Welcome to a special edition Friday Saturday Figures! All information from the GLVAR MLS system. It’s what you and your Realtor should know before touring, making offers, or listing property in the Las Vegas Valley this weekend!

Summary: The number of available listings edged over 11,000 again, which seems to be a stable level for the time being. Short sales continue to rise, and despite Federal encouragement it is unknown whether these properties will be sold or foreclosed upon. The jump in available properties under $100,000 is of concern, but probably just an attempt to get multiple offers before the year end. Contingent and pending sales finally dropped below 14,000; even though closing sales were light due to the holidays, few properties went into escrow for the same reason. Next week we will be able to close out 2009. Although another light week would not be unexpected, institutional sellers such as banks will want to get these homes closed and off the books.

Other Information: The foreclosure crisis is far from over with serious delinquencies up 20%. In fact, the rate of home ownership is predicted to decline. At least one economist is predicting that interest rates on mortgages will rise in 2010 to about 6% — a reason for people to consider getting their mortgage applications together now. Sales of existing homes are up both locally and nationally, particularly as compared to sales of new homes. Our local economy isn’t out of the woods yet, however. Taxable sales in Nevada plunged 17.8% year over year in October.

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