Distressed Properties Make Up 68% of Resales in Las Vegas

June 30, 2011 (Shirley Allen)

Sixty-eight percent of all existing home sales in the Las Vegas region are distressed properties according to the latest data released from DataQuick. New and existing home sales are at a five year high, but the high level of foreclosures continues to keep market prices low.

A total of 4,570 new and resale houses and condos closed escrow in the Las Vegas-Paradise metro area in May. Sales were 1.8 percent higher than April and 1.7 percent higher than May of 2010. It was the highest level of sales since May of 2006.

Cash buyers were responsible for 53 percent of the purchases in May, which was down from 54 percent in April, but up from 47.6 percent a year earlier. The record for cash purchases was in February 2011, when 56.7 percent of the sales were for cash.

The price that cash buyers are paying continues to decline as the median price paid by a cash buyer in May was $89,000, which is down from $90,000 in April and down from $105,000 in May 2010.

Absentee buyers, usually investors and vacation home buyers, accounted for 46.2 percent of all homes sold in May. The prices they paid were also less than previous months with the median price paid in May being $98,000, which was down from $99,900 in April and down from $112,000 in May of 2010.

The overall median price paid for new and resale homes and condos in May was $117,000, which was the same as in April and March, but down from $135,000 in May of last year. Cash buyers and investors accounted for 40.1 percent of the sales for homes under $100,000. A year ago, they accounted for 30.1 percent of those same sales.

The current median price is at its lowest level since October of 1995 when the median home price was $113,000, and it’s 62.5 percent below the peak median price of $312,000 in November 2006.

Distressed sales represented 68 percent of the resale market in May as foreclosures accounted for 54.9 percent of the distressed sales and short sales accounted for 13.1 percent of the distressed sales.

Foreclosures continued to rock the gambling Mecca in May with lenders foreclosing on 3,818 single-family homes and condos last month, eclipsing the prior record of 3,718 foreclosures in February.

Tags: DataQuick, existing home sales, Las Vegas, distressed properties, resale homes, condos, cash buyers, investors, median price

Source:
DataQuick