After moving from California to Las Vegas in 2000, Gold thought she had come to the land of milk and honey. She's had various businesses such as property management, construction cleanup and a housekeeping school in California, but being self-employed left her without Social Security benefits and a 401(k), and it was time to think about preparing for retirement.

Gold and her husband, Andrew, worked banquets for casinos, earning - like many other resort workers - money to purchase property. Gold saw an opportunity.

A year after moving here, Gold got a license to sell real estate just like she once had California before quitting the business about 1985.

Gold, 62, bought nine homes and two condominiums in Las Vegas and four homes out of state. She couldn't believe her timing: When she started buying homes in 2001 and 2002, the median price of existing homes was $136,500. The price rose to $275,000 by 2005, and Gold's wealth grew to $4.5 million, not counting the six figures she earned a year as a Realtor.

Gold was where she wanted to be. She planned to sell a couple of properties and cash out on the appreciation and keep the others as rentals to produce income. She wasn't buying real estate as a flipper, she says.

"I came here in the golden age and realized this is a perfect time to make money. I felt for the first time that God blessed us," Gold says. "I was trying to create a future."

Gold helped others she knew buy properties and accumulate wealth just like she did.

Through that success, Gold says she never let it go to her head and continued to live in the same 1,500-square-foot home she lived in when she moved to Las Vegas and didn't opt for a new luxury car like others who accumulated wealth so quickly did. When she pulled equity out of a home, she used it to purchase other properties.

But the market changed and with it Gold's fortunes. She sold one of her Las Vegas homes, but the change in the real estate market made it difficult for her to sell any other properties at the end of 2006 and beginning of 2007.

She was able to refinance out of six adjustable rate mortgages, but found herself burdened by two others she was talked into by her mortgage brokers with the mistaken belief she could easily refinance them as she had the others.

The payment on one property rose from $1,000 to $1,675 and another went from $1,500 to $2,000.

After being able to make all her mortgage payments in the past through the end of 2007, Gold says she has fallen about $22,000 short each month on mortgage payments and is as much as four months behind on some payments. She lost access to her line of credit even though she is still paying it down. She also has to deal with some of her tenants' inability to pay rent.

The real estate market was hurting her income as a Realtor. Her once six-figure income fell to nothing because of no commissions in 2007.

Gold said she worries about prospect of foreclosure, but has no plans to file for bankruptcy. She remains adamant that she will survive these tough times.

"I am going to come through this fine," Gold says. "It is bad, but it is survival of the fittest. I don't blame anybody. I take responsibility, but I am going to forge on. I am going to dust myself off and keep going forward."

Gold says she just had her first real estate closing since 2006 and has other sales in the hopper as well. Her goal is to make one to two sales a month to help cover her mortgages.

"Everybody wants to move to Vegas," Gold says. "I believe in this market. It is not going away. It has started to turn around and this is the place to be."

Nevada has retained its top spot in the number of foreclosure filings in April, but unlike the rest of the country filings fell from March's rate.

In April, 7,276 filings were made, a decline of 5 percent from March. Nationwide, filings rose 4 percent in April, according to Realtytrac.

Las Vegas filings' are still 95 percent higher than in April 2007. There was one filing for every 146 households in April, 3.6 times the national average.

California posted the second highest rate in April with one filing for every 204 households.

In April, 1,984 homes were repossessed and 4,301 notices of default were filed in Nevada.

Foreclosing filings are worsening in Arizona, which jumped to the No. 3 spot in April with one filing per 224 households. Arizona filings were up 26 percent from March and 181 percent from April 2007.

Realtytrac reports that only 2 percent of American homes are in foreclosure, but that continues to put downward pressure on home prices in markets such as Las Vegas.

Las Vegas continues to slide down the list in the number of filings. It fell to seventh place in April with one filing per 116 households. California cities held the top four spots with Merced No. 1, followed by Stockton, Modesto and Riverside-San Bernardino.

Apartment building sales

The sale of apartment buildings fell 30 percent in the first quarter compared to the first quarter of 2007, according to apartment market specialist Michael Belnick.

He reports 51 sales of units from fourplexes to the largest complexes. That's down from 73 a year ago and 151 in the first quarter of 2006. The price per unit fell 11 percent from $107,600 per unit to $95,700.

In the fourplex market, 13 of the 38 sales were repossessions and one was a short sale, Belnick said. Financing for nonowner-occupied units is nonexistent. The 38 sales are 12 percent below the 43 in the first quarter of 2007. The price was $101,900 per unit, down from $108,900 in 2007.

In complexes of five to 99 units, there were eight sales in first quarter, down from 13 a year ago. The prices fell 15 percent from $86,700 per unit a year ago to $73,500 in the first quarter this year.

In 100-unit plus complexes, only four sold, a drop from 16 a year ago. The price per unit was $98,800, down from $108,900 a year ago.

Brian Wargo covers real estate and development for In Business Las Vegas and its sister publication, the Las Vegas Sun. He can be reached at (702) 259-4011 or by e-mail at wargo@lasvegassun.com.