Pursuits

After Las Vegas's Housing Crash, Fraud, Ferraris, and Gun Fights

“The entire system was rife with fraud”

Resident Vance photographed many events in the Meridian courtyard. Here, in November 2010, a visitor restsPhotograph by Frazzetta/Vance

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By Felix Gillette

September 12, 2013 at 10:36 PM UTC

This article is for subscribers only.

BusinessWeek Cover Image (13_38, 1600x2398)

This article is part of the September 16, 2013 issue of businessweek.

Jan. 20, 2009: The National Association of Home Builders predicts a 29 percent drop in real estate prices

Amid the housing boom and subsequent bust, no place in the country heaved up more extreme real estate behavior than Las Vegas. During the first six months of 2009, the city racked up the highest rate of foreclosure of any major metropolitan area in the U.S., according to RealtyTrac. Citywide, 1 in 13 properties had fallen into foreclosure, more than six times the national average. And by 2009 no place in Las Vegas had evolved into such a baroque and extravagant set piece of housing horrors as the Meridian Private Residences.