by Calculated Risk on 12/10/2013 12:11:00 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 home prices, sales, supply dip heading into holidays

GLVAR said the total number of existing local homes, condominiums and townhomes sold in November was 2,694. That’s down from 3,192 in October and down from 3,293 total sales in November 2012. Compared to October, single-family home sales during November decreased by 16.2 percent, while sales of condos and townhomes decreased by 12.7 percent. Compared to one year ago, single-family home sales were down 17.9 percent, while condo and townhome sales were down 19.3 percent. ...
...
In November, 21 percent of all existing home sales were short sales, unchanged from October. Another 7 percent of all November sales were bank-owned properties, up from 6 percent in October. The remaining 72 percent of all sales were the traditional type, down from 73 percent in October.
...
The total number of properties listed for sale on GLVAR’s Multiple Listing Service decreased in November, with 14,240 single-family homes listed for sale at the end of the month. That’s down 5.1 percent from 15,011 single-family homes listed for sale at the end of October and down 8.9 percent from one year ago. ...

By the end of November, GLVAR reported 6,830 single-family homes listed without any sort of offer. That’s down 3.4 percent from 7,072 such homes listed in October, but still up 77.4 percent from one year ago. For condos and townhomes, the 2,192 properties listed without offers in November represented a 2.4 percent decrease from 2,247 such properties listed in October, but an 80.0 percent increase from one year ago.
emphasis added

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

1) Sales were down again in November, and down about 17.9% year-over-year.

2) Conventional sales are up solidly.  In November 2012, only 48.1% of all sales were conventional.  This year, in November 2013, 72.0% were conventional.  That is an increase in conventional sales of about 23% year-over-year.

3)  Most distressed sales are short sales instead of foreclosures (3 to 1).  Both foreclosures and short sales are down sharply year-over-year.

4) and most interesting right now is that non-contingent inventory (year-over-year) is now increasing rapidly.  Non-contingent inventory is up 77.4% year-over-year!

Inventory has clearly bottomed in Las Vegas (A major theme for housing in 2013).  And fewer distressed sales and more inventory means price increases will slow.