Welcome to Friday Figures! This is real data from the GLVAR MLS system. Know what’s really going on before touring, making an offer, or listing a home this weekend.

Summary:  Available inventory continues to drop both year over year and week over week. Buyers continue to snap up perceived bargains in distressed properties, and our pending sales continue to rise. The listing price of contingent properties is stable, although the actual sales prices are not yet known. Over half of recently closed properties spent less than 6 weeks available. There is beginning to be evidence of rising prices on recently closed homes! This is a very exciting change in our market, which home owners and sellers should welcome. It should also be a warning to “on the fence” buyers that the low prices will not last forever.

Available listings for sale:  There are only 12400 available single family homes, 3857 condominiums and townhomes. A year ago (5/5/2008), we had 16575 houses and 4624 condos/townhomes!  Current median list price is $165,000, and median time on market is 108 days.

Distressed Properties: Of those listings, 6397 are noted as short sales and 4127 are bank-owned.  Median price for a short sale is $140,000; Median price on bank-owned is only $115,000. The 5661 non-distressed properties for sale had a median price of $334,900.

Contingent and Pending listings:  Properties in the process of being purchased are 9685 single family homes, 1893 condos and townhomes. Median asking price of contingent houses is unchanged for a second week at $149,900; median asking price of contingent condos/townhomes is unchanged at $74,000. The accepted price is confidential until the sale closes.

Single Family Home Prices: Of available listings, 249 under $50,000; 1820 between $50,000-$100,000; 5201 between $100,000-$200,000; 3565 between $200,000-$500,000; 987 between $500,000-$1,000,000; and 750 over $1,000,000 (last year there were 1151 — even the million dollar plus market has perked up). Median price on an available single family home has dropped in the last week to $178,000; median price per square foot is unchanged at $93.

Condo and Townhome Prices: 489 under $50,000; 1333 between $50,000-$100,000; 1079 between $100,000-$200,000; 608 between $200,000-$500,000; 261 between $500,000-$1,000,000; and 149 over $1,000,000 (down 11%).  Median asking price on these units is unchanged at $114,000; median price per square foot is $98. 

Recently sold: With the month-end crush over, 688 properties have closed in the last week. 3921 have closed in the last 30 days and 13590 have closed since the first of the year. Of the properties closed in the last week, 85 properties were on the market less than a week; 66 were on the market more than 6 months; median was 39 days (median time on market including the contingent period was 109 days). Median sales rose to $131,000 and median list price rose to $134,450. Yes, we have one week of rising prices. Notice that list and sales price are still very close to one another.

Rentals: 4753 homes, townhomes, and condos were available for rent in the Valley according to the MLS system. There are 526 contingent leases and 1723 leases signed in the last 30 days. 

Other information: Here’s a little bit of fun, 25 random things about Las Vegas; an economist compares Bernanke’s comments on housing to reality (the way he sees it, of course); Forbes on multi-generation households; Fannie Mae continues to lose (taxpayer) money; and the end of the historic Moulin Rouge casino.

To find your home, to help sell your home, or just to learn more please click the “Contact Me!” link in the sidebar.  You can also call the number at the top of the page. Friday Figures is published by Bridget Magnus on BridgetMagnus.com and is her property, even though any GLVAR Realtor can access this data.