When hard times hit, single-industry towns are especially vulnerable. And the combination of the recession and housing bust has Sin City reeling.

Home prices here have fallen 58.1% from their 2006 highs, the most in the Standard & Poor's/Case-Shiller 20-City Composite Home Price index. They've even lost 12.6% from the nationwide recession low in April 2009 -- again the worst performance of any city in the index.

The median home-sale price in the Las Vegas area at the 2006 peak was $313,500; in 2010, that fell to a stunning $138,100, according to the National Association of Realtors.

Currently more than 70% of the homes in the area are "underwater," meaning their value is worth less than the amount owed on the mortgage, according to Stephen Miller, the chairman of the economics department at the College of Business at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. Nationwide, it's more than 28%.

A recent Forbes survey named Las Vegas the nation's second-worst-performing housing market of the past decade.

National Home Prices Hit New Low in 2011 Q1

According to the S&P/Case-Shiller Home Price Indices
New York, May 31, 2011 – Data through March 2011, released today by Standard & Poor’s for its
S&P/Case-Shiller1 Home Price Indices, the leading measure of U.S. home prices, show that the U.S.
National Home Price Index declined by 4.2% in the first quarter of 2011, after having fallen 3.6% in the
fourth quarter of 2010. The National Index hit a new recession low with the first quarter’s data and
posted an annual decline of 5.1% versus the first quarter of 2010. Nationally, home prices are back to
their mid-2002 levels.
As of March 2011, 19 of the 20 MSAs covered by S&P/Case-Shiller Home Price Indices and both
monthly composites were down compared to March 2010. Twelve of the 20 MSAs and the 20-City
Composite also posted new index lows in March. With an index value of 138.16, the 20-City Composite
fell below its earlier reported April 2009 low of 139.26. Minneapolis posted a double-digit 10.0% annual
decline, the first market to be back in this territory since March 2010 when Las Vegas was down 12.0%
on an annual basis. In the midst of all these falling prices and record lows, Washington DC was the only
city where home prices increased on both a monthly (+1.1%) and annual (+4.3%) basis. Seattle was up a
modest 0.1% for the month, but still down 7.5% versus March 2010.

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10 states most at risk of disaster

They may be great places to live, but they've taken some devastating hits over the years. Check out your insurance coverage if you call one of these states home.

By Cameron Huddleston, Kiplinger's Personal Finance magazine

Hitting you where you live

Deadly tornadoes ripped through the Midwest in late May, from Minnesota to Oklahoma -- devastating Joplin, Mo., on May 22, in particular. On June 2, twisters touched down in central and western Massachusetts, killing three. And about a month earlier, dozens of tornadoes hit the southeastern United States, leaving a wide swath of property destruction and killing more than 250 people -- the worst series of such storms in almost 40 years. These grim scenes were a reminder that Americans should always be prepared for common disasters like twisters, floods, hurricanes, wildfires and winter storms.

Where have these damaging events occurred most frequently and severely? Kiplinger.com worked with ISO, a leading source of insurance risk information, to identify the 10 states that have suffered the biggest property losses from disasters over the past decade. Do you have enough insurance?

		Real Estate Broker	Honest, Trustworthy
			Always put your interests first	Skyline Properties Inc.

Is Las Vegas the new Detroit?

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10 states most at risk of disaster