Everybody survived “Tax Day?” Whew! Thanks for dropping in and reading Friday Figures! All information from the GLVAR MLS system. This is what you and your Realtor need to know before touring, making an offer, or listing a home in the Las Vegas Valley this weekend.

Summary: We had another small drop in available inventory to 10014, and I would not be surprised to see a small rise next week. Contingent and pending listings rose again, poised to break through the 16,000 mark. Now all we need is to move those contingent short sales towards sale! Sales continue to move, but not as quickly as would be optimal. Final sales prices are solid, and there is some sign that bargain hunters may be making headway in the marketplace. Despite the problems in multi-family communities, available inventory of rental property in the MLS continues to drop. We can only hope that some of those contingent short sales will eventually become investor owned properties.

Other Information: There’s been a lot of talk this week about rising defaults — the first step in a foreclosure — and the failures of the government HAMP program. I’m starting to hear more about the “shadow inventory” that banks allegedly own but haven’t put on the market yet again, but the figures suggest that even if that is happening in some places, it certainly isn’t here! Experts think that our local residential real estate market has bottomed, but that commercial real estate has a long way to go, particularly multi-family (apartment) properties. And speaking of apartments, just a friendly reminder, unless it is an “age restricted community” it is against federal law to discriminate against families with children! If you experience this, report it to HUD!

Available Listings: There are 8094 single family homes (down), with a median price of $179,900 (unchanged), $89 per square foot (down), with median time on market of 76 days (unchanged). In addition, there are 1921 condominiums and townhomes (up), with a median price of $76,900 (down), $69 per square foot (unchanged), and median time on market of 65 days (down).

Distressed Properties: Of available listings, there are 4401 short sales (down) and 1487 bank-owned properties (up). Median price for a short sale is $130,000 (unchanged); median price on a bank-owned home is $135,000 (down). All short sale listings must be considered at risk of becoming bank owned properties whether they are available or contingent. The 4107 non-distressed properties for sale (down) had a median price of $239,900 (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, 117 under $50,000; 1008 between $50,000-$100,000; 3641 between $100,000-$200,000; 2107 between $200,000-$400,000; 606 between $400,000-$700,000; 239 between $700,000-$1,000,000; and 501 over $1,000,000.

Condo and Townhome Prices: Of available listings, 398 under $50,000; 912 between $50,000-$100,000; 499 between $100,000-$200,000; 111 between $200,000-$400,000; 29 between $400,000-$700,000; 6 between $700,000-$1,000,000; and 2 over $1,000,000.

Contingent and Pending listings: Of the 15971 properties in the process of being purchased (up), 12949 are single family homes with median price of $135,000 (unchanged); 3021 are condominiums or townhomes with median price of $65,000 (down). Final negotiated sales prices are confidential until closing. Of those, 11206 were short sale (up), 2745 were bank owned (up), and 2005 were non-distressed sales (up).

Recently sold: 582 properties closed in the last week, 3497 in the last 30 days, and 11439 so far this year. For properties closed in the last 30 days, median time on market was 30 days (unchanged, time on market including the contingent period was 111 days). Median sales price was $128,000 (up); median list price was $129,900 (up). It is unusual in our market for median sales price to be lower than median list price — could this be the beginning of a trend? Short sales accounted for 896 of them (not up again, but still a strong number), there were 1669 bank owned properties, and 928 non-distressed sales.

Rentals: 4251 homes, townhomes, and condos were available for rent in the Valley in the MLS system. Median square footage of these units is 1363 and median rent is $1100. There are 777 contingent leases waiting to be signed and 2041 leases signed in the last 30 days with median rent of $1100 and median square footage of 1503.

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.