The Review Journal reports from Las Vegas. "Loan officer Bob Charles has worked eight months trying to find construction financing for a luxury condo project in Las Vegas that may be 'caught in the same mud' as Club Renaissance, a 60-story downtown tower that was announced in January 2005 but has yet to break ground."

"'Of the 80-plus lenders that would have thrown their money at this project last year with the frivolousness that Paris Hilton shows when she throws money at her next party, only two lenders are left that will even take a call on a condo project in Vegas,' Charles said. 'Well, Paris Hilton came out last month to say that she's not partying anymore and lenders have mostly done the same.'"

"Banks have tightened their purse strings on construction financing for high-rise condo projects in Las Vegas, especially after projects such as Krystal Sands, Aqua Blue and Icon were canceled, leaving buyers high and dry and Las Vegas with a black eye on Wall Street."

"Demand for housing has cooled, so builders are looking to unload their inventory and are not as aggressive as they had been in building new units, said Paul Engler, for Chase commercial real estate banking in Phoenix. 'It's been interesting times all over the country,' he said. 'We've been picky about condo projects we've invested with. What we're all watching is affordability of housing, which bleeds all the way down to land prices.'"

"'What is somewhat unique to Vegas is the number of deals brought forward by completely inexperienced developers and often on unremarkable sites, and we're talking about $100 million-plus proposed developments,' said Jeff Teetsel (with) Fremont Investment and Loan."

"Las Vegas has next to no primary occupant demand to supplement the demand from second-, third- or fourth-home buyers for the very high-end units,' Teetsel said. 'In a market with not much more than 1,000 high-rise units ever completed before the last couple years, it was absurd to see 40,000 to 50,000 proposed units announced in the space of two to three years. It's not surprising to see a number never get out of the ground.'"

"Until recently, all a developer needed to obtain high-rise entitlements in Las Vegas was a mock-up of a possible project, so hundreds of 'wannabe developers jumped into the pool,' Charles said. Developers who failed to lock in their construction costs are just buying time now and it doesn't look as if they're going to make it, Charles said."

"'So, are things bad? Well, I just saw an ad to try to entice people to buy from a certain Vegas condo under construction that said, 'Free one-year mortgage, free one-year HOAs, no down payments,' so I'd say it looks bad,' he said."

The Nevada Appeal. "Nothing can illustrate the area housing market better than the tale of a newlywed couple with dreams of equity. About a year before Sara and Cory married, they had a dream of the perfect career in house flipping."

"After a five-year national housing boom the market had started to slow over the year into a hot pool of uncertainty, she's cautious about house flipping here. 'The market here, it is too late. It's too expensive,' she says."

"Boom areas of Nevada could have the most dismal price slump in the nation. Carson City is on the list of metropolitan areas projected to have the largest decline in median housing prices. One sign of a scare: seller incentives. Local real estate agent Bob Fredlund said sellers are getting competitive to sweeten the deal. They are giving higher commissions to the buyer's agent, cash awards of $10,000, trips to Hawaii."

"'The people really in trouble are the speculators,' says Gil Yanuck, assistant state director for the AARP's Tax-Aide program. 'They went and refinanced their house to speculate and buy another piece of property that they thought they were going to hold on for two to three months and flip it. Now they have two mortgage payments to make.'"