Frank Nason

Las Vegas Metro - November MLS Single Family Sales

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General Overview of the November 2009 Multiple Listing Service data for Las Vegas Metro:

 November saw 3,051 single family closings representing a 43.2% year-over-year but a 12.3% decrease from October representing the single largest monthly decline this year. While December could surprise to the upside another monthly decrease before the federal home buyer subsidy's effect kicks back in coupled with normal seasonal sales pattern another decline should be expected.  The median sales price of all closings increased 1.4% to $140,000 while the median price of REO closings increased by nearly 11% to $126,850

 

REO transactions accounted for 1,830 or 60% of the monthly closings followed by 700 or 23% for normal transactions with short sales accounting for 521 or 17% of the monthly totals - another monthly percentage increase in short sale transactions. From personal experience dealing with lenders on short sale transactions they have definitely been staffing up and are more responsive although it can still be a crap shoot depending upon the negotiator you are assigned.

 As we anticipated a few months ago as higher priced homes enter the market (through foreclosure and short sale) and the price compression occurs at a higher price range - those transactions impact the median sales price upwards.

Price	Average	Median	COE	Median $ Δ MoM	COE MoM	COE YoY	REO Median
Jan-2008	$308,893	$250,000	1,016
Feb-2008	$298,699	$247,950	1,162
Mar-2008	$305,043	$245,000	1,554
Apr-2008	$284,941	$235,750	1,829
May-2008	$257,272	$218,000	2,266
Jun-2008	$267,842	$225,000	2,306
Jul-2008	$253,130	$220,000	2,685
Aug-2008	$249,229	$210,000	2,510
Sep-2008	$231,364	$194,900	2,728
Oct-2008	$226,514	$193,500	2,604
Nov-2008	$215,241	$186,000	2,130				$176,400
Dec-2008	$204,442	$175,000	2,429	-7.1%			$163,900
Jan-2009	$187,236	$161,000	2,051	-7.3%			$152,000
Feb-2009	$182,772	$156,947	2,236	-4.6%			$145,000
Mar-2009	$174,321	$149,900	2,903	-3.5%			$139,900
Apr-2009	$166,658	$142,000	3,119	-5.3%			$128,000
May-2009	$173,309	$142,000	3,160	0.0%			$128,000
Jun-2009	$167,875	$140,000	3,710	-1.4%	17.4%	60.9%	$125,000
Jul-2009	$163,586	$139,000	3,749	-0.7%	1.1%	39.6%	$130,000
Aug-2009	$165,356	$136,000	3,182	-2.2%	-15.1%	26.8%	$120,000
Sep-2009	$165,356	$136,000	3,181	0.0%	0.0%	16.6%	$125,000
Oct-2009	$167,962	$138,000	3,477	1.4%	9.4%	33.5%	$123,500
Nov-2009	$167,775	$140,000	3,051	1.4%	-12.3%	43.2%	$126,850

 The way the Clark County Assessor's office reports data is rather sporadic and the numbers for November changed rather significantly since the 15^th when final numbers usually seem to be posted. So for November foreclosed properties that were disposed of exceeded those acquired (Trustee Deed sales) by 445. That amounts to 5,350 more disposed of than acquired through the end of November.

 

 The weekly numbers showing total Pending and Contingent sales has been trending downward slightly as would be expected this time of year. Inventory levels and vacant unit levels are down in all categories from the 1^st of the year:

!    Single family down 7% (increasing since hitting a low the middle of November); 56% vacant

!    Condominium inventory down 17.7%; 61.5% vacant

!    Townhouse inventory down 4.2%; 61% vacant

 This Month's Graphs

The graphs and table above probably tell most of the ‘story' however, I find the Value Ratio (price per square foot) revealing also. The median price per foot declined only slightly more than 1% since April along with the median sales price. The interesting point is that the sales price per square foot is remarkably similar throughout the various size ranges. Whereas you would expect a 3,000 square foot home to sell for less per square foot than a comparably constructed 2,000 square foot home that is generally not the case - especially in the case of REO transactions.

 

Terms Sold:  Cash transactions remain strong, not surprisingly, and represent nearly 40% of all successful REO transactions but just slightly more than 25% of non-REO properties. What has surprised is the large percentage of FHA (37% and 34% respectively, in November). Cash transactions have increased as a percentage of all transactions while FHA has remained fairly constant since the first of the year. As the foreclosures have been absorbed by the ‘flippers' I would have anticipated FHA's 90-day no flip rule to have an impact but either the number of flipped properties is not large or they are not selling at the prices the speculators anticipated resulting in either a new foreclosure or taking the property off the market.

 

 

Days on MLS: I anticipated DoM to start to increase and possibly it will next month as short sales increase their percentage of listings and Contingent sales. November's median DoM remained at a low 21 days.

 

 

Tidbits:

#    Asking price versus selling price: Minimum 32%, maximum 341%, median 100.1%; in non-REO, non-short sales transactions the median AP/SP was 98%; in REO transactions 103% and 100% in short sale transactions

#    Occupied (by owner or tenant): Arms length - 21% which is uncharacteristically low; Short sale - 61.% and this has been increasing since the 1^st of the year; REO reported 1.2%

#    Swimming pools - overall 16.5%; arms length 19%; short sale 18%; REO 15%

#    Seller points - REO 49% of all transactions; arms length 30%; short sale 48%

 Methodology: Data is downloaded from the Greater Las Vegas Association of Realtors MLS website around the 7-10^th of the month to allow for stragglers inputting updated sales data. During the course of the analysis errors are corrected that are discovered, e.g. we remove lease-option ‘sales', correct lack of square footage, correct Seller Concession dollar amounts, etc. There are errors every month but often not great enough to affect the medians or averages except in the Seller Concessions category where there are nearly always substantial errors.

 While we do our best to cross-check information with Clark County assessor records and use a variety of statistical checks to discover errors Residential Resources, Inc. cannot guarantee the accuracy of the data. We do believe that given the meticulous ‘scrubbing' we do that any undetected errors (including errors of omission) do not substantially affect the statistics presented.

Conclusions and interpretations are solely those of Residential Resources, Inc.

For further information on this or Northern Nevada (Reno/Sparks and Fernley/Fallon) or for a quote on custom analysis please contact:

Frank Nason, President

FrankNason@ResidentialResources.com

702-597-2855 Office or Toll-free 866-597-2855

October Single Family MLS Sales - Reno - Sparks, Nevada

October Single Family Sales - Las Vegas, North Las Vegas, Henderson, Clark County - Nevada

General Overview of the October 2009 Multiple Listing Service data for Las Vegas Metro:

 

SFR – October sales saw quite a boost in activity over August and September’s with 3,477 single family closings representing a 33.5% year-over-year increase and a 9.4% increase over September sales. And, while the median price of REO closings delined slightly the overall median price of all single family closings increased 1.4% over September – the 2^nd consecutive monthly increase in the last 2 years. I continue to see the market stabilizing and returning to a post-boom seasonal pattern of sales, however, I expect November to be out of character as everyone who is eligible tries to close before the end of the month in order to take advantage of the $8,000 1^st time homebuyer subsidy. I would postulate that same dynamic is what powered September closings also.

