Transcripts For WMAR Nightline 20100501 : vimarsana.com

good evening, i m terry moran. we begin tonight with real estate and more encouraging signs of a market on the rebound. the most recent home prices actually show an uptick in america s big cities. while foreclosures are trending downward. make no mistake, there are, right now, some huge deals out there. and perhaps nowhere are the discounts on display deeper than in las vegas. chris connelly traveled to sin city in style for tonight s reality check. reporter: he may be an a-list movie star commanding up to $20 million a picture, but in real e estate, nic cage has been giving new meaning to the term bankable. in december, the bank foreclosed on this las vegas mansion. it reportedly sold for $3.5 million less than cage paid for it. this home in new orleans. and this one in bell lay air alt with foreclosure and he s not alone says real estate broker ken lowman. i would say right now the foreclosures are really hitting the luxury market hard. but a lot of these people were a little bit more affluent and they had more reserves to hold out. but with this recession dragging on, a lot of them have run out of resources. reporter: at the same time, there are signs that real estate is climbing up from its bottom at last and is getting the long dormant attention of some buyers. we re starting to see some early signs it might be stabilizing because the bvalues have brought buyers back into the market. reporter: now banks and brokers are exploring new and inventive ways to attract eligible buyers, to get an up-close and personal peek at big-ticket homes. a monday morning in long beach california finds these men about to do just that. some 55 minutes away. in nevada. i ll also take care of anything else you need. great, fantastic. reporter: these businessmen from orange county are ready to look at foreclosed properties in the las vegas area. to get them there, jetsweet air and ken lowman are flying them in a private jet for free. what makes that a smart move for your business right there? well, my clients are the affluent buyers. they re used to luxury. they re used to being pampered. and we have some great values out here in the marketplace and a lot of buyers don t really know about them and this is kind of a way to entice them to come out and take a look at the values here in the marketplace. reporter: they land at the airport in the las vegas suburb of henderson where on the tarmac a stretch limo awaits. also suppliy eied gratus. somebody says you can probably afford a ticket on a plane, afford his own limo and stuff. why is it a good idea to fly them on a private jet? i think it s the awareness. if they have the opportunity to fly in on a private jet and then see the values we have offered, then all a sudden they become a buyer. the wealthy, the affluent, they still have money. last thing they want to do is go through security. how long was your wait in security today? it was perfect, just right. reporter: the sales pitch begins inside a gated community. with 13,000 square feet of brand-new house. built on spec, lost to the bank and never lived in. originally priced at $6.2 million. now offered at $4.9 million. it s a nice courtyard fireplace here for outdoor entertaining. and i love this door. look at this beautiful decorative iron/glass door. probably about 14 feet tall there. and walk in, this is hand-cut crystal above, and brazilian hardwood cherry floors. then you immediately see right through to the golf course. reporter: the kitchen has a built-in cappuccino maker. there s a big garage. when you look at a foreclosed home like this one what kind of things are you looking for? the finish, the layout, the flow. sometimes it s easier to see a home that s furnished. sometimes it s easier to see a home that s unfurnished. they all have a little bit different flavor to them. reporter: of course having an elevate thar woor that works mi nice too. we might want to take the stairs. reporter: but gyp stairs this bedroom looks big enough for the entire gosselin family. i showed this home to one family and they said master bedroom was about as big as their home in laguna beach. reporter: size, it s got that. but there s construction out back too. so it s on to the next place. once priced at $2.5 million, now down to $1.9 million. just over 5,000 square feet, four bedroom, 4 1/2 bath. there again is the effect where you re looking right out to the golf course. the great opportunity for the buyer is many of these homes are literally half off and in many cases they re below replacement cost. a lot of these homes couldn t be built for the price that the banks are sell them for. reporter: half off? half off from our market peak, yes. reporter: wow, that s kind of staggering, isn t it? it is. reporter: it s homie, but it might need some freshening up. so ken lowman decides to release the cracken. this $10 million house of pal louis za, a 15,000 square foot fantasy with all the luxury trimmings now available for 6 mill and change. ken s visitors are intrigued. this strikes me as a fun house. it feels good. part of it has a big yard, entertaining area with the views from all the rooms. this is the backside of redrock state park. reporter: the talk turn to amenities like the wine cellar. pretty good size. you can probably get 2,000 bottles. reporter: and the ten-car garage. whose driveway wouldn t scrape a delicate chassis. the driveway, it s not deep for reporter: it s the one of a kind property these savvy buyers have been looking for. for what s here, do you like the price? oh, yeah. i think so. best price i ve we ve talked about. reporter: ken lowman goes for it all. so this is the point in time where you either decide to buy a house or i send you back on a bus instead of a jet. reporter: only they re not ready to commit just yet. ken, thank you very much. reporter: after good-bye at the airport, it s back on the private jet. so these businessmen can be back at their diesks before the day s done. champagne on ice. goodness. we didn t close the deal no champagne. reporter: no sale as yet. but ken lowman views their trip to vegas as a success, as he looks for buyers for the big-ticket homes only a few can afford. given the reaction you just heard, do you think your money and time were well spent in terms of bringing them here? you know, i do. it s always a risk when you do marketing but you have to spend money to get the word out and tell the world these beautiful properties are for sale. reporter: i m chris connelly for nightline in los angeles. rolling the dice on a real estate jackpot in vegas. when we come back, we re going to turn the page. we ve got a report from the gulf of mexico as that historic oil spill wreaks havoc on the wildlife and the people who make their living along that coastline. 