Henderson Foreclosures for Sale

Henderson has often been quoted as one of the top 100 places in the United States to live, in fact it finished 20th in the ‘Money’ magazine listings in 2006. It is one of America’s favorite places to visit for walkers, with over 37 miles of trails in and around the city; the gently rolling surrounding hills are a particular attraction.

Henderson has a relatively short history and founded itself as a manufacturing boom town, producing vast quantities of magnesium in support of World War II. Since then, although the manufacturing industry has remained strong, the city has diversified. Henderson is fast emerging as a centre for communications technology companies and due to its close proximity to Las Vegas there are many spin-off employment opportunities from the tourist industry.

The largest employers in the area are the education sector in Clark County (20,000 people) along with a string of casinos in neighboring Las Vegas (MGM Grand, Bellagio and Mandalay being the largest). This brings the unemployment rate in Henderson to 5.7%, which although still equating to a lot of people is lower than the national average of 6.1%. This relative prosperity has led to a higher than average cost of living in the city.

There are very few Metropolitan Areas that have escaped the sub-prime mortgage crisis, and Henderson is no exception. It now seems inevitable that the nation is entering a recession and residents are already seeing higher rates of unemployment leading to hard working people struggling to maintain climbing mortgage repayments.

President Bush’s recently announced rescue package is welcome news in Henderson. The package is expected to require sub-prime mortgage lenders to freeze interest rates for up to five years in an attempt to assist residents in retaining their homes. This would be fantastic news for those who took out sub-prime mortgages with little or no credit rating and no realizable capital.

Although this package will be a huge relief to sub-primers, it may be received resentfully by those who have taken traditional ‘prime’ mortgages and are still working hard to make their payments having spent years saving diligently to afford their house in the first place. Many say that this is simply delaying the inevitable and that once the five years is up, the sub-primers will still end up paying the higher rates and properties will still be repossessed. It is arguable that this policy may assist in keeping the local neighborhoods looking better and may inject a little cash into the economy, but it is just delaying an inflation bubble in five years time.

Meanwhile, houses are still being repossessed each month in Henderson City. The City is expected to receive $3.2 million of the $70 million rescue package, with Las Vegas next door getting $14.7 million. Thousands of dollars have been slashed off the prices of foreclosures for sale in the area meaning many householders are living in negative equity and would not benefit from selling even if they were able to.