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.
Click for larger image