Welcome to Friday Figures! All information from the GLVAR MLS system. Here’s the real data — not a bunch of guesses and impressions — that you and your Realtor need to know before touring, making an offer, or listing a home in the Las Vegas Valley this weekend.

Summary: Available listings dropped ever so slightly to 10045. One interesting tidbit is that available $1M+ homes rose for the first time in months! Is this a sign that owners of luxury homes think the market has stabilized, or a sign that they have given up on seeking better prices in the future? Contingent and pending listings rose, and remain over 15,000. However, 10200 are short sales awaiting approval. I have had the opportunity to discuss this issue with local experts this week: some believe that most of these listings are subject to HAFA rules and must be approved within a matter of weeks; others think this backlog will be taken care of in 6-9 months — a reasonable figure, but only if we start to see a lot more short sales closing weekly by the end of May. While we do have more short sales closing, it will take most of a year just to take care of current contingent listings at the present rate.

Other Information: If the City’s plans for an arena and entertainment district come to pass, it will mean a lot of jobs. But how will it compete with all the entertainment options at the big resort casinos? Experts predict that foreclosures will be with us for a while to come, and that specifically Bank of America expects to take back 45,000 properties across the nation. Hopefully B of A will limit themselves to foreclosing on homes they actually hold the note on! Another interesting trend is that rents are starting to rise on average nationally. It will be interesting to see if that happens here as well.

Available Listings: There are 8157 single family homes (down), with a median price of $179,900 (up), $90 per square foot (up), with median time on market of 76 days (unchanged). In addition, there are 1883 condominiums and townhomes (up), with a median price of $78,775 (down), $69 per square foot (down), and median time on market of 70 days (unchanged).

Distressed Properties: Of available listings, there are 4443 short sales (down) and 1443 bank-owned properties (up). Median price for a short sale is $130,000 (unchanged); median price on a bank-owned home is $136,900 (up). All short sale listings must be considered at risk of becoming bank owned properties whether they are available or contingent. The 4134 non-distressed properties for sale (down) had a median price of $240,000 (up). 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, 111 under $50,000; 987 between $50,000-$100,000; 3725 between $100,000-$200,000; 2098 between $200,000-$400,000; 615 between $400,000-$700,000; 238 between $700,000-$1,000,000; and 502 over $1,000,000.

Condo and Townhome Prices: Of available listings, 387 under $50,000; 891 between $50,000-$100,000; 507 between $100,000-$200,000; 106 between $200,000-$400,000; 25 between $400,000-$700,000; 6 between $700,000-$1,000,000; and 1 over $1,000,000.

Contingent and Pending listings: Of the 15679 properties in the process of being purchased (up), 12700 are single family homes with median price of $135,000 (unchanged); 2979 are condominiums or townhomes with median price of $66,500 (down). Final negotiated sales prices are confidential until closing. Of those, 11016 were short sale (up, over 90% of which are awaiting short sale approval from the mortgage holder), 2743 were bank owned (up), and1903  were non-distressed sales (up substantially).

Recently sold: Only 546 properties closed in the last week, 3658 in the last 30 days, and 10808 so far this year. For properties closed in the last 30 days, median time on market was 30 days (down, time on market including the contingent period was 110 days). Median sales price was $125,000 (unchanged); median list price was $125,125 (up). Short sales accounted for 933 of them (a 4 week up-trend!), there were 1801 bank owned properties, and 919 non-distressed sales.

Rentals: 4338 homes, townhomes, and condos were available for rent in the Valley in the MLS system. Median square footage of these units is 1364 and median rent is $1100. There are 750 contingent leases waiting to be signed and 2105 leases signed in the last 30 days.

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.