by Calculated Risk on 5/08/2013 06:29:00 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 Local home prices rise again, according to GLVAR report

GLVAR said the total number of existing local homes, condominiums and townhomes sold in April was 3,789. That’s up from 3,642 in March, but down from 3,924 total sales in April 2012. ...
...
Another trend is the decline in foreclosures and short sales – which occur when a lender agrees to sell a home for less than what the borrower owes on the mortgage. In April, 32.5 percent of all existing local home sales were short sales, down from 33.3 percent in March. Another 10.0 percent of all sales were bank-owned properties, down from 11.2 percent of all sales in March. The remaining 57.5 percent of all sales were the traditional type, which was up from 55.5 percent in March.
...
The total number of properties listed for sale on GLVAR’s Multiple Listing Service increased in April, with 13,881 single-family homes listed for sale at the end of the month. That’s up 1.4 percent from 13,693 single-family homes listed for sale at the end of March, but down 22.4 percent from one year ago.

As for available homes listed for sale without any sort of pending or contingent offer by the end of April, GLVAR reported 3,161 single-family homes listed without any sort of offer. That’s up 11.3 percent from 2,839 such homes listed in March, but still down 24.1 percent from one year ago.
...
In April, GLVAR reported that 59.3 percent of all existing local homes sold were purchased with cash. That’s up from 57.5 percent in March and approaching the peak of 59.5 percent in February.
emphasis added

There are several key trends that we've been following:

1) Overall sales are down a little year-over-year, but ...

2) Conventional sales are up sharply.  In April 2012, only 33.2% of all sales were conventional.  This year, in April 2013, 57.5% were conventional.  That is an increase in conventional sales of about 67% (of course this is heavily investor buying, but that is still quite an increase in non-distressed sales).

3) There is a shift from foreclosures to short sales.

4) and probably most interesting right now is that the decline in non-contingent inventory (year-over-year) has slowed sharply.  This suggests inventory is near a bottom.