by Calculated Risk on 10/09/2012 12:49:00 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.

From the GLVAR: GLVAR reports local home prices, short sales continuing to climb

According to GLVAR, the total number of local homes, condominiums and townhomes sold in September was 3,298. That’s down from 3,688 in August and down from 4,108 total sales in September 2011.
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GLVAR reported a total of 3,805 condos and townhomes listed for sale on its MLS at the end of September, down 0.7 percent from 3,830 condos and townhomes listed for sale on its MLS at the end of August and down 7.8 percent from one year ago.

The number of available homes listed for sale without any sort of pending or contingent offer also fell from the previous month and year. By the end of September, GLVAR reported 3,943 single-family homes listed without any sort of offer. That’s down 1.0 percent from 3,981 such homes listed in August and down 63.1 percent from one year ago.
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Meanwhile, 44.8 percent of all existing local homes sold during September were short sales. That’s up from 43.7 percent in August, up from 23.5 percent one year ago, and the highest short sale percentage GLVAR has ever recorded.

Continuing a trend of declining foreclosure sales in recent months, bank-owned homes accounted for 13.6 percent of all existing home sales in September, down from 16.9 percent in August.

A few key points:
• Inventory declined slightly in September, and total inventory is down 7.8% from September 2011. However, for single family homes without contingent offers, inventory is still down sharply from a year ago (down 63.1% year-over-year).

• Short sales are more than triple foreclosures now. The GLVAR reported 44.8% of sales were short sales, and only 13.6% foreclosures. We've seen a shift from foreclosures to short sales in most areas (not just in areas with new foreclosure laws).

• The percent distressed sales was extremely high at 58.4% in September (short sales and foreclosures), but down from 60.6% in August.

• There is a push to complete short sales, from the article:

[H]omeowners have been rushing to short-sell their homes by the end of 2012, when the Mortgage Forgiveness Debt Relief Act is set to expire unless Congress acts to extend it. If Congress does not extend this law by Dec. 31, she said any amount of money a bank writes off in agreeing to sell a home as part of a short sale will become taxable when sellers file their income taxes.