A deal in the desert for Senator Reid?

[DeepModem Mom]

LAT: A deal in the desert for Sen. Reid?
A bill he wrote could have affected the friend who sold the land.
By Chuck Neubauer and Tom Hamburger, Times Staff Writers
January 28, 2007

BULLHEAD CITY, ARIZ. — It's hard to buy undeveloped land in booming northern Arizona for $166 an acre. But now-Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid effectively did just that when a longtime friend decided to sell property owned by the employee pension fund that he controlled.

In 2002, Reid (D-Nev.) paid $10,000 to a pension fund controlled by Clair Haycock, a Las Vegas lubricants distributor and his friend for 50 years. The payment gave the senator full control of a 160-acre parcel in Bullhead City that Reid and the pension fund had jointly owned. Reid's price for the equivalent of 60 acres of undeveloped desert was less than one-tenth of the value the assessor placed on it at the time.

Six months after the deal closed, Reid introduced legislation to address the plight of lubricants dealers who had their supplies disrupted by the decisions of big oil companies. It was an issue the Haycock family had brought to Reid's attention in 1994, according to a source familiar with the events.

If Reid were to sell the property for any of the various estimates of its value, his gain on the $10,000 investment could range from $50,000 to $290,000.

It is a potential violation of congressional ethics standards for a member to accept anything of value — including a real estate discount — from a person with interests before Congress.

In a statement, Reid's spokesman Jon Summers said that the transaction was not a gift and that the price was due to the property's history and the fact that only a partial interest was sold. Reid's action on the lubricants issue was unrelated to the sale and reflected the senator's interest in fairness for small businesses, Summers said....

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-reid28jan28,0,26787,full.story?coll=la-home-headlines

[Warren Stupidity]

1. Yawn....

Excuse me but isn't this the third time this bullshit has been dredged up?

[DeepModem Mom]

2. Maybe more? nt

[MADem]

3. Jesus Christ on a bicycle....I love that "could" part of their predicition as to his potential

profit. Juxtapose THAT story with this one, and tell me, who but a long-term investor is BUYING? Everything ISN'T coming up roses in "What happens in Vegas" ville....

http://www.inbusinesslasvegas.com/2007/01/26/realestate.html

....BusinessWeek analysts predict Las Vegas housing will lose the most of any major city in 2007 with 9.9 percent of its value disappearing, much more than the nationally projected loss of 1.7 percent. According to BusinessWeek, which interviewed economists and leading real estate firms, the median home price will fall from $324,000 to $292,000.

The magazine's analysts went on to say that a decline in home sales in 2007 will set the stage for another year of price decreases in 2008 across the country.

Fortune ranks Las Vegas behind Stockton, Calif., on its list of markets facing a decline. The magazine predicts prices will drop 6.6 percent in 2007 and another 8.1 percent in 2008 based on comments from analysts at Moody's Economy.com and real estate valuation company Fiserv Lending Solutions. ......Nevada second in foreclosures: In December, Nevada lost its No. 1 spot in the national rankings in the number of homes entering foreclosure. Nevada ranked No. 2 in December behind Colorado, which Nevada had jumped in November.

Foreclosures dropped nearly 12 percent from November, but they are still up 97 percent from December 2005. The Nevada foreclosure rate is one home per 392 households while Colorado has one foreclosure per 376 households. The national average is one home per 1,055 households. ......