by Calculated Risk on 7/10/2011 09:22:00 AM

Home sales are strong in Las Vegas, but mostly because of distressed sales. According to the following article 47.2% of the sales in June were bank-owned properties, and another 21.6% were short sales.

The high level of distressed sales will keep downward pressure on house prices. Note: The articles mentions median prices, and the median is impacted by the mix of homes sold.

From Buck Wargo at the Las Vegas Sun: Las Vegas home sales surge in June as prices continue to fall

The Greater Las Vegas Association of Realtors reported today that the 3,629 sales of single-family homes on the Multiple Listing Service were up 16.7 percent over May and were 8 percent higher than June 2010.
...
GLVAR President Paul Bell said the June sales figures were the third-best month ever for existing homes in Southern Nevada using the Realtor-based MLS. Non-Realtor transactions will be released later in the month by local research firms.

Foreclosures continue to drive the market with the GLVAR reporting 47.2 percent of existing home sales in June were bank-owned properties, up from 43.8 percent in May. In a sign that investor activity remains strong, some 50 percent of homes sold in June were purchased with cash, down from 51.4 percent in May.
...
In June, 21.6 percent of existing homes sold were short sales in which the bank agrees to sell the property for less than is owed on the mortgage.
...
The inventory of single-family homes fell slightly in June to 22,702, down 0.3 percent from May. About half of those homes don’t have offers on them.

A market with almost 70% distressed sales is a long way from normal. And with all the delinquent and in-foreclosure mortgages in Nevada - and with most property owners "underwater" on their mortgages - the number of distressed sales will remain very high for some time.