International Property Journal - News and information on global property markets

While home prices in most U.S. cities show signs of stabilizing, Las Vegas continues to slide.

In May, Sin City prices dropped 0.5 percent from April, even though the housing industry received a boost from expiring tax credits, according to the latest S&P/Case-Shiller Home Price Index.

In fact, 19 of the 20 cities in the index reported an increase in May, with Las Vegas the lone exception. Prices in Vegas are down 54.6 percent from the peak, according to the index. Detroit is the only city performing worse than Las Vegas, with prices down to 1994 levels.

Dubai-based Emaar Properties is denying reports that it is pulling out of a plan to develop a $600 million resort and residential project on the Indonesian island of Lombok.

In March 2008 Emaar signed a joint venture deal with the Bali Tourism Development Corporation to build the project, one of the first ventures into Indonesia by a Middle East developer. Emaar announced plans for a 1,200 hectare development, including a marina and golf course on the island, which is about 25 miles from Bali.

A new company in Mexico is based on the simple premise that frequent flier miles are the perfect sales incentive for second home buyers.

Mazatlan-based AMAS Inc. is marketing the promotion, which offers developers an easy way to offer miles to their clients. A unit priced between $300,000 and $400,000 might include 600,000 miles, for example.

More than anything, the program protects developers from the need to slash their prices, says Larry Foster, owner of AMAS Inc.

The real estate developer who bought the “Britain” island in Dubai’s the World project is facing seven years in jail for writing bad checks.

London-native Safi Qurashi is the owner of Premier Real Estate Bureau, described on its Web site as “Dubai's leading agency for affordable luxury waterfront homes since 2005.”  In its heyday, the firm generated £400 million and employed 80 people, according to the British press.

Even the relentlessly upbeat National Association of Realtors couldn’t put a happy face on this week’s housing report, which showed a larger than expected 5 percent drop in existing home sales from May to June.

A drop was expected, with tax credits expiring and the economy continuing to wallow. But there was no way to sound upbeat about sales numbers which NAR meekly described as “relatively elevated.”

The island where “Eat, Pray, Love” author Elizabeth Gilbert found love continues to block foreign ownership of property.

Bali attracts more than 2 million tourists a year--a number which is expected to grow when the movie version of Gilbert’s book is released in August. However, strict Constitutional restrictions on non-citizens directly owning land dampen international interest in real estate.

Bombastic CNBC “Mad Money” host Jim Cramer took a break this week from pushing stocks to make the case for buying real estate in Mexico.

Cramer aid he recently bought three properties in San Miguel de Allende, the expat haven in Central Mexico.

One of the prominent players developing the Placencia peninsula in Belize is facing a federal indictment in the U.S., alleging he spent years avoiding taxes and lying under oath.

James R. Parker, who lives in Carefree, Arizona, was the owner and c.e.o of Mackinnon Belize Land and Development, a Belize company that developed the master-planned project known as the Plantation. The Internal Revenue Service alleges Parker and his wife, Jacqueline, conspired to hide millions of dollars in income from their Belize real estate business.

With construction complete and the first owners preparing to move in, developers of the Icon Vallarta in Puerto Vallarta say they have sold about 60 percent of the units in the Yoo by Starck-designed project.

While that might not sound like cause for fireworks, any buying activity in Mexico is positive news these days, after a year of swine flu cases and drug violence. Developer Related Group, headed by Jorge Perez, is also eager for anything resembling a success story, in the wake of a repossessions and plummeting values in Miami, its home base.

Jones Lang LaSalle’s latest study found global commercial real estate investment has more than doubled since the dark days of 2009, which makes for a nice headline.

But the real story was the disparity in investment activity from region to region. Asia, for example, saw investment volumes drop by 34 percent from the first quarter of 2010, despite increases in Hong Kong and Taiwan.