Whether December gets some residual effect from the subsidy remains to be seen, however, December could turn out to be quite ugly as purchasing decisions were postponed due to the uncertainty surrounding the subsidy, coupled with the normal seasonal decline.

Have we seen the bottom in prices as some of the pundits have recently predicted? No one knows since none of us who follow the market have crystal balls. Is the so-called ‘shadow inventory’ of foreclosed properties going to flood the market or will the financial institutions be able to manage a measured release of properties to prop up prices?

 

For what it is worth, on the former question I think we are more likely to follow a Japan-style deflationary cycle that would suggest that the bottom is not in. I don’t find conspiracy theories plausible most of the time so I don’t believe there will be a measured release of foreclosed properties. That being said, I find no evidence that there truly exists a ‘shadow inventory’ of any magnitude ‘out there’.

 

Of the hard data that is available on foreclosed inventory the only reliable figures I can obtain are from the assessor’s office and as the MLS indicates that 2,193 closings in October the county records only 1,620 for the month:

 

As stated last month, I believe that lot/land sales are the best bellwether of residential pricing. Until residential lot/land sales start to pick up and home sites can be predictably valued, I see no support in the pricing of new or resale homes. On that note I have been getting calls from small builder/developers who are looking at some of the outlying (e.g. Mesquite) and smaller southern California (Temecula) markets. Bank of America, who took back Matthews Homes 3 subdivisions on the north side of I-15 in Mesquite recently completed a bulk finished lot sale for slightly more than $19,000 per lot.

 

The market surely seems to be exhibiting a mania again if the days a property stays on the market is any indicator. The median days on market of a home that closed escrow in October was 22 days. Nearly 2/3 of REO houses are under contract within 30 days; normal and short sale properties show close to ½ under contract in that same amount of time.

 

 

There are a lot of moving parts to this market though so it remains prudent to be cautiously optimistic and watch the various indicators closely.

 

The good news for the month is:

Ø      strong year-over-year purchase agreement activity

Ø      2^nd consecutive month increase in median sales price of closed single family homes

!    Days on market remarkably low

Price	Average	Median	COE	REO Median	Median MoM	COE MoM	COE YoY
Jan-2008	$308,893	$250,000	1,016
Feb-2008	$298,699	$247,950	1,162
Mar-2008	$305,043	$245,000	1,554
Apr-2008	$284,941	$235,750	1,829
May-2008	$257,272	$218,000	2,266
Jun-2008	$267,842	$225,000	2,306
Jul-2008	$253,130	$220,000	2,685
Aug-2008	$249,229	$210,000	2,510
Sep-2008	$231,364	$194,900	2,728
Oct-2008	$226,514	$193,500	2,604
Nov-2008	$215,241	$186,000	2,130	$176,400
Dec-2008	$204,442	$175,000	2,429	$163,900	-7.1%
Jan-2009	$187,236	$161,000	2,051	$152,000	-7.3%
Feb-2009	$182,772	$156,947	2,236	$145,000	-4.6%
Mar-2009	$174,321	$149,900	2,903	$139,900	-3.5%
Apr-2009	$166,658	$142,000	3,119	$128,000	-5.3%
May-2009	$173,309	$142,000	3,160	$128,000	0.0%
Jun-2009	$167,875	$140,000	3,710	$125,000	-1.4%	17.4%	60.9%
Jul-2009	$163,586	$139,000	3,749	$130,000	-0.7%	1.1%	39.6%
Aug-2009	$165,356	$136,000	3,182	$120,000	-2.2%	-15.1%	26.8%
Sep-2009	$167,962	$138,000	3,181	$125,000	4.2%	-0.0%	16.6%
Oct-2009	$165,365	$140,000	3,477	$123,500	1.4%	9.4%	33.5%

 

 

 

The breakdown in transactions for the month is starting to diverge from the last 18 months pattern:

Ø      2,193 REO ( dropping to 66%)

Ø      557 short sales (a pretty large move to 16%)

Ø      727 arm’s length (healthy increase in nominal sales and an improvement to 21%)

 

Obtaining short sale approval continues to be a mixed bag of results. For owner occupied, the response time and approval percentage seems to be improving – depending upon the lender (Chase being the worst). For investor units, the response time varies widely and multiple units owned by a single investor entity usually receives multiple loss mitigators that make the approval process overly complicated.

 

That being said, our approval percentage for investor owned units is picking up – and that is for full forgiveness of the debt with the lender issuing a 1099 to the seller.

 

This Month’s Graphs

The graphs and table above tell most of the ‘story’ however, I find the Value Ratio (price per square foot) revealing also. The median price per foot declined slightly but has obviously flattened and the ranges as a percent have remained fairly constant for the last few months.

 

 

 

Terms Sold: Cash sales used to account for fewer than 10% of transactions pre-bubble but now account for almost 40% of REO transactions and range close to 25% for non-REO transactions. Meanwhile, FHA transactions for REO properties has remained in a range from the middle to high-30% but for non-REO has increased from ¼ of monthly transactions at the beginning of the year to over 1/3 of all closed escrows in October.

 

Tidbits:

Ø      Asking price versus selling price overall: minimum 35.3%, maximum 273.4%; for REO transactions - median 103%; in normal transactions – median 98%; and short sales transactions the median AP/SP was 100%. So, in general, REO properties are selling for a premium over their listed prices while normal properties are selling at a discount to list price.

Ø      Occupied (by owner or tenant): Arms length – 22% which is uncharacteristically low; Short sale – 52% that is a huge percentage drop from September

Ø      Seller concession – REO 46% of all transactions (same as September) and a median dollar amount of $4,625; arms length 29% for $4,650; and short sale 48% for a median of $4,260

 

Subscribers can obtain this report with additional graphs (bedroom, price per square foot, garage preference, etc.) that are located at the end of the report.

 

Methodology: Data is downloaded from the Greater Las Vegas Association of Realtors MLS website for analysis & graphing. During the course of the analysis errors are corrected that are discovered, e.g. we remove lease-option ‘sales’, correct lack of square footage, correct Seller Concession dollar amounts, etc. There are errors every month but often not great enough to affect the medians or averages except in the Seller Concessions category where there are always substantial errors. The MLS has a new statistical function that all subscribers can partake; however, since it doesn’t correct input errors any analysis created with the new capability is suspect in my opinion. So be cautious when examining data from other sources, including the Greater Las Vegas Association of Realtors.

 

While we do our best to cross-check information with Clark County assessor records and use a variety of statistical checks to discover errors Residential Resources, Inc. cannot guarantee the accuracy of the data. We do believe that given the meticulous ‘scrubbing’ we do that any undetected errors (including errors of omission) do not substantially affect the statistics presented.

 

There is usually a discrepancy between our total closing figures compared to other sources, such as GLVAR, since we eliminate closings that are actually condominium/townhouse properties that end up in the single family residential category as well as sales reported as lease-options. Additionally, since MLS data is self-reported, it may take an agent/office a couple of weeks to accurately report a closing date for the previous month – they are subject to fines so the margin for error is not great. Since we generally download our data on the 5^th of the following month (depending upon the day of the week) there may be properties that show up after our download.

