The record numbers of properties in Las Vegas foreclosure listings have been prompting city officials and analysts to think about the future of Las Vegas in comparison to what happened in Rust Belt cities such as Detroit, Cleveland, Buffalo and Pittsburgh.
Over the past 2 years, Las Vegas has turned from a city of plentiful jobs, relaxed atmosphere, pleasant weather, affordable homes, minimal taxes, and prosperity to a city overpowered by foreclosures, abandoned homes, vacant commercial buildings, closed businesses, unoccupied hotel rooms and long lines of unemployed people.
Unemployment in Las Vegas has surpassed 13 percent and more than 28,000 people have moved out of the city over the past 2 years. The city has more foreclosure properties than any other metro area in the country and the biggest foreclosed commercial property in the U.S. is in Las Vegas.
Now, city officials and analysts, including economists at universities and institutes in Las Vegas, are examining how Las Vegas can recover from its current difficulties and mistakes.
To help Las Vegas find ways and choose strategies to recover, economists in the city are now analyzing why Detroit and Cleveland are finding it difficult to recover from the collapse of their auto and other manufacturing industries and why Pittsburgh was able to rise up and soar far above the remains of its collapsed steel industry.
According to Las Vegas economists and analysts, the city can recover from the economic and social effects of its overloaded Las Vegas foreclosure listings by building up the civic culture developed by Pittsburgh and avoiding the bureaucratic mistakes of Cleveland and the investment and political mistakes of Detroit.
Pittsburgh over the years has been spending industrial money and funds from philanthropists to prop its research universities, University of Pittsburgh and Carnegie Mellon University. Research results drove growth in information technology, energy, health care and in high-technology manufacturing.
Today, Pittsburgh has more than 200,000 jobs in health care and in education and its unemployment is below the national jobless rate and far below the jobless rate of Las Vegas. Over 30,000 positions in Pittsburgh are open.
According to the economists, Las Vegas can start by examining and developing what it has – tourism. It should enhance the Vegas experience by offering medical tourism and other novel and diverse experiences. It should put more funds into its educational institutions and attract more highly educated professionals into the city.
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