Bloomberg Businessweek just published this article summarizing the impact that Bird and its electric scooters are having on Los Angeles. Here are a couple of highlights:

- Bird launched a year ago and is, today, valued at around $2 billion.

- The company has around 15,000 scooters on the road in Los Angeles. We already know that this is making some/many people grouchy.

- The cost to rent a scooter is $1 plus $0.15 a minute.

- LA has an incentive program in place that allows Bird to expand its fleet within low-income areas. Still, their scooters tend to be concentrated in wealthier areas of the city.

- Beverly Hills is trying to figure out how to handle/regulate these scooters and currently has a 6 month ban in place.

- Supposedly, you can ride a Bird through West Hollywood but you’re not allowed to park it anywhere.

The company is based in Santa Monica, so it’s not surprising that they have such a stronghold in the LA market. Still, there appears to be a lot of latent demand for this kind of mobility.

According the US Department of Energy, almost 60% of vehicle trips in the US last year were less than 6 miles. And around 40% were less than 2 miles. 

So these “last mile scooters” do appear to have a lot of utility. Do any of you regularly use an electric scooter to get around?

If you had to pick an epicentre for the housing bust of 2008, I’d say that Las Vegas would be a pretty safe bet.

Las Vegas home prices doubled between 2002 and 2006 (the peak), and then fell 62% through to 2012! According to RealtyTrac, Las Vegas saw the highest rate of foreclosure (in 2009) compared to any other major city in the US. 1 out of every 13 properties was in foreclosure. That’s pretty incredible.

Now, hindsight is always 20/20, but from the beginning I had a hard time understanding Las Vegas from a real estate standpoint. You have a city that’s running out of water and who’s major economic drivers are tourism, gambling and conventions. Not only are these industries highly cyclical, but they don’t create a lot of high paying local jobs.

So for home prices to double in the span of 4 years, it must mean that there’s a lot of investor activity in the market. But how much is a lot? As one example, the 678 unit Meridian Private Residences, which was a condo conversion done by American Invsco, apparently only sold 14 units to end users. The remaining 98% of the units were bought by investors.

Those are pretty scary numbers - both for investors and end users. And while times today are certainly nowhere near as frothy, I still don’t get Las Vegas real estate.

Bloomberg Businessweek just published this article summarizing the impact that Bird and its electric scooters are having on Los Angeles. Here are a couple of highlights:

- Bird launched a year ago and is, today, valued at around $2 billion.

- The company has around 15,000 scooters on the road in Los Angeles. We already know that this is making some/many people grouchy.

- The cost to rent a scooter is $1 plus $0.15 a minute.

- LA has an incentive program in place that allows Bird to expand its fleet within low-income areas. Still, their scooters tend to be concentrated in wealthier areas of the city.

- Beverly Hills is trying to figure out how to handle/regulate these scooters and currently has a 6 month ban in place.

- Supposedly, you can ride a Bird through West Hollywood but you’re not allowed to park it anywhere.

The company is based in Santa Monica, so it’s not surprising that they have such a stronghold in the LA market. Still, there appears to be a lot of latent demand for this kind of mobility.

According the US Department of Energy, almost 60% of vehicle trips in the US last year were less than 6 miles. And around 40% were less than 2 miles. 

So these “last mile scooters” do appear to have a lot of utility. Do any of you regularly use an electric scooter to get around?

If you had to pick an epicentre for the housing bust of 2008, I’d say that Las Vegas would be a pretty safe bet.

Las Vegas home prices doubled between 2002 and 2006 (the peak), and then fell 62% through to 2012! According to RealtyTrac, Las Vegas saw the highest rate of foreclosure (in 2009) compared to any other major city in the US. 1 out of every 13 properties was in foreclosure. That’s pretty incredible.

Now, hindsight is always 20/20, but from the beginning I had a hard time understanding Las Vegas from a real estate standpoint. You have a city that’s running out of water and who’s major economic drivers are tourism, gambling and conventions. Not only are these industries highly cyclical, but they don’t create a lot of high paying local jobs.

So for home prices to double in the span of 4 years, it must mean that there’s a lot of investor activity in the market. But how much is a lot? As one example, the 678 unit Meridian Private Residences, which was a condo conversion done by American Invsco, apparently only sold 14 units to end users. The remaining 98% of the units were bought by investors.

Those are pretty scary numbers - both for investors and end users. And while times today are certainly nowhere near as frothy, I still don’t get Las Vegas real estate.