Las Vegas Market On The Mend?
May 9th, 2011
Amid ambiguous reports on the national housing market – volume is up, prices are down – Las Vegas home sales actually registered at a five-year high in March of this year, with “investors, cash buyers and others targeting sub-$100,000 homes” in the area[1]. 4,953 homes were sold in the Las Vegas-Paradise metro area, which is the most since March 2006. Furthermore, more than half of all the homes sold (54%) were purchased by cash buyers, due in part to tighter lending standards and in part to the significant advantages that cash buyers have over those who need financing. Median home prices in the area were reported at $88,450, down nearly $2,000 from the month prior and nearly $15,000 from a year earlier.
The high volume of Vegas sales is attributable, in large part, to absentee buyers. 49.9 percent of all homes sold in the area were purchased by absentee buyers purchasing distressed properties, which made up 69 percent of all sales. DataQuick, a San Diego research firm, called the demand for distressed property and investor involvement in the local market “unusually strong,” and noted that new home sales in the area are still suffering (only 17.9% of the market)[2]. Las Vegas was one of the first areas of the country to experience the housing crisis. Do you think it is now one of the first areas finally on the road to recovery?
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[1] http://www.thestreet.com/story/11106337/1/las-vegas-home-sales-lifted-by-investors.html?cm_ven=GOOGLEN
[2] http://www.housingwire.com/2011/05/04/las-vegas-home-sales-hit-another-five-year-high-on-increased-distressed-sales
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