by Calculated Risk on 4/09/2013 03:10:00 PM

This is a key distressed market to follow since Las Vegas has seen the largest price decline of any of the Case-Shiller composite 20 cities.

The Greater Las Vegas Association of Realtors reported GLVAR reports increase in local home prices, traditional sales

With local home prices up and inventory down, REALTORS® have been reporting more homes sold by "traditional" sellers – as opposed to lenders, who are responsible for the short sales and foreclosures that have dominated the market in recent years. In fact, for the first time in years, [GLVAR President Dave] Tina said "traditional" sales have accounted for more than half of all local home sales so far in 2013.

In March, 33.3 percent of all existing local home sales were short sales, down from 37.9 percent in February. Meanwhile, another 11.2 percent of all local home sales were bank-owned, up from 10.2 percent in February. The remaining 55.5 percent of all sales are the traditional type, Tina said.

GLVAR said the total number of existing local homes, condominiums and townhomes sold in March was 3,642. That’s up from 3,232 in February, but down from 4,388 total sales in March 2012.
...
As for available homes listed for sale without any sort of pending or contingent offer by the end of March, GLVAR reported 2,839 single-family homes listed without any sort of offer. That’s down 6.8 percent from 3,047 such homes listed in February and down 42.1 percent from one year ago.
emphasis added

A few key points:
1) In March 2012, 67.3% of total sales were distressed.  That declined to 44.5% in March 2013. So even though total sales declined year-over-year from 4,388 in March 2012 to 3,642 in March 2013, conventional sales were up about 40%. That is a sign of an improving market (it would be a mistake to focus only on the decline in total sales and miss the improvement in conventional sales).

2) Inventory of non-contingent homes is down 42.1% from a year ago to 2,839.  That is a sharp decline and less than one months supply (not including homes with offers).  Total inventory (including contingent offers) is down 24%.

3) Most distressed sales are now short sales.  About 3 times as many homes were short sales as foreclosures.

Overall this is an improving distressed market. Note: The median price was up 30.9% from a year ago, but I suggest using the repeat sales indexes because the median is impacted by the mix and there are fewer low end homes being sold.