by Calculated Risk on 6/08/2012 03:41:00 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. Prices, as of the March Case-Shiller report, were off 61.5% from the peak, and off 7.5% over the last year.

Sales in 2011 were at record levels - even more than during the bubble - and it looks like 2012 will be an even stronger year, even with some new rules that slow the foreclosure process.

From the GLVAR: GLVAR reports local home prices and sales are rising, as local housing inventory shrinks

“Basically, we’re seeing a classic case of supply and demand,” said GLVAR President Kolleen Kelley, a longtime local REALTOR®. “Our local housing supply is going down, primarily because banks are putting fewer homes on the market. As a result, prices are going up.”

The local housing inventory was already tightening throughout 2011. But Kelley said it has been shrinking at a more rapid rate in 2012. Based on the current sales pace, she said “our local housing supply is down to about a month’s worth of inventory.”

Even with fewer homes listed for sale, Kelley said existing home sales remain ahead of the record sales pace set in 2011, when GLVAR reported that 48,186 existing properties were sold in Southern Nevada.

According to GLVAR, the total number of local homes, condominiums and townhomes sold in May was 4,134. That’s up from 3,924 in April and up from 3,991 total sales in May 2011.
...
GLVAR reported a total of 3,728 condos and townhomes listed for sale on its MLS at the end of May. That’s down 2.8 percent from 3,836 condos and townhomes listed at the end of April, and down 29.1 percent from one year ago. As in recent months, the number of available homes listed for sale without any sort of pending or contingent offer also dropped sharply compared to the previous month and year. By the end of May, GLVAR reported 3,800 single-family homes listed without any sort of offer. That’s down 8.7 percent from 4,162 such homes listed in April and down 66.3 percent from one year ago. ...
32.6 percent of all existing local homes sold during May were short sales ... That’s up from 29.9 percent in April

Bank-owned homes accounted for 34.7 percent of all existing home sales in May, down from 36.9 percent in April.

Inventory continues to decline (down 66.3% year-over-year for single family homes) and sales are on a record pace. Still over 2/3s of all sales are distressed (short and REO), as the shift from foreclosure to short sales continues.