Foreclosure Is Upwardly Mobile: More of the Wealthy Lose High-End Vegas Homes
It isn’t just members of the working class who are struggling to stay on top of their mortgage payments.
A growing number of multimillion-dollar homes in Las Vegas are in foreclosure or being marketed as short sales, in which the lender eats the difference between what was paid the last time around and what the home is now worth to a new buyer, reports Bloomberg.
Actor Nicolas Cage already lost his $8.5 million abode with a view of the Strip. He sued his manager over a number of losing investments, who countersued contending that Cage ignored advice. The litigation settled last year for an undisclosed amount.
Among the high-end properties currently on the market is an 11-acre estate put together by Prince Jefri Bolkiah, a brother of the Sultan of Brunei. Sold in 2004 for $14 million, it’s now on the market for $25 million, after, the new owner says, he put $20 million into the estate to make it habitable.
Such numbers indicate why a number of those who are behind strategically default, refusing to make payments even when they can afford them, the article notes.
“You feel like a sucker if you’re paying a $5 million mortgage on a house that’s worth $2 million,” says broker Zar Zanganeh, 28, who is showing the Bolkiah-built property. “These days, there are no traditional sales. They’re all short sales or bank-owned.”
There were 30 homes in Clark County valued at $1 million or more that were foreclosed upon or repossessed in the first quarter of 2011, compared to 20 a year previously. Meanwhile, short sales and bank-owned sales represented nearly 75 percent of all home sales.
Related coverage:
ABAJournal.com: “Lender Forecloses on NBA Player’s Home; Despite $10M Contract, He Likely Won’t Owe for Deficiency”