The other shoe was bound to drop.  Plummeting real estate prices in Las Vegas aren’t limited just to the residential market:

Foreclosure problems that destroyed residential real estate in 2008 are set to hit the commercial real estate market even harder this year, analysts are warning.

Commercial property values have fallen 30 percent to 40 percent from their peak a couple of years ago and the market is fraught with peril. Loan defaults have soared. Financing has dried up. Rising vacancy rates combined with declining rents are weakening cash flow.

"For Lease" signs hang at almost every shopping center and office park around the Las Vegas Valley. Construction has been delayed or halted on some of the newer developments.

"The problem is banks and lenders were so loose in making construction loans," said Hank Gordon, principal of Laurich Properties, a retail developer in Las Vegas. "There was no need to build all these strip centers one after another along Rainbow (Boulevard), to pay $20, $30 and $40 a square foot for land and think rents will go up to warrant it and sucker a bank into making a construction loan when demand wasn’t there."

Are you looking for a good investment in a troubled economy?  Consider red ink.  Lenders are going to need a lot of it.