 

Conclusions and interpretations are solely those of Residential Resources, Inc.  For further information on this or Northern Nevada (Reno/Sparks) or for a quote on custom analysis please contact: FrankNason@ResidentialResources.com

702-597-2855 Frank Nason, President

 

Residential Resources provides custom market research, new home sales & marketing and product recommendations for residential and commercial builders and developers.

 

We also offer individual buyer and seller representation from our offices in Las Vegas and Sparks, Nevada.

Q3 Condominium Sales - Las Vegas - North Las Vegas - Henderson Nevada

 

General Overview of the 3^rd Quarter 2009 Multiple Listing Service Condominium data for greater Las Vegas/North Las Vegas/Henderson and unincorporated Clark County, Nevada:

 

The MLS information presented here removes all high-rise units from the mix but includes, predominately, stacked-flat units as well as mid-rise units (e.g. Manhattan Condos, Park Place, etc.).

There were 1,578 condo sales through the MLS for the 3^rd quarter - a nearly 4% increase over the 2^nd quarter with July and September sales approaching the peak reached in June. Median prices continued to fluctuate during the quarter ending at $59,900 for September but remaining relatively flat since April.  While the jury is still out on single family prices the floor for condominiums seems to have been reached.

Analysis Note - The analysis looked at 1,215 REO sales (77%), 193 short sales (12.2%) and 170 ‘normal' sales (10.8%). The graphs aggregate the REO and Short Sale transactions together because, unlike single family, there is less difference in REO and Short Sale transactions than the difference between Normal and Short Sale and I felt that including Short Sale with Normal as I have been doing for single family would skew most figures downward.

Days on Market continues is similar to single family with the median for all transactions at 22 days,19 days for REOs, 20 days for Normal and 56 days for Short Sales. I anticipate the DOM for Short Sales to drop as they have for single family and the number of REO properties dwindles.

I continue to believe rental rates will start to noticeably decline beginning in the 4^th quarter but with prices of a 2/2 unit in the $50,000 to $60,000 range it will take healthy reduction in rents from current levels to eliminate any positive cash flow from these units.

 

I also continue to think the properties closest to the Strip, McCarran and other employment centers throughout the valley will fare the best since renters as well as owner occupant purchasers in this market have traditionally looked to be within 5 miles and preferably 3 miles of their work location. There is a Zip Code table as an exhibit located at the end of this report showing the distribution of sales. I'm not a big fan of using Zip Codes in any serious analysis, however, it provides crude support for that contention.

 

Avg Median Median $ Chg Transactions MoM Chge Jan-2009 $82,553 $70,000   290   Feb-2009 $79,180 $69,900 -1.4% 295 1.7% Mar-2009 $71,629 $61,450 -12.1% 376 27.5% Apr-2009 $64,518 $60,000 -2.4% 453 20.5% May-2009 $66,678 $60,000 0.0% 475 4.9% Jun-2009 $69,072 $61,000 1.7% 593 24.8% Jul-2009 $65,837 $60,000 -1.6% 538 -9.3% Aug-2009 $69,055 $62,000 3.3% 498 -7.4% Sep-2009 $67,978 $59,900 -3.4% 542 8.8%

After the hefty drop in value ratios (price per square foot) in the 1^st and 2^nd quarters prices have rebounded slightly and seem range bound but remarkably far lower than replacement cost. As with single family I do not believe we will see a return to normalcy until there are some reliable and consistent arm's length land transactions. Until that occurs current prices are discounting the land component to nearly $0 - truly remarkable. For a new condominium community to be built in most of the master plans the master developer would have to pay a merchant builder to take entitled land off their hands!

For Normal condos: Median Sales Price for the 3^rd quarter was $78,250 and a median of $74.69 per square foot. Prices ranged from $21,000 (Las Brisas near Sunrise Hospital) to $469,281 (Fairway Hills in Summerlin) with sizes ranging from 500 square feet to 2,826 square feet.

 

Normal properties were on the market for an average of 48 days with the median of 20 days before contract.

 

Slightly more than 32% included a garage and 22% of the units were occupied by either a tenant or owner.

 

The median Sales Price to List Price was 96.5% and 22% of the transactions offered some seller concession ranging from $500 to $8,500; the median concession was $3,299.

 

For REO condos: Median Sales Price for the 3^rd quarter was $58,500 and a median of $59.07 per square foot. Prices ranged from $9,000 (Rosewood, on Bonanza near MLK) to $299,000 (Tramonto at Lake Las Vegas) with sizes ranging from 408 square feet to 2,469 square feet.

 

REO properties were on the market for an average of 46 days with the median of 19 days before contract.

 

Slightly more than 22% included a garage and, not surprisingly only 0.2% of the units were occupied by a tenant - this figure could also be a result of input error although the banks are supposed to be seeking arrangements with both owners and tenants to keep them in the properties even after the Trustee sale.

 

The median Sales Price to List Price was 101% (average was 104%) and 16.5% of the transactions offered some seller concession ranging from $200 to $10,000; the median concession was $1,860.

 

For Short Sale condos: Median Sales Price for the 3^rd quarter was $62,000 and a median of $59.84 per square foot. Prices ranged from $29,000 (Pirates Cove near Summerlin Parkway & Buffalo) to $210,000 (V at Lake Las Vegas) with sizes ranging from 636 square feet to 1,695 square feet.

 

Short Sale properties were on the market for an average of 98 days with the median of 56 days before contract.

 

26% included a garage and almost 48% of the units were occupied by either a tenant or owner.

 

The median Sales Price to List Price was 100% and 24% of the transactions offered some seller concession ranging from $500 to $10,000; the median concession was $1,650.

 

Terms of Sale: No longer surprising is the percentage of cash transactions. When Fannie Mae altered many of the funding terms for condominium communities they drove a stake through the heart of any new or resale projects.

With so many communities suffering from high HOA delinquencies and many with a large amount of investors it is nearly impossible to obtain any conventional or FHA/VA financing.

 

So while the single family market has been beaten pretty badly, the feds jumped onto the windpipe of condo sales. Never the favorite real estate product purchase (single family, then townhouse, then condo) I expect prices on condominiums to remain depressed long after the single family market starts to rebound.

 

Additional graphs may be found at the end of this narrative.

 

For further information on this or Northern Nevada (Reno/Sparks and Fernley/Fallon) or for a quote on custom analysis please contact:

 

Frank Nason, President

FrankNason@ResidentialResources.com

702-597-2855 Office or Toll-free 866-597-2855

5520 South Fort Apache Road

Las Vegas, Nevada 89148

 

Residential Resources provides services in the following areas:

 

• ! New home sales, marketing and product recommendations. We have the finest team of experienced professionals in the Mountain and Pacific Southwest. If we can't improve your sales we will refund our management and consulting fees.
• ! Individual buyer representation - it's a minefield out there and if you want to be successful at purchasing a home in this market you need experienced representation who understands the current crazy market.
• ! Individual seller representation - our team has been experiencing ever greater success in managing short sales even for investor-owned properties and obtaining far higher (than REOs) prices for normal sales without appraisal issues.

