Summit County Citizens Voice

Real estate boom ends with a whimper in the Nevada desert

Abandoned floor plan for a Hayden Estates home. The developers left so fast they didn’t have time to completely clean up after themselves.

By Garrett Palm

SUMMIT COUNTY — Developers of Hayden Estates, called Sandal Wood until April 2008, began the permit and building process in early 2008 in Mesquite, Nev., a border town near Arizona. The mortgage crisis stopped the development in its early stages and now tumbleweeds roll along the man-made plateaus where houses may yet be built in the 90-lot, 30.27-acre neighborhood. Mesquite is a town of about 21,000 people in the Virgin Valley that draws in people from nearby Utah and Arizona to gamble in its casinos. The Hayden Estates are on the northern edge of town, in Mesquite  Heights, along the road to the landfill.

The back entrance to the empty Hayden Estates in Mesquite, NV.

The view from one of the upper lots. Broken PVC and tumbleweeds haunt the subdivision with promises of the American dream.

Classic Southwestern scenery surrounds: High desert, plateaus, orange sand. Green parks and golf courses stand out as signs that people have moved in and brought seeds and water, calling more people out here — people like my grandparents, looking for a quiet and inexpensive place to live. Nearby dirt roads lead into the mountains where people looking for even quieter homes live in seclusion.

Classic Southwestern scenery surrounds: High desert, plateaus, orange sand. Green parks and golf courses stand out as signs that people have moved in and brought seeds and water, calling more people out here — people like my grandparents, looking for a quiet and inexpensive place to live. Nearby dirt roads lead into the mountains where people looking for even quieter homes live in seclusion.

An hour outside of Las Vegas, Mesquite experienced fast growth in the years leading up to the subprime mortgages crash. Developers built as fast as they could to stay ahead of the climbing market, but did not watch for signs of the crest and fall.

The empty lots provide an open view of the small plateaus surrounding the neighborhood.

An empty intersection of streets that have been built but do not officially exist on any maps.

View of the Virgin Valley from a Hayden Estates lot.

An empty curve at the base of a plateau where children may someday toss a football.

Sewer pipe clean outs for the houses that never came. The park beckons with its lonely splash of green in the valley.

Empty model homes at the front entrance to Hayden Estates.

Garrett Palm is a photographer, writer, and improv actor currently living in Brooklyn, NY. You can follow his travels and photos at www.lifeisaslowharold.com and find out more about him at www.garrettpalm.com.

Filed under: business, daily photoblog, economy, photography, real estate Tagged: | Arizona, business, economy, Hayden Estates Mesquite Nevada, mortgage crisis, photoblog, real estate, real estate crash, Summit County News, United States, Virgin Valley