Las Vegas Home Sales Gripped by Foreclosures

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Foreclosures maintained a tight grip on the Las Vegas area's housing market in May, when the allure of discounted distressed properties kept resale activity at a three-year high. The median price paid for existing single-family houses fell for the 18th consecutive month, a real estate information service reported.

About 73.4% of the Las Vegas-area houses and condos that resold in May were foreclosure resales, meaning those homes had been foreclosed on in the prior 12 months. That was up from 55.9% in May 2008, according to MDA DataQuick. The San Diego firm tracks real estate trends nationally via public property records.

A total of 4,536 new and resale houses and condos closed escrow in the Las Vegas-Paradise metro area (Clark County) last month, up 1.9% from April and up 23% from a year ago. It was the highest sales total for any month since 4,721 homes sold in March 2007, and the highest for any May since 7,615 homes sold in May 2006.

May marked the 14th consecutive month in which sales of existing single-family detached houses rose on a year-over-year basis. The 3,373 single-family house resales last month were the highest for any May since 3,638 sold in May 2006. Resale condos have seen an annual sales gain for 11 straight months.

Sales of newly built homes remain extraordinarily low, largely because home builders cannot compete with heavily discounted foreclosure resales. Last month's 365 new-home sales rose 12.7% from April but were 61.3% lower than a year ago. May's new-home total fell 80.4% short of the average number sold in that month since 1994, when DataQuick's complete (all home types) Las Vegas region statistics begin. The lowest month for new-home closings was January 2009, when 249 sold.