It was bound to happen sooner or later. Folks looking at empty houses in Las Vegas and deciding "Why pay rent?": [Hat tip to The Judge]
On New Year’s Eve, a middle-class neighborhood in southwest Las Vegas discovered new neighbors in foreclosed and formerly vacant homes.
James Totland, a nearby resident, said the new residents appeared to be squatters.
"It’s insane," Totland said. "It’s scary really."
Real estate saleswoman JoAnn’E Verry and broker Scott Hurlburt reached the same conclusion. The new residents were intruders who were trespassing, the real estate sales people said. They enlisted the help of Las Vegas police Thursday in evicting the squatters.
"This is something that is caused because houses are vacant," Hurlburt said.
The Greater Las Vegas Board of Realtors calculates that about 45 percent of the 22,005 single-family houses on the market are vacant as the area struggles to recover from a residential realty bust.
But squatters remain uncommon in the Las Vegas area, said Patty Kelly, president of the Realtors board.
"It’s really somewhat of a rare occurrence that comes up," Kelly said. More often, homeless people or people who were evicted break into homes, she said.
