Phoenix is not alone (Read Phoenix Home Sales Highest Level in 4 Years). Las Vegas region June home sales climbed to the highest level for any month since December 2006. The median sale price held steady, marking the second month in a row in which it didn’t erode on a month-to-month basis, as it had for 16 consecutive months prior to May.
About 70 percent of the Las Vegas-area houses and condos that resold in June were foreclosure resales. That was up from 59 percent in June 2008 but the lowest for any month since it was 68.9 percent last December. Foreclosure resales peaked in April at 73.7 percent of total resales, according to MDA DataQuick of San Diego.
A total of 5,519 new and resale houses and condos closed escrow in the Las Vegas-Paradise metro area (Clark County) last month, up 21.7 percent from May and up 44.1 percent from a year ago. It was the highest sales total for any month since 5,780 homes sold in December 2006, and the highest for any June since 8,110 homes sold in June 2006.
June marked the 15th consecutive month in which sales of existing single-family detached houses rose on a year-over-year basis. The 4,042 single-family house resales last month were the highest for any June since 4,846 sold in June 2005. Resale condos have seen an annual sales gain for 12 straight months.
Sales of newly built homes remain extraordinarily low, largely because home builders cannot compete with heavily discounted foreclosure resales. Last month’s 475 new-home sales rose 30 percent from May but were 49 percent lower than a year ago. June’s new-home total fell 74 percent short of the average number sold in that month since 1994, when DataQuick’s complete Las Vegas region statistics begin. The lowest month for new-home closings was January 2009, when 249 sold.
The median price paid for resale single-family detached houses – by far the region’s largest home-type category – is one of the best gauges of overall price trends. That median also held steady at $140,000 in June, the same as in May, but was 37.9 percent lower than a year ago. Aside from May, June’s $140,000 resale house median was the lowest for any month since it was also $140,000 in February 2001, and stood 55.2 percent below its $312,250 peak in June 2006.
Before May’s overall median sale price of $135,000 inched up 1.5 percent from April’s, the region’s overall median hadn’t risen from one month to the next since August 2007.
The time of year is adding some upward pressure to the median price. This is when most traditional home buying occurs, when more individuals and families move because of a job change or to re-situate before school starts in late summer. More people are looking for the right house in the right area, sometimes moving up to larger homes or homes in more desirable neighborhoods. There’s more driving the market than hardcore bargain hunting by investors and first-time buyers.
Looking ahead, the Las Vegas region will still have many foreclosures to burn off, and that inventory of distressed property will weigh on home prices. In June, lender repossessions spiked: Nearly 3,600 houses and condos were lost to foreclosure in Clark County, up 54 percent from May and up 34 percent from a year ago. It was the second-highest monthly total, behind 3,718 this February, since foreclosures began to surge in 2006. The figures are based on the number of trustees deeds filed with the county recorder’s office. The document signals that a home was lost to foreclosure.
The region will continue to rely heavily on first-time buyers and investors to absorb much of its foreclosure inventory.
A popular form of financing used by first-time home buyers – government-insured FHA loans – accounted for 51.8 percent of all June purchases, while absentee buyers (investors) bought 37.5 percent of all Las Vegas–area homes last month, according to an analysis of public property records.
Across the West, year-over-year declines in the median sale price – the point where half of the homes sold for more and half for less – have sometimes overstated the extent to which the value of the typical home has fallen. It’s because the median is being tugged lower not just by price depreciation but by shifts in the types of homes selling. For example, more of today’s sales involve foreclosures, which tend to sell at a discount and be concentrated in more affordable areas. Also, the August 2007 credit crunch made larger “jumbo” mortgages more expensive and harder to obtain, which has led to sluggish sales – in some cases the lowest in many years – in higher-priced communities. (A dropoff in high-end sales can pull down the median.)
Las Vegas is not alone either. I will be blogging about California’s July results next.
And then this Wednesday, I will share with you what these reports mean to you, and how you can profit in today’s foreclosure markets without using any of your own cash or credit, right now. Plus I will have a couple of successful client/graduates on as a Panelists with me to share what they are seeing as well. This is going to be a great night, that you won’t want to miss. And it’s FREE! Register Now Here, as we have limited space. Call 800-310-7730 x2 or Click Here: http://www.foreclosures.com/pages/TeleConf.asp
|
|
|
|
|
 |
{ 1 comment… read it below or add one }
How sad it is to read about the ever-diminishing prices of real estate in Las Vegas.
In a region where the community generally buzzes with energy, the local residents don’t deserve to face foreclosure as a result of the economic downturn.
What’s more, families who treasure their homes and have taken out second mortgages to improve their property by remodeling kitchens or bathrooms or adding features like a pergola face even tougher consequences.
It seems the great American dream of owning one’s own home has disappeared into the dust that surrounds Las Vegas.