Las Vegas home sales in April were essentially flat over April 2010 with just a 0.4% uptick, while prices slumped 13% as foreclosures continued to dominate the market, according to DataQuick.

About 4,500 new and resale homes and condos sold in the Las Vegas metropolitan area last month, down 9.5% fromMarch.

The median price paid for all new and resale houses and condos sold was $116,500, sliding 13% from a year earlier and down 0.4% from March. It was the seventh consecutive month in which the median price fell year-over-year, and the magnitude of the decline was the highest in since the median fell 17.2% year-over-year in February 2010.

Still, sales hit a five-year high in April, as investors and cash buyers flocked to the distressed market.

DataQuick attributed the slight growth in sales to an influx of cash-only purchases. In April, 54.1% of sales transactions involved cash buyers, up slightly from 54% in March and up from 47.6% a year earlier.

Cash buyers paid a median $90,000 for a home last month, according to the San Diego-based research firm.

Prices are continually trending downward due to the amount of distressed sales every month. DataQuick said about 62% of all market sales in Las Vegas were attributable to distressed properties in April. This sector also made up 68% of the resale market.

DataQuick reported a slight rise in the number of foreclosed properties in April. Lenders foreclosed on 3,682 single-family homes and condos during the month, up 8.9% from February and up 11.2% from April 2010

HousingWire

Las Vegas region home sales dipped more than usual from March but still rose – barely – to the highest level for an April in five years. Price measures held steady month-to-month but remained well below last year as distressed properties represented nearly two-thirds of all sales and many investors and first-time buyers targeted sub-$100,000 homes, a real estate information service reported.

In April, 4,480 new and resale houses and condos closed escrow in the Las Vegas-Paradise metro area (Clark County) – the highest sales tally for an April since 2006, when 6,663 sold. April sales fell 9.5 percent from March but rose 0.4 percent from April 2010, according to San Diego-based DataQuick. The firm tracks real estate trends nationally via public property records.

On average, the region’s sales have fallen 4.6 percent between March and April since 1994, when DataQuick’s complete Las Vegas region statistics begin. April’s sales total was 6.6 percent higher than the average number sold in April since 1994.

Total sales have risen year-over-year for four consecutive month, mainly because of robust investor and cash-only purchases.

In April, 54.1 percent of all the Las Vegas-area homes sold were purchased by cash buyers. That was about even with 54.0 percent in March, up from 47.6 percent a year ago, and down from a record 56.7 percent in February this year.

The unusually high level of cash buyers reflects a combination of factors, including: Tighter lending standards that force some investors and other buyers to pay cash if they can; cash buyers’ ability to move to the head of the line with sellers when there are multiple offers (sellers like the speed and certainty of cash deals); a preference among some to invest their cash in real estate as opposed to competing investments; retirees who downsize, selling a more expensive property and paying cash for the retirement home.

Cash buyers in April paid a median $90,000 for a home in the Las Vegas area, up from $88,450 in March but down from $112,000 a year earlier.

Many cash buyers are absentee buyers, which are mainly investors or second-home buyers.

Absentee buyers purchased 47.5 percent of all homes sold in April, down from a record 49.9 percent in March but up from 42.0 percent a year ago. Absentee buyers paid a median $99,546 in April, down from $99,750 in March and $117,000 a year earlier. Absentee buyers are those who indicate at the time of sale that the property tax bill will go to a different address.

The heavy presence of cash buyers and other investors, with their focus on lower-cost properties, helps explain why 39.2 percent of April sales were for under $100,000, compared with 40 percent in March, 29.5 percent a year ago and 31.9 percent two years ago.

The median price paid for all new and resale houses and condos sold in the Las Vegas metro area in April was $116,500, down 0.4 percent from $117,000 in March and down 13.0 percent from a year earlier. It was the seventh consecutive month in which the median fell year-over-year, and the magnitude of the decline was the highest in since the median fell 17.2 percent year-over-year in February 2010.

Since the median hit a 2010 high of $139,000 last June, it has either declined or shown no change each month compared with a year earlier.

The April median was the lowest for any month since the median was $113,000 in October 1995, and it was 62.7 percent below the peak $312,000 median in November 2006.

The median’s recent decline to a more-than-15-year low can be attributed to several factors: price depreciation; robust sales of low-cost foreclosures; robust sales to investors, who mainly target low-cost properties; extraordinarily low new-home sales (new homes tend to sell for more than resale homes); and higher-than-usual condo resales (condos tend to be the least expensive homes).

April’s new-home sales were the second-lowest for that month (behind April 2009) since at least 1994, while sales of existing (not new) condos last month were the highest for an April since 2005. Resale condos represented 20.4 percent of April sales, compared with a monthly average of 13.1 percent of sales over the past decade.

An alternative home price gauge – the median paid per square foot for resale single-family detached houses – held at $70 in April, the same as in January, February and March, but down 10.3 percent from a year earlier. The January-through-April median paid per square foot is the lowest since it was also $70 back in April 1995. April’s figure was 63.2 percent below the peak $190 paid per square foot in May and June of 2006.

In April, a popular form of low-down-payment financing for first-time home buyers – government-insured FHA loans – accounted for 41.1 percent of all home purchase loans. That was up from 39.1 percent in March but down from 47.5 percent a year earlier and a peak of 55.1 percent in September 2008.

Distressed sales – the combination of sales of foreclosed homes and “short sales” – continued to dominate the market, representing about 62 percent of total sales and 68 percent of the resale market.

