwide rate of 3.16 percent, based on data from a foreclosure research firm based in Santa Ana, California.

The mortgage default rate also shot up last December, rising to 21.1 percent from the December 2009 rate of 11.9 percent. These troubled loans were seriously delinquent as they were in default by three months or more.

Local realtors also reiterated that the rise in interest rates, the stricter home buying guidelines of the Federal Housing Authority, job losses in the government sector and the resetting of adjustable mortgage loans will push further increases in repossessed homes in Las Vegas.

The plan by Bank of America to release to the market about 500 of its bank owned homes in Nevada this year is another pressure on the foreclosure market.

In 2009, Las Vegas posted the highest rate of foreclosure, with nearly 95,000 of its houses notified of delinquency and with a big percentage already counted as foreclosure homes for sale.

In Will County, the median price dropped by nine percent to $165,001 in 2009 from $181,250 in 2008. Total home sales, meanwhile, rose by 19 percent to 6,088 units from the previous year’s sales of 5,936 units.

In Kendall County, the median sales price dropped by 15 percent to $170,000 in 2009 from $200,000 in 2008. Total home sales reached 1,424 units, marking a nine-percent rise from 2008 sales.

Home foreclosures made a significant price impact in Grundy County, as the median home sales price plunged by 22.3 percent to $136,000 in 2009 from $175,000 in 2008 while total home sales rose by 1.6 percent.

According to Coal City-based Michael Onorato, head of the realtor association, the Illinois home market is beginning to show signs of stabilization as about 50 percent of counties in Illinois posted increases in home sales in the fourth quarter of 2009.

However, the continued rise in Illinois foreclosures and job losses is jeopardizing economic recovery in the state. In 2009, Illinois was ninth among states in foreclosure activity, with 2.5 percent of its households or a total of 131,132 homeowners given default or foreclosure notices. The number represented a 32-percent increase from total notices in 2008 and a 104-percent increase from filings in 2007.

According to data from the Illinois Department of Employment Security, the jobless rate in the state climbed up in December to 11.1 percent, the second-highest jobless rate among Midwestern states. Only Michigan, with a 14.6-percent rate, fared worse than Illinois.

Following Illinois were Ohio and Kentucky, which posted 10.9 and 10.7 percent, respectively. Indiana did better at 9.9 percent.

Maureen O’Donnell, director of IDES, said that a significant and sustained improvement in job creation must be done at the federal level to spur improvements in state economies.

This week, U.S. Senator Dick Durbin announced an allocation of $6 million in U.S. Department of Labor funding for the Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity. The money will be used by the state to create jobs and enhance the weatherization of fixer upper homes and other low-income properties in the state.

According to community advocates, job creation in all counties and cities is the only way to cut down Illinois foreclosures and the state’s huge budget deficit.

There were more unemployed people in Rockford than any other city in Illinois in 2009. The jobless rate hit 16 percent in December, far above the nationwide rate of 10 percent and the 10.6-percent jobless rate of Chicago.

According to data from Rockford Area Realtors, foreclosure properties for sale drove home prices in the city’s 61104 zip code to fall in 2009 by 43.3 percent, and in 12 zip codes in the Rock River Valley, median prices fell by over 20 percent. The deepest plunge was in Leaf River, where home prices fell by 43.4 percent.

Realtors also said that despite the plunge in prices, home sales were slow in the first half of 2009. Sales only showed improvement in the second half when a surge of first time home buyers took advantage of the federal tax credit, pushing sales up by 2.6 percent compared to 2008.

According to Jeffrey Hewings, head of the Illinois Regional Economics Applications Laboratory, the jump in sales in the second half of last year was expected to improve home prices, but the rise in Rockford foreclosures put a downward pressure on prices.

In 2009, more than 3,600 foreclosures were posted in the city, representing 2.52 percent of all households and marking a 16.2-percent increase from foreclosure filings in 2008. Rockford ranked 53rd in a listing of the 203 most foreclosure-battered metropolitan areas. The Chicago metro area, which ranked 38th, was the only Illinois area that ranked higher than Rockford.

