Las Vegas Sun NewsMost Nevadans are ‘on the edge of financial disaster,’ report says
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Sam Morris / Las Vegas Sun file
Houses sprawl across the Las Vegas Valley. When the housing bubble burst in 2007, Las Vegas became the No. 1 area in foreclosures nationwide.
Tuesday
29 January 2013
9:01 p.m.
A majority of Nevadans are living “on the edge of financial disaster” with almost no savings to fall back on, a new report says.
Some 62.5 percent of state households have less than three months of savings to rely on in the event of a job loss, medical crisis or other financial emergency. And for 44 percent, the assets they do have “are overwhelmed by debt,” according to a report out today from the Corporation for Enterprise Development in Washington, D.C.
The nonprofit group’s “Assets & Opportunity Scorecard” painted a dark picture of Nevada consumers, ranking the Silver State worst among all 50 states and the District of Columbia for its residents’ ability to achieve financial security.
Nevada had the highest rates of “underbanked” households (31.2 percent), bankruptcies (8.6 per 1,000 people), unemployment (13.1 percent), delinquent mortgage loans (6.3 percent) and uninsured low-income children (26 percent).
Additionally, almost 68 percent of Nevadans have subprime credit scores, second-worst in the United States.
At least one of those figures has improved since the group apparently collected its data. State officials recently reported that Nevada’s jobless rate fell to 10.2 percent in December, the lowest since February 2009 but still above the national rate of 7.8 percent.
The CFED’s report comes more than four months after the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. reported that 33 percent of Las Vegas Valley households were underbanked in 2011, up from 20 percent two years earlier.
The banking regulator defines “underbanked” as households with checking or savings accounts that also used nonbank money orders, check-cashing stores, payday loans, pawn shops and other alternative lenders.
About 57 percent of valley households in 2011 were fully banked, meaning they had a bank account and didn’t use any alternative lending, down from 71 percent in 2009, the FDIC reported.
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Stats like these are questionable. How could this company possibly have accurate information? Answer: it doesn't.
If this was not an "at will" work state maybe your numbers would be better and closer then the average. People get fired for no real good reasons. This is the craziest state I have ever lived no companies take responsibility or Care for anything. I love NY, VT and NH!
I love NY, VT and NH!
I'd suggest moving there if you don't care for Nevada.
Love how they highlight the un-employment rate in red. The rate is much higher than what they state. How about around 15%. Oh I forgot they don't count those that have fallen off the radar and given up looking for a job.
Posts like FreedomRadio's are questionable. How could this person possibly know whether or not this polling is accurate? Answer: she doesn't -- and doesn't care because it's inconsistent with her ideology.
The housing industry moved many here. Now that those collapsed where do you get the money to move to get a job somewhere else in this nation?
We need more imigrunts to take jobs and use social services?
I've always felt that LV is a suburb looking for a city. The gaming community is not a mecca for public pride like steel making in Pittsburgh, cars in Detroit, etc. This is a town sprung up to support gaming - and when LV was King and no one else was doing it, I suppose it clung to providing a vice. Now that gaming is just about everywhere the people of LV don't even have that singularity to hang its hat on. The place is pretty nebulous. No sense of identity. A group of people, whether they know it or not, need a sense of self worth - those feelings spread. Until there's some of rallying industry the numbers like those above will continue. And even if the economy shoots back to make gaming big again, (40 million visitors and no such large reflection on the populace,) it'll never be as it was because of China, Spain, Viet Nam, Singapore and new developments for other parts of the country. LV residents really need a better industry to champion.
I'll guarantee a lot of these people are on the "brink" not because they are degenerate gamblers but simply because they are lifelong gamblers. Too many making $25-50k/year and walking into the casino on a regular basis. You can't win and won't win. Back east when you turned 21 you went out for a drink. Here you go and gamble. Big difference. Las Vegas' gambling culture is IMO a very big reason why so many are on the brink. I was playing $2 craps at the shoot to win game the other day. The local next to me who looked like death warmed over was shoving in $20's every 3 minutes. I suspect this is a common occurrence across the valley (slots, tables, keno, etc)
With a shortage of homes for sale on the market,
these statistics are not an accurate indicator of how the Las Vegas economy works.
This could be just propaganda to keep real estate prices low.
Worse than the unemployment rate is the WAGE LEVEL... Unfortunately, LV is a $10.00/hr economy. No one wins in this economic enviroment, not even those who are paying the low wages.
i was surprised it was 62 percent . the smartest thing some of these casinos did was stop cashing paychecks at the casino cashier cage .some people couldnt even make it out the front door
"Stats like these are questionable."
And so is the intelligence of the person who posted such a ridiculas comment.