Las Vegas Home Prices Fall 34% on Foreclosure Sales (Update1)

The droves of investors and speculators have descended on Las Vegas because, according to the National Association of Realtors, now is the perfect time to buy.  You first…-Sean

Source Article Bloomberg.

Dec. 1 (Bloomberg) — Las Vegas home prices fell 34 percent in October from a year-earlier as foreclosed properties accounted for two-thirds of sales, reducing the value of single- family houses and condominiums, MDA DataQuick said today.

The median price paid for all new and re-sold houses and condos in the Las Vegas metropolitan area fell to $130,000 in October from $196,000 a year earlier, the San Diego-based real estate research company said today in a statement. The price has been at or close to $130,000 since July and hasn’t fallen below that level since April 1999, when it was $129,000.

Homes that had been foreclosed on in the previous 12 months rose to 67 percent of resales in October, from 65 percent a year earlier, MDA DataQuick said. It was the highest foreclosure rate that month among metropolitan areas with populations of 200,000 or more, according to RealtyTrac Inc.

A total of 5,068 new and resale houses and condominiums were sold in the Las Vegas-Paradise metropolitan, an increase of 1.1 percent from September and 22 percent from a year earlier, MDA DataQuick said. Of those, 485 were newly built, down 34 percent from a year earlier.

“Builders can’t compete with discounted foreclosure resales,” MDA DataQuick said.

The research company is a unit of Richmond, British Columbia-based MacDonald, offshore pharmacies Dettwiler & Associates Ltd. It compiles surveys using county records and supplies real estate information to customers including public agencies, lenders and title companies.