Hewings believes that there are a lot of potential sellers in Rockford and in other parts of Rock River Valley, but they are waiting for home prices to improve. The problem is, according to realtors, when prices rise, properties tend to stay longer on real estate listings.

In the early part of 2009, as Illinois foreclosures continued to overwhelm the market, it took about one year to a year-and-a-half to sell a home statewide, a bleak comparison to the two to three months needed to sell a home in 2008. In the latter part, the situation has improved to about 9 months.

According to Rockford realtors, the $6,500 federal tax credit could entice more move-up buyers to make their purchase this year. Additionally, Hewings said that Rockford foreclosures will rise this year, hindering hopes of home price appreciation.

Michigan’s unemployment rate has been the highest in the country over the last four years, based on data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Michigan also had the fourth-highest rate of increase in jobless rate from December 2008. The state posted a 4.4-percent increase, following Nevada, West Virginia and Alabama, which also posted more than four-percent increases.

Michigan lost a total of 15,700 jobs in December last year compared to the previous month and lost a staggering total of 207,100 jobs in 2009 compared to 2008.

In a foreclosure study made by a California real estate firm, Michigan ranked eighth among states in 2009, with 118,302 or 2.61 percent of its homeowners battling foreclosure. The 2009 filings marked an 11.5-percent increase from 2008 and a 35.7-percent increase from 2007.

In the 2008 foreclosure chart compiled by the same real estate firm, the pace of Michigan foreclosures ranked sixth among states, with 106,058 or 2.4 of households in the state notified of delinquency or foreclosure.

The intertwining of job losses and record numbers of repo homes for sale is well-illustrated in the case of Michigan, which lost thousands of jobs and homes after the auto manufacturing industry collapsed in the earlier part of 2009.

Over 100,000 auto manufacturing jobs were lost when Chrysler LLC and General Motors Corporation went into bankruptcy last year, pushing the Michigan jobless rate to its peak of 15.3 percent in September last year and driving thousands of houses into listings of banks foreclosure homes.

As much of the job losses occurred in the first months of 2009, the 33,000-per-month job loss pace slowed down to about 2,000-per-month in the latter part of the year.

In November, the jobless rate was down to 14.7 percent, and in December, it went down further to 14.6 percent, but still the highest state rate in the U.S.

According to economists at the University of Michigan, the drop in the jobless rate was caused in part by the record number of people who have left Michigan – about 72,000 workers who have moved to escape the devastation caused by record job losses and Michigan foreclosures.

According to realtors, the lifestyle in the area and the availability of affordable homes are the top factors attracting visitors and buyers. Out-of-state buyers routinely say that no other place can beat southwest Florida when it comes to lifestyle and the price of homes.

In 2009, foreclosure sales drove total home sales to reach record levels. Based on data from the Fort Myers Association of Realtors, about 16,000 homes were sold in 2009, much more than the combined sales in 2007 and in 2008.

In Lee County, where Cape Coral is located, a total of 1,321 foreclosures were filed in January, a decrease from the 1,616 posted in the previous month and a substantial drop from the 2,074 foreclosures posted in January 2009.

Southwest Florida realtor Marc Joseph, who gained statewide and worldwide fame because of his bus tours, said the demand for Cape Coral foreclosures has been constant and that the competition for the available inventory has been fierce, especially in the lower-priced portion of the market. He added that short-sale homes and bank-owned homes accounted for nearly 75 percent of total house sales in December.

In another report, a number of foreclosed homes in Cape Coral which have been left vacant for a long time would be restored to their former functional conditions with the $7.2 million the city received from the Neighborhood Stabilization Program. The city has already acquired several of the 27 homes it planned to buy and sell to eligible families.

One property was bought for $35,000 and would be fixed at a cost of about $40,000. The selling price would be $75,000, without any profit for the city. The remaining NSP money would be spent to help around 32 qualified families come up with their down payments.

Florida foreclosures got a lot of attention from the HUD because the state got more than $348 million from the second funding round, the highest received by a state.

