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Quote of the Week: Chinese double down on Las Vegas strip

The resort city reeled in the aftermath of the global financial crisis, rocked by a double blow of plummeting property prices and work stoppages at multi-million-dollar developments.

What a difference a few years make. Some of those stalled development projects are being restarted. The stalled Echelon will now become a US$2-billion Chinese-themed resort – with a replica Great Wall of China and its own pandas on display.

And, in the residential market, Las Vegas has the third-fastest rising property values in the entire United States, according to the S&P/Case-Shiller Index.

The Fast Three*

Phoenix +23%

San Francisco +18.9%

Las Vegas + 17.6%

Source: Year-on-Year Price increases, Feb. 2013, S&P/Case-Shiller Index.

Overseas investor interest, Patrick O'Neill of the O'Neill Group told the South China Morning Post (22 May 2013), accounts for a large part of this recovery.

"Many buyers who missed the price drops in other cities like New York and San Francisco are now scrambling to find the remaining pockets of opportunity," he said. "Las Vegas is one of the last markets to recover, forcing bargain-hunters to bear down on the remaining inventory."

In particular, Chinese buyers are soaking up high-end inventory and taking units in newly built projects, like the Mandarin Oriental on the famous Las Vegas Strip. And that's where today's Quote of the Week comes in.

Chinese buyers in the Mandarin Oriental are getting a real bargain. Before the crash, prices were US$1.6 million. Today, they are US$680,000 for the same residences.

Note: Quotes of the Week may be edited for brevity, but never to alter meaning.