 

September Single Family Sales - Las Vegas - Henderson - North Las Vegas - Clark County

General Overview of the September 2009 Multiple Listing Service data for Las Vegas Metro:

SFR – September sales were a virtual repeat of Augusts’ activity with 3,181 single family closings representing a 16.6% year-over-year increase and, notably, a 4.2% increase in the median sales price. I continue to see the market stabilizing and returning to a post-boom seasonal pattern of sales, however, I expect November to be out of character as everyone who is eligible tries to close before the end of the month in order to take advantage of the $8,000 1^st time homebuyer subsidy. Even if the subsidy is extended those trying to take advantage exhibited purchasing activity in September and October – so we could also see a bump in closings into December for those whose timing wasn’t quite right on.

Have we seen the bottom in prices as some of the pundits have recently predicted? No one knows since none of us who follow the market have crystal balls. Is the so-called ‘shadow inventory’ of foreclosed properties going to flood the market or will the financial institutions be able to manage a measured release of properties to prop up prices?

For what it is worth, on the former question I think we are more likely to follow a Japan-style deflationary cycle that would suggest that the bottom is not in. I don’t find conspiracy theories plausible most of the time so I don’t believe there will be a measured release of foreclosed properties. That being said, I find no evidence that there truly exists a ‘shadow inventory’ of any magnitude ‘out there’.

Of the hard data that is available on foreclosed inventory the only reliable figures I can obtain are from the assessor’s office:

 

 

I believe that lot/land sales are the best bellwether of residential pricing. Until residential lot/land sales start to pick up and home sites can be predictably valued, I see no support in the pricing of new or resale homes.

The cost of producing a finished lot is currently greater than the value one could obtain upon its sale! Land in master planned communities arguably has a negative value due to carrying & development costs. I think the Hughes heirs will have to wait quite a while for that last payout.

The market surely seems to be exhibiting a mania again if the days a property stays on the market is any indicator. The median days on market of a home that closed escrow in September was 20 days.

Even short sales that are priced ‘right’ are receiving multiple offers as the listings of REOs diminishes. Nearly 1/3 of Non-REO sales had an accepted contract in 15 days or less and a remarkable 47% or REO properties were under contract in that same amount of time.

Unless the number of properties acquired through foreclosure continues to decline we believe we will see an increase in median sales prices as more higher priced homes enter the market and the price compression occurs at a greater level – dragging the median sales price upwards. Based upon the median/average listing prices for SFR properties not in escrow I believe that is occurring.

There are a lot of moving parts to this market though so it remains prudent to be cautiously optimistic and watch the various indicators closely.

The good news for the month is:

!    strong year-over-year purchase agreement activity

!    increase in median sales prices

Price	Average	Median	COE	REO Median	Median MoM	COE MoM	COE YoY
Jan-2008	$308,893	$250,000	1,016
Feb-2008	$298,699	$247,950	1,162
Mar-2008	$305,043	$245,000	1,554
Apr-2008	$284,941	$235,750	1,829
May-2008	$257,272	$218,000	2,266
Jun-2008	$267,842	$225,000	2,306
Jul-2008	$253,130	$220,000	2,685
Aug-2008	$249,229	$210,000	2,510
Sep-2008	$231,364	$194,900	2,728
Oct-2008	$226,514	$193,500	2,604
Nov-2008	$215,241	$186,000	2,130	$176,400
Dec-2008	$204,442	$175,000	2,429	$163,900	-7.1%
Jan-2009	$187,236	$161,000	2,051	$152,000	-7.3%
Feb-2009	$182,772	$156,947	2,236	$145,000	-4.6%
Mar-2009	$174,321	$149,900	2,903	$139,900	-3.5%
Apr-2009	$166,658	$142,000	3,119	$128,000	-5.3%
May-2009	$173,309	$142,000	3,160	$128,000	0.0%
Jun-2009	$167,875	$140,000	3,710	$125,000	-1.4%	17.4%	60.9%
Jul-2009	$163,586	$139,000	3,749	$130,000	-0.7%	1.1%	39.6%
Aug-2009	$165,356	$136,000	3,182	$120,000	-2.2%	-15.1%	26.8%
Sep-2009	$167,962	$138,000	3,181	$125,000	4.2%	-0.0%	16.6%

The breakdown in transactions for the month is identical to August:

!    2,200 REO (69.2%)

!    404 short sales (12.7%)

!    577 arm’s length (18.1%).

I personally have seen a quicker response, not always positive, from lenders regarding short sales and in a number of recent CE classes I have heard similar anecdotes. So this would seem to be positive as short sales are being processed at a greater rate, thus reducing the number of properties entering foreclosure.

This Month’s Graphs

The graphs and table above probably tell most of the ‘story’ however, I find the Value Ratio (price per square foot) revealing also. The median price per foot declined slightly but has obviously flattened and the ranges as a percent have remained fairly constant for the last few months.

Terms Sold: Another trend I have been watching is how the properties are being sold each month. Cash transactions, not surprisingly, represent close to 40% of all successful REO transactions and slightly more than ¼  of non-REO properties and the percentage breakdown among VA, FA and Conventional financing for non-REO transactions is returning to pre-bubble ratios.

Tidbits: Asking price versus selling price: Minimum 10.5%, maximum 264.7%, median 100.1%; in non-REO, non-short sales transactions the median AP/SP was 97%

!    Occupied (by owner or tenant): Arms length – 27% which is uncharacteristically low; Short sale – 65.8%

!    Swimming pools – overall 19%; arms length 33%; short sale 15%

!    Seller points – REO 46.5% of all transactions; arms length 33%; short sale 63%

Methodology: Data is downloaded from the Greater Las Vegas Association of Realtors MLS website for analysis & graphing. During the course of the analysis errors are corrected that are discovered, e.g. we remove lease-option ‘sales’, correct lack of square footage, correct Seller Concession dollar amounts, etc. There are errors every month but often not great enough to affect the medians or averages except in the Seller Concessions category where there are always substantial errors. The MLS has a new statistical function that all subscribers can partake; however, since it doesn’t correct input errors any analysis created with the new capability is suspect in my opinion. So be cautious when examining data from other sources, including the Greater Las Vegas Association of Realtors.

While we do our best to cross-check information with Clark County assessor records and use a variety of statistical checks to discover errors Residential Resources, Inc. cannot guarantee the accuracy of the data. We do believe that given the meticulous ‘scrubbing’ we do that any undetected errors (including errors of omission) do not substantially affect the statistics presented.

There is usually a discrepancy between our total closing figures compared to other sources, such as GLVAR, since we eliminate closings that are actually condominium/townhouse properties that end up in the single family residential category as well as sales reported as lease-options. Additionally, since MLS data is self-reported, it may take an agent/office a couple of weeks to accurately report a closing date for the previous month – they are subject to fines so the margin for error is not great. Since we generally download our data on the 5^th of the following month (depending upon the day of the week) there may be properties that show up after our download.

Conclusions and interpretations are solely those of Residential Resources, Inc.