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[ announcer ] it s amazing what one can do. boon motorcycle insurance, rv,at geiccamper, boat insurance. nice work, everyone. exec: well, it s easy for him. he s a cute little lizard. gecko: ah, gecko, acually - exec: with all due respect, if i was tiny and green and had a british accent i d have more folks paying attention to me too. i mean - (faux english accent) save money! pip pip cheerio! exec 2: british? i thought you were australian. gecko: well, it s funny you should ask. caue actually, i m from - anncr: geico. fifteen minutes cold save you fifteen percent or more on car insurance. we re going to head south now to the gulf of mexico where today choppy seas made battling that massive oil spill nearly impossible. the scope of this problem is enormous. a cleanup area with a 600-mile radius and economic costs already in the billions and a sunken drill rig that continues to gush oil. entire communities live and work on the gulf waters, as you know. and jeffrey kofman reports life for some may never be the same again. reporter: this is not normally shrimping season in the gulf of mexico but because of the oil slick heading for louisiana, the government opened the season early. this man was out all night, hoping to fill his nets before the oil arrives. how was the shrimping? shrimp was good but it s open too early. the shrimp are too small. little bitty brownies, that he just now hatched. sh. reporter: when does the season usually open? about three weeks from now. reporter: how big would this be at three weeks? this right here would be it would be all most of them would be like this. reporter: so this little guy that little guy would be like this. reporter: he needs a few more weeks to grow? like so many of the fishermen here, he has been working the boats all his life, just like his father and his grandfather. he s seen cat it was trout cata. he lost his shrimp boat in hurricane katrina. could that kill the season? the season s done already i think. reporter: what do you mean? it hasn t started. right it never started and the oil spill ended it. reporter: he isn t the only one worried here. 50,000 people along this coast depend on shrimping for their livelihood. it s a $1.3 billion industry. there are the oyster fishermen and the guides who work in the recreational fishing industry. it s no surprise they turned out for this information meeting called by the local parish this afternoon. hopefully we can catch this oil as it approaches the marsh and minimize the damage. reporter: bp, owner of the well that exploded, tried to reassure the nervous men. we re here to help. we re here to do whatever we can to make this as right as we can. reporter: louisiana has the biggest commercial fisheries in the continental u.s. and the oil could destroy them. what s going to happen to your livelihood? we don t have a clue. we never experienced this before. i think it s not going to be good. we re not going to have outcome like we did after katrina. reporter: this is worst than katrina? at least katrina bought the shrimp in when it come. after the storm we catch 5,000 pounds in a couple hours. now we trawled all night last night. we had 800, 900 we had 800 pounds last night. reporter: today with high winds and 15-foot seas, the oil slick moved perilously close to land and the first casuallity of the oil spill was found. the bird does have oil on the feathers. reporter: it s a northern gannet, normally white. with the waves so big, cleanup efforts were stalled. even the giant oil recovery ships with suction vacuums were useless as they waited out the weather. tonight as the winds eased some of this cleanup boats headed to sea. for the president of plaquemines parish, it is like a disaster unfolding in slow motion. what does the wind do? it s pushing it to shore. it s not cooperating with us. it s pushing it into the marsh. it s over-topping all the booms out there now. several of the booms the coast guard put out have been deanchored and have swung on to the barrier islands. so we re going to have to fight it in the marsh. reporter: you re already describing what sounds like a cat it was trophy. it is a catastrophe. the only unknown question is how large is it going to be. if it makes it across the point of venice that sticks out in the gulf to the west, those currents will pull it all along the coast of louisiana and then we ll have a massive cleanup. reporter: this catastrophe began ten days ago on april 20. deepwater horizon experienced an fire and explosion. reporter: 115 workers escaped. 11 others are missing and presumed dead. for 36 hours, the giant rig burned. on the morning of april 22nd, it sank. with assurances that there was no leak, just residual oil on the surface. there is no crude oil at this time emanating from this wellhead. reporter: by april 24th, the well owner, bp, and the coast guard said there was a small leak. no reason to be alarmed. but on april 28th, officials acknowledged the leak was five times big ager than first thoug and oil was spewing from the damaged wellhead a mile below the surface. it could take weeks or even months to stop it. i will tell you that i am not i ve not been sugar-coating this. i have said we re in a very serious situation. reporter: today the governor of louisiana demanded more resource for his state that is under siege yet again. we are concerned and we have encouraged bp strongly to seek even more assistance from the federal government because i do think this response could overwhelm their capabilities. reporter: it s not just the fishing industry that s in peril. in new orleans, five years after hurricane katrina, the tourists are finally back. flocking to renowned restaurants that specialize in delicacies from the gulf. billy lawrence is wondering if his business will disappear. if all those eggs die from the oil, then we re going