I’ve received a couple of questions regarding financial news lately, and how the national economy will impact the Las Vegas housing market. As we all know, the nation’s economy has been on a roller-coaster ride for weeks, beginning with the Bear Stearns near-collapse.

With the financial experts all over the board, it’s really difficult to say whether this will impact our housing market or even our economy. Las Vegas’ economy is very resilient. Pending sales are still rising; this is a pattern that should continue, barring an apocalyptic event such as our national economy collapsing.

I checked in with my friend, Brandon Foor, who’s a professor of finance and management. Brandon tells me that this is the wildest market he’s ever seen. While pundits are questioning if we have reached a "bottom" in the financial market, Brandon thinks we're far from it.

Brandon tells me that the U.S. got hit first “simply because we have the most credit; therefore, we will be hit the hardest by this global credit crunch.” The "whispers" of the Fed getting involved in bailing out homebuilders is good news for real estate. And while it barely made the news, Brandon was very encouraged by Russia’s decision to start buying back the U.S. dollar. As time goes on, more countries will follow suit, and that’s very healthy for our economy.

The IMF released its annual Global Financial Stability report today, which foreshadows further credit crunch problems and mortgage-related losses of nearly $1 trillion.

My researcher posed an interesting theory a few months back. I have no idea if it’s correct, but it certainly is interesting. Every state has different foreclosure laws; these laws dictate varying timeframes that lenders must adhere to. Las Vegas has been hit very hard by foreclosures, and for awhile it looked like the problem was limited to just a few cities where housing was being touted as “overvalued”. But was Las Vegas really so different than the rest of the country, or the tip of the iceberg?

A lender can foreclose on a house very quickly in Las Vegas, whereas it would take more than a year in New York and some other states. Could it be that we just saw this trend first in Las Vegas, and other areas will just be feeling the pain when we are recovering? If any of our readers have the answer to this, please feel free to comment!

Nothing like a little dental surgery to take all the fun out of one's day. More later, when the pain and numbness wear off!

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