Las Vegas Home Sales Climb in June, Led by Foreclosure Bonanza

The region will continue to rely heavily on first-time buyers and investors to absorb much of its foreclosure inventory.

A popular form of financing used by first-time home buyers - government-insured FHA loans - accounted for 51.8% of all June purchases, while absentee buyers bought 37.5% of all Las Vegas-area homes last month, according to an analysis of public property records. Absentee buyers are often investors, but could include second-home buyers and others who, for various reason, have their property tax bill sent to an address other than that of the home they've purchased.

Across the West, year-over-year declines in the median sale price - the point where half of the homes sold for more and half for less - have sometimes overstated the extent to which the value of the typical home has fallen. It's because the median is being tugged lower not just by price depreciation but by shifts in the types of homes selling. For example, more of today's sales involve foreclosures, which tend to sell at a discount and be concentrated in more affordable areas. Also, the August 2007 credit crunch made larger "jumbo" mortgages more expensive and harder to obtain, which has led to sluggish sales - in some cases the lowest in many years - in higher-priced communities. (A dropoff in high-end sales can pull down the median.)

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