Foreclosure resales – homes that had been foreclosed on in the prior 12 months – accounted for 55.6 percent of the Las Vegas resale market in April. That was down from 57.3 percent in March but up from 51.9 percent a year earlier. Foreclosure resales peaked at 73.7 percent of the resale market in April 2009.

Short sales – transactions where the sale price fell short of what was owed on the property – made up an estimated 12.8 percent of Las Vegas-area April resales. That compares to an estimated 11.6 percent in March, 14.7 percent a year ago, and 6.7 percent two years ago.

The number of homes foreclosed on in the Las Vegas region in April increased from both March and a year earlier. Lenders foreclosed on 3,628 single-family house and condo units in April, up 8.9 percent from March and up 11.2 percent from April 2010. The peak month was February 2009, which saw 3,718 foreclosures. The figures are based on the number of Trustees Deeds filed at the county recorder’s office.

During the first four months of this year, 11,969 house and condo units have been foreclosed on, up 34.9 percent from the same period last year.

The foreclosure totals can include units that the county assessor has designated condos, but are currently used as apartments (e.g. a 100-unit complex designated as condos but used as apartments could be foreclosed on and those units would be reflected in the foreclosure total for that month). For this reason and others, the number of foreclosure filings has seesawed, and a single month’s increase or decline doesn’t necessarily indicate a new trend.

By Inman News, Thursday, September 16, 2010.

Inman News

The number of homes that received foreclosure filings — default notices, scheduled auctions, and bank repossessions — rose 4 percent in August from the month before, according to a monthly report by foreclosure data site RealtyTrac.

For the 18th straight month, foreclosure activity exceeded 300,000 properties, reaching 338,836. Despite the month-to-month increase, foreclosure activity dropped 5 percent compared to August 2009.

Of the three types of foreclosure filings, only notices of default decreased on either a month-to-month or year-over-year level. At 96,469, default notices fell 1 percent from July and 30 percent from August 2009. August was the seventh month in a row to see notices drop year-over-year. They peaked in April 2009 at 142,064, the report said.

Meanwhile, scheduled auctions rose 9 percent from July and 2 percent from August 2009, to 147,003 — the second highest monthly total since the site began keeping track in April 2005.

Bank repossessions in August shot up to a record high 142,064 properties, about 2 percent higher than the previous crop of bank-owned (REO) homes. REOs rose 3 percent compared to July and 25 percent compared to August 2009. August was the ninth consecutive month to see bank repossessions jump year-over-year, the report said.

“The trend lines of decreasing default notices and increasing bank repossessions converged in August, with virtually the same number of new default notices and bank repossessions for the month — a clear indication that the clogged foreclosure pipeline is being carefully managed on both ends by lenders and servicers,” said James J. Saccacio, RealtyTrac’s CEO, in a statement.

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“On the front end, seriously delinquent loans are rolling into foreclosure at an unusually slow rate, while on the back end the dammed-up inventory of properties already in foreclosure is moving to REO in a  steady stream rather than a flood — presumably to prevent further erosion of home prices.”

Nationwide, one in every 381 housing units received a foreclosure filing in August. That’s up from one in 397 in July. Among the top 10 states with the highest foreclosure activity, only one state is new to the list this month: Hawaii.

The Aloha State climbed six spots to the No. 10 ranking in August — the second time the state has cracked the top 10 in the history of the report (the first time was in December 2009).

One in every 315 housing units in the state received a foreclosure filing last month. Hawaii had the highest month-to-month increase in foreclosure activity of any state (75. 2 percent) and the third highest year-over-year increase (87.5 percent). This excludes states where data-collection changes have have skewed the results.

For the 44th straight month, Nevada had the highest foreclosure rate in the country: one in 84 units received a foreclosure filing in August; Nevertheless, the state registered a 25 percent drop in foreclosure activity compared to August 2009.

Florida and Arizona switched places this month for the No. 2 and No. 3 spots, respectively. Florida’s foreclosure activity rose 10.3 percent compared to July, but fell 8.6 percent compared to August 2009. One in 155 housing units received a foreclosure filing.

In Arizona, foreclosure activity rose 1.3 percent compared to July and fell 7.3 percent compared to August 2009. One in 165 units received a foreclosure filing.

California and Idaho kept their No. 4 and No. 5 spots in August, with one in 194 and one in 220 units receiving a foreclosure filing, respectively. Foreclosure activity in California fell 25.1 percent year-over-year, but rose 11.3 percent in Idaho during the same period.

Both Utah (No. 6) and Georgia (No.7) had higher foreclosure rates this month compared to August 2009: with 25 percent and 27 percent increases, respectively.

Michigan dropped two spots on the list to No. 8 — its foreclosure activity fell 5.7 percent month-to-month and 8.2 percent year-over-year. Illinois also dropped one spot to No. 9 with a 14.3 percent month-to-month decrease in activity. The state registered a 28.5 percent year-over-year increase, however.

California, Florida, Michigan , Illinois and Arizona accounted for more than half of all foreclosure filings activity nationwide. Twenty percent of all activity was situated in California, while Florida was home to 17 percent of the overall activity.

Top 10 states with the highest foreclosure activity in August:

Source: RealtyTrac.

The top 10 foreclosure hotspots in the nation appear to be cooling down — all of these metros posted year-over-year declines. In metro areas with a population of 200,000 or more, the Las Vegas-Paradise, Nev., area had the highest foreclosure rate: 1 in every 73 housing units collected a foreclosure filing in August. That marked a 25 percent decline in activity compared to the same month last year.

Modesto, Calif., came in at second with a ratio of 1 in 95 housing units — a decline of 10 percent compared to August 2009.

Top 10 foreclosure hotspots (metro areas):

Source: RealtyTrac.

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