For further information on this or Northern Nevada (Reno/Sparks) or for a quote on custom analysis please contact: FrankNason@ResidentialResources.com

702-597-2855 Frank Nason, President 

Las Vegas Metro Weekly Market Statistics - Week Ended September 12, 2009

For the week just ended (September 13, 2009) there were 26,774 listings on the Greater Las Vegas Association of Realtors (GLVAR) Multiple Listing Service (MLS). After peaking the end of March there was a steady decline in total listings until the end of July but has been up & down slightly since then. There was a slight increase in the number of single family listings.

The supply of single family homes on the market is now standing at 21,129. Of those 12,187 or 58% are vacant. The percentage of vacancies is about where it was a year ago. If the cycle repeats itself and the supply of REOs increases the percentage of vacant properties could get back to the mid-60% range. If the number of Short Sale listings continues to increase we could see those mid-60% numbers rise into the 70% range or higher. One odd note here is that in the past short sale listings tended to have a greater vacancy rate than ‘normal’ listings but recently that trend has reversed – I do not have an answer, just noting an oddity.

There are 4,043 condominiums listed for sale with 66% vacant; and approximately 65% of the 1,602 townhouses listed are vacant.

As of 3:00 p.m. on Monday 9/14 the system had reported a 425 single family closings. That is the fewest weeks closings since early March. Based upon a 4-week moving average of closings there are now 14.7 months supply of all product types listed for sale.

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If you take the 21,129 single family listings and remove the 2,945 pending transactions but not the 8,668 contingent transactions there are 6.8 months of single family inventory on the market using an 8-week average of closed escrows. Of those 8,668 Contingent sales 67.8% are Short Sale listings and that is why we continue to count them in total supply as it is unlikely that more than 10% or 15% will successfully gain lender approval before the foreclosure department takes over –at least unless the financial institutions gain some traction in processing the ever increasing supply of short sales.

Short Sale/REO Listings

For the week ended September 13: There are now 12,724 listings identified as short sales and 7,313 listings that are characterized as REO (real estate owned).This continues the trend of decreasing percentage of REO and increasing percentage of short sale.

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Of the 5,825 single family residential REO listings 68% are under contract. For short sale SFR listings 64% are currently under contract. Of the 425 SFR closings for the week 67% were bank owned – a percentage that had remained fairly constant but is now down for the last month.

What to Expect?

I anticipate we will look at the last week of July as the peak in closed escrows for the year. Otherwise this market is an enigma.  According to the Clark County assessor’s office the number of properties acquired through Trustee Deed sales declined 21% from July to August. For the year there have been 10,050 single family properties acquired via Trustee Deed sale versus 15,197 already-foreclosed properties sold by the ‘banks’.

Expect inventory to increase. I thought the supply of short sale listings would start to decrease while the supply of REO listings would increase by now but this has not occurred and the percentage of short sale listings continues to climb.

Reno - Sparks August MLS Sales Statistics

General Overview of the Reno/Sparks Multiple Listing Service data for August 2009:

 

While pricing appeared to have leveled out with the median staying at $200,000 for the first 3 months of the year April saw a 6% decline from March and May declined nearly 7% to $175,000. June, July & August seem to have hit another bottom, hopefully temporary, before there is an upward bounce. The trend is still downward but, unlike southern Nevada, hasn’t been so relentless in its decline.

 

 

There were 454 June MLS single family detached closings – down over 9% from July but up over 42% from August 2008. The breakdown by transaction type: 41% REO, 23% short sale and 35% ‘normal’.

 

Median sales price per square foot like the median sales price is up and down from month to month but has been fairly flat for the last 4 months. Oddly this month the REO median value ratio increased slightly more than 1% while the overall median declined slightly.

 

The Reno/Sparks market has shown a greater amount of volatility in pricing and sales volume than the Las Vegas metro market, however, overall northern Nevada seems to be less affected by the huge number of REO properties that has plagued southern Nevada.

 

There has been a lot of speculation that the banks are sandbagging foreclosed properties in an effort to arrest the dramatic price declines in both markets. However, we have not seen any hard numbers from any of the sources who talk about this shadow market that could accelerate the downward move in prices.

 

However, due to the percentage of short sale listings (45%) versus the percentage of short sale closings (23% in August) it seems that the foreclosure process is far from over. Unless a new program/process is unveiled to address the issue many of the short sale listings are destined to become foreclosures.

 

Financing: cash and FHA transactions continue to dominate in REO purchases accounting for 28% and 40% respectively.

 

For REO Only: Average Sales Price of $173,175 and an average of $92.17 per square foot while the median sales price was $143,000 and a median value ratio of $91.19. Sales prices ranged from $39,000 to $935,000 with sizes ranging from 742 square feet to 6,744 square feet.

 

For non-REO:

For the 371 normal/Short Sale transactions the Average Sales Price was $243,000 and an average of $115.72 per square foot while the median sales price was $212,000 with a median value ratio of $112.64. Prices ranged from $37,000 to $1,050,000 with sizes ranging from 462 square feet to 6,165 square feet.

 

Days On Market: Median Days on the MLS were 105 and 57 for non-REO and REO transactions respectively.

 

 

This report in pdf format with additional graphs may be requested by contacting me.

 

 

Frank Nason, President

FrankNason@ResidentialResources.com

702-597-2855 Office or Toll-free 866-597-2855

5520 South Fort Apache Road, Las Vegas, Nevada 89148

Las Vegas Metro MLS August Sales Statistics

General Overview of the August 2009 Multiple Listing Service data for Las Vegas Metro:

August may be viewed with disappointment among those who expect a continuing month-over-month increase in single family sales, however, with 3,182 single family closings representing a 26.8% year-over-year increase I continue to see the market stabilizing and returning to a post-boom seasonal pattern of sales. For those looking for the cloud surrounding the silver lining August’s closings represent a 15% decrease from (what we believe will be) July’s 2009 peak.

 

Not only did sales remain strong, but median sales prices, although declining 2.2% from July, have remained relatively flat since April. The 4% bounce in the median sales price of REO properties in July was more than offset with the drop in August.

The data isn’t clear yet for August in terms of how many foreclosed properties were disposed of versus how many new were acquired via Trustee Deed sales and that information probably won’t be available until the end of this week. Unless the number of properties acquired through foreclosure continues to decline we believe we will see an increase in median sales prices as more higher priced homes enter the market and the price compression occurs at a greater level – dragging the median sales price upwards.

There are a lot of moving parts to this market though so it remains prudent to be cautiously optimistic and watch the various indicators closely.

