Jan 12
27
Welcome to Friday Figures! All information from the GLVAR MLS system. It’s what you and your REALTOR need before touring, making an offer, or preparing a listing in the Las Vegas Valley this weekend. Watch me talk about the figures live on Getting REAL (Estate) in Vegas on the Vegas Video Network live today and every Friday at 2:00 PM! Today we’ll talk about making your home feel bigger, an unusual farm, and rentals.
Summary: We have 10715 available properties, yet another drop. We haven’t seen this low a number of available units since June of 2010 and the end of the Home Buyers Tax Credit. The number of bank owned properties is abnormally low as lenders try to figure out how to comply with relatively new state laws and rulings by state judges. Expect more foreclosures by summer. More short sale and traditional sellers should start to appear with the flowers of Spring. While the number of available units is down, properties under contract are up — a healthy sign by most measures. We have a major tick up in both the number of leases waiting to be signed and the new leases signed. Rentals continue to move fast in this town, so don’t delay if you need to lease!
The News: The Feds are still trying to push through a big foreclosure fraud settlement that involves forgetting about investigating — let along prosecuting — the illegal actions of banks. However, they are bending under pressure from the public and at least two state Attorneys General to at least attempt to look into the matter. It turns out that “let the guys who wrecked the economy off the hook” is a bad strategy in an election year. In local foreclosure fraud news, yet another Nevada court has ruled that lenders must actually prove they have the right to foreclose before doing so.
December saw a drop in the number of homes under contract to be purchased nationwide. But don’t panic! That’s down from a 19 month high! Available inventory is down nationwide, too. It seems logical that if there are fewer homes available, fewer purchase contracts will result.
Two interesting problems to look out for. First, some economists think that all-cash real estate purchases are driving down home prices. Since roughly a third of our deals in Vegas are cash, this should be alarming. However, we have a large inventory of homes that are effectively un-mortgageable — those under $50,000 and those in very poor repair — so I do think this theory is overstated at least on the local level. It would be easy to say “See?? Look at all these homes selling for less than $50,000!” without pointing out that almost nobody locally will write a mortgage for that little. The other interesting thing is a study on what would happen if the minimum down payment on a mortgage went up sharply. It turns out that a minimum of as little as 10% would be a problem for as much as 40% of homebuyers. More alarming is that even more minority homebuyers would theoretically be out of luck. This study, of course, assumes that just because somebody made a lower down payment, the borrower couldn’t afford a bigger one. I find this assumption unrealistic.
Available Listings: There are 9151 single family homes (down), with a median price of $139,900 (unchanged), $72 per square foot (unchanged). In addition, there are 962 condominiums (up), with a median price of $55,000 (up), $55 per square foot (unchanged) and 600 townhomes (up) with a median price of $80,900 (up), $61 per square foot (up).
Distressed Properties: Of available listings, there are 4855 short sales (down) and 1883 bank-owned properties (down). Median price for a short sale is $110,000 (unchanged); median price on a bank-owned home is $109,000 (unchanged). All short sale listings should be considered at risk of becoming bank owned properties whether they are available or contingent. The 3974 non-distressed properties for sale (down) had a median price of $184,900 (down). While many of the non-distressed properties are traditional sellers, many others were purchased fairly recently as short sale or bank owned, and then renovated by investors.
Single Family Home Prices: Of available listings, 395 under $50,000; 2308 between $50,000-$100,000; 3838 between $100,000-$200,000; 1751 between $200,000-$400,000; 481 between $400,000-$700,000; 191 between $700,000-$1,000,000; and 305 over $1,000,000.
Condo and Townhome Prices: Of available listings, 549 under $50,000; 701 between $50,000-$100,000; 244 between $100,000-$200,000; 67 between $200,000-$400,000; 14 between $400,000-$700,000; 1 between $700,000-$1,000,000; and 1 over $1,000,000. For technical reasons, these figures do not include high-rise communities.
Contingent and Pending Listings: Of the 12843 properties in the process of being purchased (up), 10694 are single family homes with median price of $120,000 (unchanged); 1334 are condominiums with median price of $50,000 (unchanged); 815 are townhomes with a median price of $72,000 (up). Final negotiated sales prices are confidential until closing. Of the total, 8637 are short sale, 2760 are foreclosed, and 1446 are traditional sales. While the bank-owned and traditional sales are likely to close within 30-45 days, no time frame is available for unapproved short sales.
Recently Sold: 756 properties closed this week, 3455 in the last 30 days, and 2519 so far this year. For properties closed in the last 30 days, median time on market was 47 days (up). Median sales price was $108,000 (unchanged); median list price was $109,900 (unchanged). For single family homes, median sales price was $119,444 (up), for condos $47,750 (down), and for townhomes $69,900 (unchanged). Short sales accounted for 956 of the total, there were 1573 bank owned properties, and 927 non-distressed sales.
Rentals: 5871 homes, townhomes, and condos were available for rent in the Valley in the MLS system (down). Median square footage of these units is 1499 and median rent is $1099. There are 1040 contingent leases waiting to be signed and 2242 leases signed in the last 30 days (up) with median rent of $1095 and median square footage of 1536.
Need more information or help with your real estate needs? Call me today at 702-727-7842 or email bmagnus@bridgetmagnus.com. Based on information from the Greater Las Vegas Association of REALTORS Multiple Listing Service for the date specified above. This article was written and copyright by Bridget Magnus, and is her sole property.