to be in big trouble. reporter: gallitore s restaurant in the french quarter won t see the oil slick but its chef says he will be hit by it. we re very nervous right now about what effect this may have. stay close with our purveyors. we re going to see what happens. reporter: back at the shrimp docks, we found austin williams, a welder who works on the oil rigs. he made a detour to stock up on fresh shrimp while he can. i want to get my shrimp before i can t buy no shrimp. because probably in the next week, won t be able to buy one shrimp for $100 down here, much less buy what i just bought for 50 bucks. reporter: like so many here, he fears this could be the end of the fishing season in the gulf. for a very long time. i m jeffrey coffman for nightline in venice, louisiana. so the devastation sinks in for a part of the country that just knows it so well. our thanks to jeffrey kofman. stay with abc news for the latest on this serious and developing story throughout the weekend. when we come back, we ll lighten up. we re going to shift gears. what do these relics have to do with tonight s sign of the times? 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[ female announcer ] for a noticeably whiter smile in just two weeks. new crest 3d white toothpaste. and try crest 3d white rinse. for every ant or roach you see in your home, there are hundreds more you can t. the solution? try combat source kill max baits. while aerosols only kill the bugs you spray, combat baits target the source of the problem. ants and roaches take the bait; carry it back to the nest and share it. the result? you destroy not just one, but the entire infestation. if you have unwelcome ants or roaches, try combat source kill max. also look for new combat liquid ant baits. brand power. helping you buy better. the human species has been around for, well, eons. for a vast majority of that time, life has been pretty simple. supported by a few basic inventions and some products with much longer staying power. but along came the 21st century. now it seeps it s 2.0 this, next generation that. for yunji de nies, becoming obsolete almost overnight, that is a sign of the times. reporter: remember when dialing a telephone number actually required you to turn a dial? or when typing a letter meant using a typewriter? finding answers meant you needed one of these. and it wasn t so long ago that john cusack serenaded his girlfriend in the movie say anything with his boom box. over 20 years later and this is how kids are doing it in the abc show modern family. oh. say anything. good morning? no, say anything. reporter: and it s not just that we ve moved on from outdated technology. it s that we re moving on faster than ever. so many things become obsolete. reporter: anna jean grossman has cataloged the going, going gone in her book obsolete, the once common media of things passing us by. what appealed to me is i m still relatively young, i m 30 years old, and i feel already like time is just going so quickly and everything is so different than it was. ten years ago, i didn t have a cell phone. i don t think i had a laptop. and i still listened to a walkman. all of those things now seem like so ancient history. this is the cutting edge of obsolete things right here. reporter: we caught up with her where things make a last stop before becoming ancient history, the salvation army. it s like these little elves who are breathing the last bit of life into objects that would otherwise go into the dumpster. reporter: dumpsters are filling with vhs tapes, polaroid cameras and an array of electronics from just a few years ago. there s good evidence that even books are already on their way out. this whole sensation of reading, of getting to the next page yeah, it s special. i think that i m certainly going to miss it, but i wonder if kids who are growing up without that will miss it because they if they never knew it to begin with. reporter: beyond the tangible, those kids may also lose out on ever having real privacy. thanks to the internet, none of us are really anonymous. this is a blind date. reporter: and the exciting mystery of two strangers round viewing like this from the 1980s classic blind date. yes, that s obsolete too. you missed your chance. you could figure out everything you ever wanted to know about the person practically and see their baby pictures. like at what point does it stop? and that i think that makes it have to think of new ways to be romantic almost. reporter: romance isn t dead. but is anyone writing love letters anymore? i would say that we re losing a certain sense of personal touch and a certain sense of real human connection. reporter: moving on to the next big thing may have some unintended consequences. it make mess wonder how people are going to develop differently, you know, if we don t talk on phones and have long phone conversations, for example, the way that we used to, is that going to change how we have conversation in general? reporter: progress isn t new. since man found fire, he s been trying to make things bigger, better, stronger. but the pace of change today is faster than ever. all any of us can do is try to keep up. i definitely don t feel like i m keeping up. the quality of life now, don t need all that noise. i don t even try. not me, i m old-fashioned, old school. i m too old to fool around with too much new. we can t stop it. this train only moves in one direction. we re on it for the long haul. reporter: i m yunji de nies for nightline in hyattsville, maryland. the price of progress. when we come back, controversy over immigration policy reignited. that s tonight s closing argument. first, here s jimmy kimmel with what s coming up next on abc. tonight, jenna elfman, music from devo and kate gosselin removed from dancing with the stars. jimmy kimmel live is next. boss: so word s gettin out that geico customers could save even more on their car insurance by signing up for other things - like homeowner s or renter s insurance. nice work, everyone. exec: well, it s easy for him. he s a cute little lizard. gecko: ah, gecko, actually - exec: with all due respect, if i was tiny and green and had a british accent i d have more folks paying attention to me too. i mean - (faux english accent) save money! pip pip cheerio! exec 2: british? 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