The good news for the month is:

!    strong purchase agreement activity

!    continued flattening of sales prices

Price	Average	Median	COE	REO Median	Median MoM	COE MoM	COE YoY
Jan-2008	$308,893	$250,000	1,016
Feb-2008	$298,699	$247,950	1,162
Mar-2008	$305,043	$245,000	1,554
Apr-2008	$284,941	$235,750	1,829
May-2008	$257,272	$218,000	2,266
Jun-2008	$267,842	$225,000	2,306
Jul-2008	$253,130	$220,000	2,685
Aug-2008	$249,229	$210,000	2,510
Sep-2008	$231,364	$194,900	2,728
Oct-2008	$226,514	$193,500	2,604
Nov-2008	$215,241	$186,000	2,130	$176,400
Dec-2008	$204,442	$175,000	2,429	$163,900	-7.1%
Jan-2009	$187,236	$161,000	2,051	$152,000	-7.3%
Feb-2009	$182,772	$156,947	2,236	$145,000	-4.6%
Mar-2009	$174,321	$149,900	2,903	$139,900	-3.5%
Apr-2009	$166,658	$142,000	3,119	$128,000	-5.3%
May-2009	$173,309	$142,000	3,160	$128,000	0.0%
Jun-2009	$167,875	$140,000	3,710	$125,000	-1.4%	17.4%	60.9%
Jul-2009	$163,586	$139,000	3,749	$130,000	-0.7%	1.1%	39.6%
Aug-2009	$165,356	$136,000	3,182	$120,000	-2.2%	-15.1%	26.8%

I believe that the continued decline in median prices and price per square foot for the REO properties is largely a function of the oldest properties that are being absorbed. In the beginning of the crash most of the foreclosures occurred in homes built after 2000 with a large concentration in just the years after 2004 – as you would expect – those were purchased at the absolute peak.

That is shifting somewhat as nearly 27% of August’s sales were in homes built in 1989 or earlier and represent 590 transactions. The percentage of homes built since 2006 continues to shrink as a percentage of REO transactions.

The breakdown in transactions for the month are 2,201 REO 69.2%) , 404 short sales (12.7%) and 577 arm’s length (18.1%). I see the short sale figure as a positive as it is the first month since I have been able to track that figure that it has broken the 10% level. It could jut be a result of the continuing decline in REO transactions and short sales would inevitably have to account for an increased percentage of monthly closings but I would like to believe that the ‘banks’ are figuring out how to process short sales quicker resulting in fewer foreclosures. I’ll remain optimistic until I see something that would indicate other factors are at work.

This Month’s Graphs

The graphs and table above probably tell most of the ‘story’ however, I find the Value Ratio (price per square foot) revealing also. The median price per foot declined slightly but has obviously flattened and the ranges as a percent have remained fairly constant for the last few months.

Terms Sold: Another trend I have been watching is how the properties are being sold each month. Cash transactions, not surprisingly, represent more than 1/3 of all successful REO transactions but only 1/5 of non-REO properties. What has surprised is the large percentage of FHA (37% in July). Either the appraisers aren’t being as picky on funding issues or else the REOs are in far better shape than one would expect given the ‘horror’ stories we so often read about – concrete poured down the plumbing fixtures, etc.

Days on MLS: I anticipated DoM to start to increase and possibly it will next month as short sales increase their percentage of listings and Contingent sales, however, August saw a remarkable drop in the median DoM to 24 days. Even the Non-REO (which includes short sales) had close to 1/3 of all transaction that closed in August accepted in 15 days or less!

 

 

Tidbits:

!    Asking price versus selling price: Minimum 32.8%, maximum 300.5%, median 100.0%; in non-REO, non-short sales transactions the median AP/SP was 96.7%

!    Occupied (by owner or tenant): Arms length – 23% which is uncharacteristically low; Short sale – 51.5%

!    Swimming pools – overall 16.5%; arms length 27.6%; short sale 15.6%

!    Seller points – REO 46% of all transactions; arms length 34%; short sale 55%

Methodology: Data is downloaded from the Greater Las Vegas Association of Realtors MLS website for analysis & graphing. During the course of the analysis errors are corrected that are discovered, e.g. we remove lease-option ‘sales’, correct lack of square footage, correct Seller Concession dollar amounts, etc. There are errors every month but often not great enough to affect the medians or averages except in the Seller Concessions category where there are always substantial errors. The MLS has a new statistical function that all subscribers can partake, however, since it doesn’t correct input errors any analysis created with the new capability is suspect in my opinion. So be cautious when examining data from other sources, including the Greater Las Vegas Association of Realtors.

While we do our best to cross-check information with Clark County assessor records and use a variety of statistical checks to discover errors Residential Resources, Inc. cannot guarantee the accuracy of the data. We do believe that given the meticulous ‘scrubbing’ we do that any undetected errors (including errors of omission) do not substantially affect the statistics presented.

There is usually a discrepancy between our total closing figures compared to other sources, such as GLVAR, since we eliminate closings that are actually condominium/townhouse properties that end up in the single family residential category as well as sales reported as lease-options. Additionally, since MLS data is self-reported, it may take an agent/office a couple of weeks to accurately report a closing date for the previous month – they are subject to fines so the margin for error is not great. Since we generally download our data on the 5^th of the following month (depending upon the day of the week) there may be properties that show up after our download.

Conclusions and interpretations are solely those of Residential Resources, Inc.

For further information on this or Northern Nevada (Reno/Sparks and Fernley/Fallon) or for a quote on custom analysis please contact:

Frank Nason, President

FrankNason@ResidentialResources.com

702-597-2855 Office or Toll-free 866-597-2855

MLS Sales Statistics - Las Vegas, Henderson, North Las Vegas, Clark County - week ended 8/23/2009

For the week just ended (August 23, 2009) there were 26,757 listings on the Greater Las Vegas Association of Realtors (GLVAR) Multiple Listing Service (MLS); up slightly more than 2.5% from the valley reached the last week of July (26,124 all product listings). The increase was across all product types with SFR experiencing the largest nominal weekly gain.

The supply of single family homes on the market is now standing at 21,103. Of those 12,301 or 58% are vacant. The percentage of vacancies is about where it was a year ago if the cycle repeats itself and the supply of REOs increases the percentage of vacant properties could get back to the mid-60% range. If the number of Short Sale listings continues to increase we could see those mid-60% numbers rise into the 70% range or higher.

There are 4,028 condominiums listed for sale with 67% vacant; and approximately 66% of the 1,626 townhouses listed are vacant.

As of 3:00 p.m. the system had reported a good week’s single family transactions with 636 single family closings. Based upon a 4-week moving average of closings there are now 10 months supply of all product types listed for sale.

 

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If you take the single family listings and remove the 2,960 pending transactions but not the 8,372 contingent transactions there are 6.5 months of single family inventory on the market using an 8-week average of closed escrows. Of those 8,372 Contingent sales 66.5% are Short Sale listings and that is why we continue to count them in total supply as it is unlikely that more than 10% will successfully gain lender approval before the foreclosure department takes over.

Short Sale/REO Listings

For the week ended August 23: There are now 12,281 listings identified as short sales and 7,676 listings that are characterized as REO (real estate owned).This continues the trend of decreasing percentage of REO and increasing percentage of short sale listings – although REO listings appear to have hit a bottom for now.

 

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Of the 6,086 single family residential REO listings 68% are under contract. For short sale SFR listings 68% are currently under contract. Of the 636 SFR closings for the week 70% were bank owned – percentage that holds relatively constant week-to-week.

What to Expect?

