Las Vegas Real Estate in March: Year-over-year Non-contingent Inventory up 128%

This is a key distressed market to follow since Las Vegas has seen the largest price decline of any of the Case-Shiller composite 20 cities.

The Greater Las Vegas Association of Realtors reported GLVAR reports rising home prices and more homes available for sale

GLVAR said the total number of existing local homes, condominiums and townhomes sold in March was 3,094, up from 2,518 in February, but down from 3,642 one year ago.
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GLVAR continued to track the transition from distressed to more traditional home sales, where lenders are not controlling the transaction. GLVAR has been reporting fewer short sales – which occur when lenders allow borrowers to sell a home for less than what they owe on the mortgage. In March, 12.9 percent of all existing local home sales were short sales, down from 14 percent in February. Another 11.7 percent of all March sales were bank-owned properties, down from 12 percent in February.

GLVAR said 43.1 percent of all existing local homes sold in March were purchased with cash. That’s down from 46.8 percent the previous month, and well short of the February 2013 peak of 59.5 percent.
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The total number of single-family homes listed for sale on GLVAR’s Multiple Listing Service in March was 13,944. That’s up 2.3 percent from 13,624 listed in February and up 1.8 percent from 13,693 listed one year ago. GLVAR reported a total of 3,701 condos and townhomes listed for sale on its MLS in March, up 3.9 percent from 3,561 listed in February and up 7.2 percent from one year ago. ...

By the end of March, GLVAR reported 6,470 single-family homes listed without any sort of offer. That’s up 2.4 percent from 6,316 such homes listed in February, and a 127.9 percent jump from one year ago.
emphasis added

There are several key trends that we've been following:

1) Overall sales were down about 15% year-over-year.

2) Conventional sales were up 16% year-over-year. In March 2013, only 55.5% of all sales were conventional. This year, in March 2014, 75.4% were conventional.

3) The percent of cash sales is down year-over-year (investor buying appears to be declining).

4) and most interesting right now is that non-contingent inventory (year-over-year) is now increasing rapidly. Non-contingent inventory is up 127.9% year-over-year (more than double)!

Inventory has clearly bottomed in Las Vegas (A major theme for housing last year). And fewer distressed sales and more inventory means price increases will slow (a major theme for 2014).