by Calculated Risk on 2/08/2016 09:11:00 AM

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 Housing Market Starts 2016 With Steadily Rising Home Prices

According to GLVAR, the total number of existing local homes, condominiums and townhomes sold in January was 2,348, up from 2,239 in January of 2015. Compared to the same month one year ago, 4.7 percent more homes and 5.4 percent more condos and townhomes sold in January.
...
By the end of January, GLVAR reported 7,428 single-family homes listed without any sort of offer. That’s up 0.6 percent from one year ago. For condos and townhomes, the 2,216 properties listed without offers in January represented a 4.8 percent decrease from one year ago.

As it has for the past few years, GLVAR reported fewer distressed sales and more traditional home sales, where lenders are not controlling the transaction. In January, 7.0 percent of all local sales were short sales – which occur when lenders allow borrowers to sell a home for less than what they owe on the mortgage. That’s down from 9.7 percent of all sales one year ago. Another 7.9 percent of all January sales were bank-owned, down from 9.4 percent one year ago.
emphasis added

1) Overall sales were up 5% year-over-year.

2) The percent of cash sales decreased year-over-year from 36% in Jan 2015 to 31.1% in Jan 2016. This has been trending down.

3) Non-contingent inventory for single-family homes was up 0.6% year-over-year. This followed several months with a year-over-year decline.  The table below shows the year-over-year change for non-contingent inventory in Las Vegas.  Inventory is important to watch - if inventory starts increasing again, then price increases will slow.

Las Vegas: Year-over-year Change in Non-contingent Single-Family Inventory
Month	YoY
Jan-13	-58.3%
Feb-13	-53.4%
Mar-13	-42.1%
Apr-13	-24.1%
May-13	-13.2%
Jun-13	3.7%
Jul-13	9.0%
Aug-13	41.1%
Sep-13	60.5%
Oct-13	73.4%
Nov-13	77.4%
Dec-13	78.6%
Jan-14	96.2%
Feb-14	107.3%
Mar-14	127.9%
Apr-14	103.1%
May-14	100.6%
Jun-14	86.2%
Jul-14	55.2%
Aug-14	38.8%
Sep-14	29.5%
Oct-14	25.6%
Nov-14	20.0%
Dec-14	18.0%
Jan-15	12.9%
Feb-15	15.8%
Mar-15	12.2%
Apr-15	7.6%
May-15	7.8%
Jun-15	4.3%
Jul-15	5.1%
Aug-15	3.5%
Sep-15	-0.8%
Oct-15	-7.1%
Nov-15	-5.2%
Dec-15	-11.2%
Jan-16	0.6%