by Calculated Risk on 7/08/2014 05:06:00 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 rising local home prices, fewer cash buyers

According to GLVAR, the total number of existing local homes, condominiums and townhomes sold in May was 3,274, up from 3,450 in May, but down from 3,642 one year ago..

GLVAR said 34.7 percent of all existing local homes sold in June were purchased with cash. That’s down from 40.2 percent in May and well short of the February 2013 peak of 59.5 percent, suggesting that investors are accounting for a smaller percentage of local buyers.
...
In June, 10.8 percent of all existing local home sales were short sales. That’s up from 7.9 percent in May. Another 10.1 percent of all June sales were bank-owned properties, up from 9.1 percent in May.
...
The total number of single-family homes listed for sale on GLVAR’s Multiple Listing Service in June was 13,838. That’s up 1.5 percent from 13,637 in May and up 0.6 percent from one year ago.

By the end of June, GLVAR reported 7,126 single-family homes listed without any sort of offer. That’s up 7.7 percent from 6,615 such homes listed in May, and an 86.2 percent jump from one year ago. For condos and townhomes, the 2,333 properties listed without offers in June represented a 3.3 percent increase from 2,258 such properties listed in May and a 59.4 percent jump from one year ago.
emphasis added

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

1) Overall sales were down about 10% year-over-year.

2) Conventional (equity, not distressed) sales were up 19% year-over-year.  In June 2013, only 60.0% of all sales were conventional equity.  This year, in June 2014, 79.1% were equity sales. 

3) The percent of cash sales has declined year-over-year from 55.3% in June 2013 to 34.7% in June 2014. (investor buying appears to be declining).

4) Non-contingent inventory is up 86% year-over-year.

Inventory has clearly bottomed in Las Vegas (A major theme for housing last year).  And fewer distressed sales and more inventory (a major theme for 2014) suggests price increases will slow.