Monday, January 2, 2012

Las Vegas November Press Release

Las Vegas Region November Home Sales

The number of homes sold in the Las Vegas area rose year-over-year for the fifth consecutive month in November as a surge in sub-$200,000 transactions made up for a decline in activity above that threshold. Prices appeared flat, with the region’s overall median sale price stuck at $115,000 for the third consecutive month, a real estate information service reported.
In November, 4,460 new and resale houses and condos closed escrow in the Las Vegas-Paradise metro area (Clark County). That was down 3.1 percent from October but up 11.2 percent from November 2010, according to San Diego-based DataQuick. The firm tracks real estate trends nationally via public property records.
A dip in sales between October and November is normal. On average, sales have fallen 3.9 percent between those two months since 1994, when DataQuick’s complete Las Vegas region statistics begin.
Last month the number of homes that resold rose 11.3 percent on a year-over-year basis, marking the 11th consecutive month in which resales have posted an annual gain. It was the highest number of resales for a November since 2009, and the second-highest since 2005. November sales of newly-built homes also rose from a year earlier, by 9.8 percent, but were still the second-lowest on record for a November. New-home sales have risen year-over-year for the past five consecutive months.
Total sales last month were 2.0 percent higher than the average number of homes sold in November since 1994, while resale activity (excludes new homes) was 45.5 percent above average for a November.
Once again, sales were strongest in the lower price ranges. The number of November transactions below $100,000 climbed 32.8 percent from a year earlier and made up 41.6 percent of all deals, compared with 34.9 percent of all sales in November 2010. The number of sales below $200,000 last month rose 16.5 percent year-over-year, while the number above $200,000 fell 8.8 percent from a year earlier.
Robust Las Vegas home sales below $200,000, and especially below $100,000, have put 2011 on track to have the highest total home sales in five years and the highest resale activity in six years. The number of new and resale houses and condos that sold between January and November this year totaled 50,586, up 6.9 percent from the same period last year and the highest since 2006, when 74,608 homes sold during that 11-month period.
This year 45,637 homes resold between January and November, up 8.6 percent from last year and the highest for that period since 2005, when 56,512 homes resold.
The median price paid for all new and resale houses and condos sold in the Las Vegas metro area last month was $115,000, up insignificantly from $114,950 in October and down 9.5 percent from $127,050 in November 2010. It was the 14th consecutive month in which the median fell year-over-year.
Last month’s median was 63.1 percent short of the peak $312,000 median in November 2006.
The median’s recent decline to levels not seen since the mid 1990s can be attributed to several factors: home price depreciation; robust sales of low-cost foreclosures; robust sales to investors, who mainly target low-cost properties; extraordinarily low new-home sales (new homes tend to sell for more than resale homes); and higher-than-usual condo resales (condos tend to be the least expensive homes).
November’s new-home sales represented 11.0 percent of all transactions, compared with a monthly average of 28.5 percent of all sales over the last decade. November’s condo sales represented 17.7 percent of total Las Vegas sales, compared with a 10-year monthly average of 13.8 percent.
An alternative home-price gauge – the median paid per square foot for resale single-family detached houses – held steady last month at $66, the same as in October but down 10.8 percent from $74 a year earlier. The October and November figure was the lowest since at least 1994 and was 65.3 percent below the peak $190 paid per square foot in May and June of 2006.
In November, a form of low-down-payment financing that’s popular with first-time home buyers – government-insured FHA loans – accounted for 39.4 percent of all home purchase loans. That was up from 38.4 percent in October but down from 45.0 percent a year earlier. The current cycle’s peak was 55.1 percent in September 2008.
Cash buyers purchased 48.9 percent of the Las Vegas-area homes sold last month. That was down from 49.3 percent in October and 49.4 percent a year earlier. The record was 56.7 percent this February. Cash purchases are where there is no corresponding purchase mortgage in the public record.
Cash buyers in November paid a median $82,000 for a home in the Las Vegas area, down from $84,000 in October and down from $95,500 a year earlier.
Absentee buyers – mainly investors and vacation-home buyers – purchased 46.2 percent of all homes sold in November. That compares with 46.6 percent in October, 43.9 percent a year ago and a record 49.9 percent in March this year. Absentee buyers paid a median $90,000 last month, the same as in October and September but down from $105,000 a year earlier. Absentee buyers are those who indicated at the time of sale that the property tax bill will go to a different address.
Distressed property sales – the combination of foreclosure resales and “short sales” – made up more than two-thirds of the Las Vegas resale market last month.
Foreclosure resales – homes that had been foreclosed on in the prior 12 months – accounted for 52.4 percent of the Las Vegas resale market in November. That was down from 52.8 percent in October and 53.1 percent a year earlier. Foreclosure resales peaked at 73.7 percent of the resale market in April 2009. Last month’s figure was the lowest since September 2010, when it was 50.8 percent.
Short sales – transactions where the sale price fell short of what was owed on the property – made up an estimated 14.8 percent of Las Vegas-area November resales. That compares with an estimated 12.7 percent in October, 13.2 percent a year ago, and 11.7 percent two years ago.
In the wake of a new Nevada law that creates additional requirements for lenders trying to foreclose on properties, the number of notices of default (“NODs”) filed in Clark County has plummeted in recent months. However, default filings began to pick back up last month, when lenders filed 1,281 NODs, up 51.5 percent from the 846 NODs filed in October, but down 74.9 percent from 5,093 NODs filed in November 2010. The notice of default is the first step in the formal foreclosure process.
The number of homes foreclosed on in the Las Vegas region in November rose from both October and a year earlier. Lenders foreclosed on 1,931 single-family house and condo units last month, up 0.1 percent from October and up 10.5 percent from a year earlier.
During the first 11 months of this year, lenders foreclosed on 30,986 house and condo units in Clark County, up 15.8 percent from the same period last year. The peak year for that 11-month period was 2009, when 31,719 homes were lost to foreclosure between January and November. The figures are based on the number of Trustees Deeds filed at the county recorder’s office.
Las Vegas Home Sale Chart is available at DQNews.com

Media calls: Andrew LePage (916) 456-7157

Copyright 2012 DataQuick. All rights reserved.

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