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June 29, 2012

Home > Blog > Las Vegas Housing Inventory Drops More in June

If you are wondering why there doesn't seem to be much for sale in Las Vegas anymore: as of June 29, 2012, only 3,785 single family homes listed in the Las Vegas MLS remain as active (not under contract) in Clark County.

The current market breakdown looks like this:

492 homes priced under $100k - including 180 short sales and 88 foreclosures
1332 homes priced between $100k and $200k - including 447 short sales and 180 foreclosures
766 homes priced between $200k and $300k - including 190 short sales and 71 foreclosures
401 homes priced between $300 and $400k - including 69 short sales and 28 foreclosures
186 homes priced between $400k and $500k - including 25 short sales and 7 foreclosures
200 homes priced between $500k and $750k - including 31 short sales and 2 foreclosures
129 homes priced between $750k and $1M - including 17 short sales and 3 foreclosure
281 homes priced over 1M - including 12 short sales and 3 foreclosures

This is almost an 18% decrease in total housing inventory just since the end of April. Only 382 homes, or 10.09% of the market listings, are Las Vegas foreclosure listings. Only 971 homes on the market are short sale listings, 25.65% of all available inventory. All the rest, just over 64%, are "traditional" sellers. Prices have increased more than 8% since the beginning of the year.

Listing agents don't even have time to get photos into the MLS before the properties are sold, so most homes don't even show pictures on the Internet anymore. Buyers who need to purchase quickly should view the details on the new listings even if they don't have photos, and get out with their agent to view anything that sounds interesting as fast as possible.

And prices are rising again. Buyers should definitely be prepared to bid over list price if they are serious about purchasing. With the decreased inventory, most properties are going anywhere from 3% to 10% over the initial asking price, and some buyers are even agreeing to pay the difference between the appraised value and the sales price in cash at closing.

It will take a while for appraisals to match true market value - appraisers were slapped down hard in the previous boom years, and are still taking a cautious approach to estimating market value, even on properties with multiple offers above list price on them. We are even seeing "escalator" clauses again in some contracts - an "escalator" clause is where a buyer agrees to top any other asking price by a set amount just to be able to obtain the home they want.

That's why it's important to find an aggressive agent that understands the market and the negotiation process, and can explain the best way to go about securing a home in a seller's market. (A word of caution, national real estate estates like Realtor.com, Homes.com, Zillow and Trulia are only updated every four or five days and still include the "contingent" properties in their searchable databases. Make sure you are on a local site like www.GreatLasVegasHomes.com that only lists "active" listings that are not yet under contract.)

Mastura Roberts
(702) 919-5400
offers@greatlasvegashomes.com

Team Leader, The Tonnesen Team
Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices, Nevada
3185 St Rose Pkwy #100 Henderson, NV 89052

With over 30 years of experience helping families call Las Vegas "home!"