ZZZ - GMG - VEGAS INC 2011-2014

January 30, 2012

VEGAS INC Magazine - Latest Las Vegas business news, features and commentaries about gaming, tourism, real estate and more

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IN BUSINESS THE ECONOMY HOME-BUILDING INDUSTRY MAY HAVE REACHED BOTTOM IN 2011 By Steve Green senior staff writer The Las Vegas-area home-building industry likely bottomed out in 2011, when new-home sales fell to a 30-year low of 3,894, an analyst says. "2011 was the most difficult year the home- building industry has ever been through," Dennis Smith, president of Home Builders Research Inc., said in his monthly "Las Vegas Housing Market Letter." Smith's year-end tally of 3,894 sales locally compared to sales of 5,379 in 2010 and of 38,957 at the peak of the market in 2005. Smith said the 3,894 sales is the lowest he's seen since he started tracking the market in 1987. VEGAS INC research shows the 3,894 sales was the worst showing locally since 3,576 single- family building permits were issued in 1982, when the nation was mired in recession and the Las Vegas market was much smaller. Clark County's population was 507,510 people in 1982. By 2010, it had risen to 1.97 million people. During the current recession, Las Vegas new-home sales have tumbled because of high unemployment, which is now at 12.5 percent, and lower prices driven by competition with foreclosed homes. New homes sold locally in December at a median price of $212,250, down 2.7 percent from December 2010, Smith reported. More than half of Las Vegas homeowners remain underwater in their mortgages — they owe more than the properties are worth — and are therefore unable to buy new homes, Smith VEGAS INC FILE noted. With modest local economic improvements expected, Smith said, he expects new-home sales locally to rise slightly but to remain well below historical levels. They should come in at about 4,000 this year and at about 4,200 in 2013, he said. "So, the bottom of this mess certainly seems behind us. But, any quick, dramatic recovery appears to be out of the question," he wrote in his new market update. Smith's report follows last week's issuance of reports on existing home sales showing that while they soared during 2011 in Las Vegas, prices fell year-over-year in December by 9.1 percent to a median of $120,000. COURTS RIGHTHAVEN WEBSITE'S NEW OWNER KNOCKS COMPANY By Steve Green senior staff writer The new owner of righthaven.com has made it clear that he or she isn't a fan of the Righthaven LLC no-warning copyright infringement lawsuits. The website displayed a heavily-redacted letter dated Jan. 18 and addressed to Chris Dodd, CEO of the Motion Picture Association of America. The letter appeared to be critical of the MPAA and the Recording Industry Association of America. The website said it was "Redacted per SOPA/PIPA" — a reference to protests by the Internet community against anti- copyright piracy legislation dubbed "SOPA and PIPA" (Stop Online Piracy Act and the Protect Intellectual Property Act). The movie and record industries favor SOPA and PIPA to deal with trafficking in their stolen online content, but web companies, like Google and Facebook, oppose the legislation on grounds it may inhibit free speech. Righthaven LLC of Las Vegas has itself been accused of threatening free speech with its newspaper copyright infringement lawsuits. Righthaven denies those charges and says the 275 suits it filed since March 2010 were needed to deter rampant copyright infringement. After Righthaven's litigation strategy backfired on the company and drove it to near-financial ruin, its website was seized and auctioned for the benefit of a creditor. The website boingboing has identified the righthaven. com buyer as Stefan Thalberg of Zug, Switzerland, though Thalberg hasn't yet commented. The new righthaven.com website includes a "no jellyfish" logo and in the page source identifier it has suggested it's opposed to Internet service providers that — like jellyfish — lack the spines or backbones to fight censorship. The Jan. 18 letter to Dodd concludes with the line, "Righthaven.com – Proudly unaffiliated in any way with Righthaven LLC." Practical solutions for construction clients nationwide Contact us for full-service legal support for your next project. Greg Gilbert, 702.669.4620 9555 Hillwood Drive, 2nd Floor Las Vegas, NV 89134 www.hollandhart.com | 30 JANUARY 2012 | 13

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