According to Cape Coral federal grant coordinator Amy Yearsley, the city’s program to mitigate Cape Coral foreclosures will be strict in choosing buyers. She said applicants must pass income and credit qualifications and must commit to live in the properties for at least 5 years.

The foreclosure rate ranking of Texas dropped from 24th in 2008 to 29th in 2009, indicating that Texas has been holding up well during the housing meltdown. Its foreclosure rate also rose only slightly to 1.06 percent from 1.04 percent in 2008.

The foreclosure filing total of 100,045 in 2009 also marked only a four-percent rise from the 96,157 foreclosures posted in 2008.

According to Real Estate Center economist Jim Gaines, Texas did not experience the onslaught of bank foreclosure homes that happened in other states because not many borrowers in the state were enticed into subprime lending.

Cheap homes for sale were also not able to drag down the median home sales price in Texas. It even increased by 2.4 percent from the $140,100 median in the last quarter of 2008 to $143,400 in the fourth quarter last year. The increase in prices was significant as home prices nationwide were substantially down.

In the last quarter last year, more than 53,000 pre-owned single-family houses were sold, marking a 16-percent jump from total sales in the fourth quarter of 2008.

Bill Jones, head of the Texas Association of Realtors, said his group is encouraged that home sales prices and volumes in 2009 held up despite Texas foreclosures.

In a ranking of the 203 largest metro areas based on foreclosure rates in 2009, all large cities in Texas were in the lower half of the chart, except two. The highest-ranked in Texas – the Dallas area – was 94th, with a rate of 1.5 percent. Brownsville was 95th, also with a 1.5 percent rate, but with a much lower number of filings.

San Antonio, Houston and Austin were 109th, 111th, and 117th, respectively, with a rate of 1.31 percent, 1.3 percent and 1.25 percent, also respectively. The lowest-ranked large Texas city was College Station, which posted a 0.19-percent foreclosure rate and only 167 filings for the entire year of 2009. It ranked 197th.

Nevertheless, analysts expect a higher number of Texas foreclosures this year because of the rising jobless rate. In December, the Texas unemployment rate rose to 8.3 percent from 8 percent in November. It was still lower however than the nationwide jobless rate of 10 percent in November and December.

Bank houses for sale and other types of distressed properties accounted for 63.3 percent of all home resales in the metro area, down from 64.2 percent in November and significantly down from 68.9 percent in December 2008.

It was in April 2009 that foreclosure sales peaked, accounting for 73.7 percent of all sales of pre-owned homes in the area. Since then, the foreclosure percentage dropped each month.

Despite the drop in foreclosure sales, overall home resales in December in the Las Vegas area soared to its highest point in five years as investors and first time home buyers snapped up homes priced at less than $200,000. The December sales last year marked the highest for the month of December since 2006 when the December sales reached 5,780 units.

More than 5,300 new and pre-owned homes and condo units got sold in the metro area in December, an 11.1-percent rise from November and a 33-percent jump from December 2008. Since 1994, a sales increase between the months of November and December has been posted, with an average increase of 12.6 percent.

As Las Vegas foreclosures still accounted for over half of all resales, their downward pressure on the home price median was still strong. The median sales price for new and pre-owned homes and condo units sold in December dropped to $129,000, a decrease of 4.4 percent from the $134,900 median in November and a 26.3-percent drop from $175,000 in December last year. The peak median price was reached in November 2006, when the median sales price hit $312,000.

The median for pre-owned single-family homes last December was $135,000 – the same as the price median for the previous two months but marked a 22.4-percent decrease from $174,005 in December last year. The peak resale price for single-family homes was reached in June 2006, when the median hit $312,250.

For pre-owned condos, the median sales price increased last December to $73,000 from the November median of $70,500, but it marked a 23.2-percent drop from the $95,000 median in December 2008.

Additionally, the sales data from the California-based real estate firm showed that the percentage of Nevada foreclosures and Las Vegas foreclosures purchased in 2009 by cash buyers, investors, second-home purchases and buyers using loans insured by the FHA increased.