Prices soar at Las Vegas land auction

Prices boomed to nearly $280,000 an acre at a Bureau of Land Management auction Wednesday in Las Vegas, with 2,532 acres of formerly federal land purchased by developers in fast-growing Clark County.

The largest parcel -- 1,940 acres in the Henderson hills that received no bids in November -- sold for $557 million to the Focus Group, a southern Nevada developer that is earmarking it for a master-planned community.

Mark Morse, BLM Las Vegas manager, attributed the spike in land prices -- from an average of $173,245 per acre in November to $279,298 per acre Wednesday -- to a continuing building boom in the Las Vegas area. Las Vegas is in Clark County.

Most parcels were in developing areas northwest and southwest of Las Vegas.