Las Vegas tops Forbes.com’s list of America’s ’emptiest cities’
Detroit’s long served as a paragon of urban blight, a city with a widespread rap for idled factories and abandoned homes.
But a new report from Forbes.com holds that, for housing struggles at least, Detroit has nothing on Las Vegas.
It’s Las Vegas that tops Forbes.com’s list of America’s “emptiest cities” — the markets that post the highest rates of apartment-rental vacancies and unoccupied homes.
Forbes.com evaluated fourth-quarter data from the U.S. Census Bureau to determine which city would rank as the country’s most-abandoned market. In Las Vegas, the Web site’s editors found a rental vacancy rate of 16 percent and a home vacancy rate of 4.7 percent. Detroit had rental vacancy of 19.9 percent and home vacancy of 4 percent. A formula combining those factors ranked Las Vegas ahead of Detroit for overall vacancy.
The national rental vacancy rate was 10.1 percent in the fourth quarter, Forbes.com found. That’s up from 9.6 percent a year ago. Homeowner vacancy rose from 2.8 percent to 2.9 percent in the same period.
Though Las Vegas and Detroit rival each other for their slumping housing markets, the two emptied out for different reasons, Forbes.com said. Credit Detroit’s misfortune to long-term economic decline as manufacturers shipped jobs overseas. In Las Vegas, tough times have come from the current recession and an acute housing bust.
The Forbes.com story quotes local developer Laurence Hallier, developer of Panorama Towers on Dean Martin Drive. Hallier told the magazine it would take years to break even on his project, and he said he’s delayed the fourth and final tower “indefinitely.”
“It’s a mess,” Hallier said in the piece. “Right now, things are just frozen. Everybody’s scared.” Forbes.com also pointed to a delay on the planned Plaza project on the Strip as another example of the “problems afflicting millions of property owners in Las Vegas and around the country.”
Honolulu had the nation’s best fourth-quarter vacancy rate, with 5.8 percent for homes and 0.5 percent for rentals.
Other markets among the top five emptiest cities include Atlanta, Greensboro, N.C. and Dayton, Ohio.
Contact reporter Jennifer Robison at jrobison@reviewjournal.com or 702-380-4512.
