The population of Pahrump dropped 3.6 percent in the last quarter of 2008 according to estimates from the Nye County Planning Department, a loss of 1,390 people from 38,621 residents to 37,231.

The Pahrump population began to decline in the first quarter of 2008 for the first time since the county began estimating population, but the drop in the fourth quarter was by far the most severe. The population of Pahrump slipped 4.2 percent for all of 2008, after reaching a peak of 38,859 residents at the end of 2007.

Countywide, Nye County lost a similar percentage of 3.6 percent of its residents, dropping from 46,569 to 45,181, a drop of 1,388. Pahrump comprises 82.5 percent of the county's population.

Tonopah gained 20 residents in the fourth quarter of 2008 by county estimates, growing from 2,876 residents to 2,896.

Beatty's population stayed the same with 1,035 people, so did Gabbs with 399 residents.

Amargosa Valley lost 12 residents to drop to 1,374 people. Smoky Valley lost six residents, with an estimated population of 1,790 people at the start of 2009.

The Nye County School District reported only a drop in enrollment of 34 students countywide on Jan. 16, 2009, from official count day Sept. 19, 2008, from 6,348 students to 6,314.

Pahrump may not compete with Las Vegas, which recently drew the moniker as "America's emptiest city" with all the vacancies after the boom of the 1990s. But empty homes dot the landscape in Pahrump Valley as well.

"We are experiencing a tremendous population drop and it's not slowing down," said Bob Little, a Realtor with Century 21, who manages numerous properties around Pahrump Valley.

"We have the most vacancies that we've ever had and we're not even the worst. There is one management company out here I know that has twice as many vacancies as we do. All you have to do is drive around," Little said.

The problem is the downturn in the market, he said. "There's no jobs in Pahrump. There's none coming and because of that people are having to go where there is actual work," Little said.

Nevada's unemployment rate in December 2008 was 9.1 percent, nearly double the 5.2 percent in December 2007, with a similar unemployment rate in the Las Vegas area. That's higher than the nationwide average unemployment rate of 7.2 percent.

The Nevada Department of Employment Training and Rehabilitation said double-digit percentage drops in visitors to Las Vegas were reported in 2008.

Nye and Douglas counties each had losses of over 400 jobs in the second quarter of 2008, according to a report by Bill Anderson, chief economist for DETR.

"Construction has been hard hit throughout the state," Anderson wrote.

Workers for AVCO Construction Company were busy constructing economical homes almost 1,600 square feet in Pahrump for $107,900 last year.

Now, operations manager Sean Wilson said, "I've gone from a staff of 12 to two."

"It's just the market for a general contractor, it's just horrendous right now. You have all the standing inventory of foreclosures and short sales. Why would you build a new home when you can buy one for $50,000, $60,000, $70,000 less?" Wilson asked.

A few of the AVCO employees left to go to California or elsewhere, but Wilson said many stayed in Pahrump.

The population decline is the opposite of the boom days in the first quarter of 2006 when Pahrump's population increased 3.5 percent according to county estimates with an 11 percent population gain the previous year over the first quarter of 2005.

The population began slowing after April 1, 2006 and began to decline in 2008.

Pahrump real estate broker Trish Rippie said she used to be skeptical about the population estimates.

"We were getting notified Tonopah's population was dropping when all the rentals were full, Round Mountain Gold Company was hiring," Rippie said.

But nowadays, she feels planners are accurately predicting a drop in Pahrump's population.

"People that are leaving these homes that are foreclosed, they're mostly going back to Vegas, they're not staying here," Rippie said.

Nye County planners use active residential accounts from electric utilities multiplied by the average number of persons per household from the last U.S. census. A trending factor is used in calculating the population of people in group quarters, like nursing homes and detention facilitlies, which is monitored on an annual basis with telephone interviews.