The short term pattern of the last month seems to be holding for now. The single family market seems to have returned to a relatively normal seasonal sales pattern. If that pattern holds up, I would anticipate we will look at the last week of July as the peak in closed escrows for the year. Continue to expect inventory to increase with the supply of short sale listings decreasing while the supply of REO listings to increase. The gap between the number of Trustee Deed sales (the end of the foreclosure process) and the number of already-Foreclosed properties sold continues to narrow. The pace of acquisitions currently outstrips sales approximately 11% versus 8%, respectively, for the month of July.

contact me with any questions or comments:

FrankNason@ResidentialResources.com

Las Vegas - Henderson - North Las Vegas Weekly MLS Statistics; week ended August 16, 2009

For the week just ended (August 16, 2009) there were 26,613 listings on the Greater Las Vegas Association of Realtors (GLVAR) Multiple Listing Service (MLS); up nearly 2% from the valley reached the last week of July (26,124 all product listings). The increase was across all product types with SFR and TWN increasing about 2%.

The supply of single family homes on the market is now standing at 20,978. Of those 11,805 or 56% are vacant. The percentage of vacancies is about where it was a year ago and seems to be temporarily stabilizing. There are 4,022 condominiums listed for sale with 65% vacant; and 65% of the 1,613 townhouses listed are vacant.

As of 11:00 a.m. the system had reported the weakest week since mid-April with 475 single family closings. Based upon a 4-week moving average of closings there are now 13 months supply of all product types listed for sale. This figure ususally increases during the next few days as agents remember to update their listings.

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If you take the single family listings and remove the 2,929 pending transactions but not the 8,240 contingent transactions there are 6.6 months of single family inventory on the market using an 8-week average of closed escrows. Of those 8,240 Contingent sales 66% are Short Sale listings and that is why we continue to count them in total supply as it is unlikely that more than 10% will successfully gain lender approval before the foreclosure department takes over.

Short Sale/REO Listings

For the week ended June 21: There are now 12,123 listings identified as short sales and 7,674 listings that are characterized as REO (real estate owned).This continues the trend of decreasing percentage of REO and increasing percentage of short sale listings – now nearly 58% of all listings.

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Of the 6,057 single family residential REO listings 68% are under contract. For short sale SFR listings 61% are currently under contract. Of the 530 SFR closings for the week 72% were bank owned – percentage that holds relatively constant week-to-week.

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What to Expect?

At least for now, the single family market seems to have returned to a relatively normal seasonal sales pattern. If that pattern holds up, I would anticipate we will look back fondly at the end of July when inventory bottomed and closed escrows peaked – resulting in little more than a 6-month supply of homes to be absorbed. While the number of REO properties has been increasing for the last 3 months the number of REO properties sold had been pretty flat for several months.

So inventory overall is increasing, REO inventory should start to increase as sales across the board decline. Short sale listings, unless a turnaround in processing occurs, should start to translate into additional acquired REO properties. The rate of change and magnitude of these trends will determine if prices have stabilized or will increase the downward march.

Las Vegas Metro MLS Sales Statistics - July 2009

General Overview of the July 2009 Multiple Listing Service data for Las Vegas Metro:

Vacation time has resulted in this late posting. We anticipate being on track for weekly & monthly data again.

July another strong month of sales activity with 3,749 single family transactions. That represents just 1.1 increase over June but nearly 40% increase from July 2008.

Not only did sales remain strong, indicating a possible return to a normal seasonal sales cycle, but median sales prices have remained flat for the last 4 months. Overall median sales prices declined less than ¾ of 1% while median sales prices of REO properties remained constant at $125,000.

If we are seeing a return to a normal seasonal sales cycle I would anticipate that July’s sales figures will represent a peak for monthly sales transactions for the year. Hopefully, the flattening of sales prices will hold while total transactions decline. The potential fly in this ointment, however, could be the increase in REO properties returning in great enough numbers to put downward on prices again.

According to Clark County assessor records for July, there were 2,129 foreclosed properties disposed of while 2,031 new properties were acquired through Trustee Deed sales. Those 2,129 disposed of properties represent an 8% increase over June but still off of the high of 2,169 disposed of during April.  The 2,031 newly acquired REOs represent a 10.7% increase from June’s high of 1,835.  While the number of dispositions remains elevated the trend is flat while the trend in newly acquired looks a little ominous, thus a trend to take note of during the expected decline in overall sales transactions in the ensuing months of the year.

At a Broker’s Forum recently held at GLVAR a panelist representing one of the brokers handling many of the Fannie/Freddie REOs indicated his belief that there would be 400-500% more REO listings by year end than are currently on the market.

The good news for the month is:

!    continued increase of closed escrows

!    strong purchase agreement activity

!    continued flattening of sales prices

This Month’s Graphs

The graphs and table above probably tell most of the ‘story’ however, I find the Value Ratio (price per square foot) revealing also. The median price per foot declined slightly but has obviously flattened and the ranges as a percent have remained fairly constant for the last few months.

Terms Sold: Another trend I have been watching is how the properties are being sold each month. Cash transactions, not surprisingly, represent more than 1/3 of all successful REO transactions but only 1/5 of non-REO properties. What has surprised is the large percentage of FHA (37% in July). Either the appraisers aren’t being as picky on funding issues or else the REOs are in far better shape than one would expect given the ‘horror’ stories we so often read about – concrete poured down the plumbing fixtures, etc.

Days on MLS: Another indicator I am paying more attention to is the days on MLS before receiving an approved offer. While overall the median DOM has dropped to 32 in July (reflecting a declining number of REO properties I would guess) and a remarkable 51.6% of escrows closed in July had accepted contracts in 30 days or less – 36% in 15 days or less. I would anticipate this number increasing as seasonal sales rates decline and the anticipated increase in percentage of REO properties rises.

Methodology: Data is downloaded from the Greater Las Vegas Association of Realtors MLS website for analysis & graphing. During the course of the analysis errors are corrected that are discovered, e.g. we remove lease-option ‘sales’, correct lack of square footage, correct Seller Concession dollar amounts, etc. There are errors every month but often not great enough to affect the medians or averages except in the Seller Concessions category where there are always substantial errors. The MLS has a new statistical function that all subscribers can partake, however, since it doesn’t correct input errors any analysis created with the new capability is suspect in my opinion. So be cautious when examining data from other sources, including the Greater Las Vegas Association of Realtors.

While we do our best to cross-check information with Clark County assessor records and use a variety of statistical checks to discover errors Residential Resources, Inc. cannot guarantee the accuracy of the data. We do believe that given the meticulous ‘scrubbing’ we do that any undetected errors (including errors of omission) do not substantially affect the statistics presented.

There is usually a discrepancy between our total closing figures compared to other sources, such as GLVAR, since we eliminate closings that are actually condominium/townhouse properties that end up in the single family residential category as well as sales reported as lease-options. Additionally, since MLS data is self-reported, it may take an agent/office a couple of weeks to accurately report a closing date for the previous month – they are subject to fines so the margin for error is not great. Since we generally download our data on the 5^th of the following month (depending upon the day of the week) there may be properties that show up after our download.

Conclusions and interpretations are solely those of Residential Resources, Inc.

