Welcome to my Las Vegas Real Estate Blog! Below is considerable information on the condition of the local market starting the New Year.
About 70 percent of used-home sales in Southern Nevada now are traditional deals between private buyers and sellers, according to the Greater Las Vegas Association of REALTORS®. That’s up from 51 percent a year ago and 26 percent two years ago.
Bank-owned homes comprised almost half of all sales two years ago but now make up less than 10 percent, according to GLVAR data. Short sales—when banks agree to sell a home for less than what’s owed on the mortgage—comprised almost half of all deals a little more than a year ago but now make up 21 percent.
The peak of prices, locally, was June 2006 when the median price for a free-standing home was $319,000. The bottom was December 2011 when the median price was $119,000. Prices recovered to $186,000 last October and have been relatively flat since. Meanwhile, during last year’s third quarter, 40 percent of local homeowners with mortgages were upside down, meaning their debt outweighed their home value. That still was the highest rate in the country but far below the local peak of 71 percent two years ago.
Many sellers that would have sold and moved on to another home years ago are now finally in a equity position where they can make this move without walking away and letting their home go to foreclosure or resorting to a short sale.
My personal opinion is that prices are now at a point that can be “historically” supported. Prices increases for years averaged around 5% a year. With the craziness of the middle period of the last decade, prices well exceeded that. Then came the big drop and prices dropped well below that 5% annual increase trend line. They have now recovered to the point that barring some unforeseen catastrophe or another “bubble” they should continue to increase modestly. The good news, lots of inventory in a stable marketplace
