"It's Going To Be Another Pahrump"

White Hills, Arizona may seem an unlikely candidate for the housing bubble. But the Washington Post found some speculation going on in the desert town outside Las Vegas.

"It's mainly a lot of hills and flats and Joshua trees, punctuated by a couple hundred widely spaced homes, most of them modulars or trailers..a single convenience store, operating off someone's back porch; and no post office..By the time the bypass is completed, Rhodes plans to be..building more than 20,000 dwellings on the 2,000 acres it now owns here, along with an "urban center". If the homes were already in place today, they would probably be priced in the mid $100,000s."

Local innkeeper John McNeely likes the idea, "This area is so depressed, it will help the tax base." But the expected boom does have a downside. "I used to go out in the yard in my underwear," said Tom Lusk, longtime resident,"I can't anymore. I got neighbors."

For her part Pat Kwast, a cook at Rosie's is positively Zen, "Sweetheart, it's progress," she said with a sigh, taking a break at the counter. "Things change -- that's the energy of everything. Everybody knows you can't stop progress."