For further information on this or Northern Nevada (Reno/Sparks and Fernley/Fallon) or for a quote on custom analysis please contact:

Frank Nason, President

FrankNason@ResidentialResources.com

702-597-2855 Office or Toll-free 866-597-2855

5520 South Fort Apache Road

Las Vegas, Nevada 89148

Las Vegas Condominium Analysis - 2nd Quarter 2009

General Overview of the 2^nd Quarter 2009 Multiple Listing Service Condominium data:

The MLS information presented here removes all high-rise units from the mix but includes, predominately, stacked-flat units as well as mid-rise units (e.g. Manhattan Condos).

 

There were 1,521 condo sales through the MLS for the 2^nd quarter – a 58% increase over the 1^st quarter and a 25% increase from May to June. There was also a small uptick in median sales price and a nearly 5% increase in the median price per square foot of those units that closed during the month of June.

This could be seasonal but we’ll take any positive news we can find. As the number of available bank-owned single family homes have been snatched up by investors we imagine that the investor crowd might be turning to condominiums where a 2-bedroom, 2-bath unit can be had for around $55,000 to $60,000 depending upon the age of the unit and it’s proximity to employment.

Although rental rates will start to noticeably decline beginning in the 4^th quarter, at those sales prices it will take quite a reduction in rents from current levels to eliminate any positive cash flow from these units.

We think the properties that are closest to the Strip, McCarran and other employment centers will fare the best since renters as well as owner occupant purchasers in this market have traditionally looked to be within 5 miles and preferably 3 miles of their work location.

Average – Median Sales Price 2009

Average - Median Price per square foot:

Of the  1,521 total transactions for the quarter: One hundred fifteen were ‘normal’(7.6%), 117 were short sales (7.7%) and 1,406 were REO properties (92.4%). Of the 4,041 active condominium listings (including Contingent and Pending sales) 48% are short sale listings and 28% are REO listings.

For non-REO condos: Average Sales Price for the 2^nd quarter was $85,333 and an average of $75.48 per square foot while the median sales price was $75,000 and a median value ratio of $70.85. Prices ranged from $21,000 to $340,000 with sizes ranging from 496 square feet to 2,021 square feet.

Normal properties were on the market for an average of 95ays with the median at 59.

Nearly 38% included a garage and only 5.3% of the units were occupied by either a tenant or owner.

 

For REO condos: Average Sales Price of $63,663 and an average of $61.48 per square foot while the median sales price was $58,000 and a median value ratio of $57.87. Prices ranged from $15,000 to $325,000 with sizes ranging from 448 square feet to 2,469 square feet.

Days on the market (before contract) ranged from 1 to 699 days with the median at average at 71 and the median at 44 days.

Not surprisingly, none of the REO properties was occupied while only 15.6% of the non-REO properties were occupied. Twenty-on percent included a garage.

Terms of Sale: The most surprising item to me in this analysis was the percentage of cash transactions. Not so surprising was that just over 80% of the REO were cash purchases but 70% of the non-REO transactions were all cash.

This analysis with additional graphs & Zip code chart can be downloaded by using the link below.

 

Conclusions and interpretations are solely those of Residential Resources, Inc.

For further information on this or Northern Nevada (Reno/Sparks and Fernley/Fallon) or for a quote on custom analysis please contact:

Frank Nason, President

FrankNason@ResidentialResources.com

702-597-2855 Office or Toll-free 866-597-2855

5520 South Fort Apache Road

Las Vegas, Nevada 89148

Las Vegas MLS Sales Statistics - Week ended July 26, 2009

For the week just ended (July 26, 2009) there were 26,467 listings on the Greater Las Vegas Association of Realtors (GLVAR) Multiple Listing Service (MLS); largely unchanged from last week but a slight tick up in the recent downward trend in active listings. The listing increase occurred in all product types. The total number of single family homes listed in the MLS now stands at 20,840. Of those 11,841 or 57% are vacant. The trend in vacant units is also downward. There are 4,047 condominiums listed for sale with 65.5% vacant; and 65% of the 1,580 townhouses listed are vacant.

As of 7:00 a.m. the system had reported another good week with 657 single family closings, 414 were REO properties. Based upon a 4-week moving average of closings there are now 10.8 months supply of all product types listed for sale.

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If you take the single family listings and remove the 2,957 pending transactions and the 7,904 contingent transactions there are 7.3 months of single family inventory on the market using an 8-week average of closings. The number of properties under contract, at 10,861, is the highest since I began tracking this figure although the largest component of those under contract are short sale listings. As we point out every week – less than 10% of the closed escrows in any given month are short sales, implying that another potential 10,000 foreclosures. One troubling piece of anecdotal information is that I am seeing and hearing of an increasing number of investors who are throwing in the towel and listing their investment properties as short sales, if rented, or having them foreclosed on when the tenant moves.

Short Sale/REO Listings

For the week ended July 26: There are now 11,709 listings identified as short sales and 7,920 listings that are characterized as REO (real estate owned).This continues the trend of decreasing percentage of REO and increasing percentage of short sale listings – now over 56% of all listings.

 

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Of the 6,273 single family residential REO listings almost 70% are under contract. For short sale SFR listings 58% are currently under contract.

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Where Are All the Foreclosed Las Vegas Properties?

The moratorium on foreclouses by many of the largest financial institutions earlier this year combined with the increased pace of investor purchases may be a reason the inventory of REO (bank-owned) properties has declined so dramatically since the first of the year.

I just completed an analysis of Clark County assessor records showing the number of single family REO acquisitions as defined by the assessor's office as any property transaction where a financial institution acquired a property through a Trustee sale.

Then I analyzed those transactions where the Foreclosed properties are sold to a private 3rd party. The financial institutions have been shedding single family properties much faster during the 1st six months of the year much faster than they have been acquiring additional properties through the foreclosure process - acquired 6,472 through June but sold 11,254.

The graph illustrates a sharp upward trend in acquisitions from April to May - 55% and then another large jump from May to June - 39.8%. If this trend continues and the amount of properties disposed of stays relatively constant then we can expect to see a new glut of REOs on the market in the 3rd quarter and, most likely, continued downward pressure on pricing.

The nearby map shows the data for January 2009 plotted. I will be geocoding the rest of the data for the year and will be publishing additional maps in the near future.

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Reno/Sparks Weekly MLS Statistics - week ended July 19

For the week just ended (July 19, 2009) there were 3,528 single family listings on the Northern Nevada Regional Multiple Listing Service (MLS) of which 43% were vacant; largely unchanged from last week and seemingly stable for a few months. There were 546 condominium listings with 55% vacant. These 4,074 units represent a 11 month supply of all product types and a 9 month supply of single family homes based upon an 8-week moving average of closings. We have just started to smooth the single family supply to make it easier to spot a trend in supply.

As of 11:00 a.m. the system had reported 85 single family closings for the week – a vast improvement over last week’s paltry 59 single family closings.

 

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There are 1,396 single family properties in Contingent status and 275 in Pending status.  REO listings account for 539 listings and short sale units are at 1,504 units. Short sale listings remain relatively constant in nominal terms while bank owned properties are down close to 30% since the beginning of the year.

 

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Of the 3,528 single family residential REO listings almost 63% are under contract. For short sale SFR listings 65% are currently under contract.