Thank you for reading Friday Figures! All information from the GLVAR MLS system. This is critical data for anyone touring, making an offer, or listing a home in the Las Vegas Valley this weekend.

Summary: Available listings dropped slightly to 10763, while prices remain stable and time on market dropped slightly. The early bird is clearly catching the worm when it comes to the “best” listings — median time on market for homes sold in the last 30 days was just over a month. We also have 14958 contingent and pending units! Will we break through 15,000 next week? Will some of the 9400+ contingent short sales get approval and eventually close? Only time will tell. As it stands, only about 700 short sales per month are closing, so it will be a long time to get through all of them!

Other Information: There’s a lot of real estate news out this week, and a lot of it has to do with short sales. Remember, that’s when the mortgage company will be “short” money at the end. A lot of the current buzz is about the Treasury Department “program encouraging owners and banks” to do a short sale that begins next month. It is important to remember that this is a program, not a law or a regulation! I seriously question how many lenders will actually participate, particularly those who hold second mortgages. Meanwhile, we have very conflicting signals about future foreclosures. Remember, a lot of those short sales will eventually turn into foreclosures if nothing is done. On one hand, foreclosure activity declined 2% in February. On the other hand, the Washington Post estimates that there are 5,000,000 to 7,000,000 foreclosures waiting to happen nationwide. One last item, our local unemployment rate has risen to 13.8%. Wow.

Available Listings: There are 8793 single family homes (down), with a median price of $174,996 (up), $88 per square foot (unchanged), with median time on market of 82 days (down). In addition, there are 1970 condominiums and townhomes (up), with a median price of $79,900 (unchanged), $70 per square foot (unchanged), and median time on market of 66 days (down).

Distressed Properties: Of available listings, there are 4931 short sales (down) and 1592 bank-owned properties (down). Median price for a short sale is $129,000 (unchanged); median price on a bank-owned home is $133,500 (up). Short sale listings, whether available or contingent, must be considered at risk of becoming bank owned properties. The 4203 non-distressed properties for sale (up) had a median price of $239,300, down. While many of the non-distressed properties are traditional sellers, many others were purchased less than 6 months ago as short sale or bank owned, and then renovated by investors.

Single Family Home Prices: Of available listings, 124 under $50,000; 1242 between $50,000-$100,000; 4022 between $100,000-$200,000; 2176 between $200,000-$400,000; 645 between $400,000-$700,000; 232 between $700,000-$1,000,000; and 494 over $1,000,000.

Condo and Townhome Prices: Of available listings, 437 under $50,000; 890 between $50,000-$100,000; 537 between $100,000-$200,000; 118 between $200,000-$400,000; 28 between $400,000-$700,000; 7 between $700,000-$1,000,000; and 3 over $1,000,000.

Contingent and Pending listings: Of the 14958 properties in the process of being purchased (up), 12076 are single family homes with median price of $135,000 (unchanged); 2882 are condominiums or townhomes with median price of $65,000 (unchanged). Final negotiated sales prices are confidential until closing. Of those, 10201 were short sale (up), 3127 were bank owned (up), and 1618  were non-distressed sales (up).

Recently sold: 630 properties closed in the last week, 3297 in the last 30 days, and 7319 so far this year. For properties closed in the last 30 days, median time on market was 34 days (unchanged, time on market including the contingent period was 110 days). Median sales price was $120,750 (down); median list price was $120,000 (down). Short sales accounted for 781 of them, there were 1752 bank owned properties, and 754 non-distressed sales.

Rentals: 4585 homes, townhomes, and condos were available for rent in the Valley in the MLS system. Median square footage of these units is 1358 and median rent is $1095. There are 742 contingent leases waiting to be signed and 2259 leases signed in the last 30 days. It’s nice to see our rental market doing briskly, especially in the face of our current unemployment rate!

Need more information or help with your real estate needs? Call me today at 702-727-7842 or email bmagnus@bridgetmagnus.com. Although this information is available to all GLVAR members through the MLS system, this article was written and copyright by Bridget Magnus, and is her sole property.