The foreclosure market continues to comprise the majority of all real estate sales in Nevada. In March, foreclosure resales rose to 57.3% of the entire Las Vegas resale market. 57.3% represents an increase from February of 2011 where foreclosure resales were 56.7%, still a higher increase from 55.5% from a year earlier. Short sales are reported to have comprised 13% of all sales in March of 2011.
It is this authors guess that the foreclosure resale market will continue to grow in Las Vegas since more than 3,300 residential units were foreclosed upon in March of 2011 which was an increase of more than 46% from the month prior and 52% from March of 2010.
Las Vegas home sales were tracked at a five-year high in March. The increase in activity is attributed to volume purchases from investors and cash buyers focusing on foreclosures. However, due to the large number of discounted sales, the median residential price continues to fall. According to DataQuick, the median home price was $117,000, down 10% from this time last year and the lowest since January of 1996.
The continued decline in the Las Vegas market as well as others across the country is stated as the primary cause for the quarter loss claimed by Fannie Mae which is listed as 8.7 billion dollars for the first quarter of 2011. Fannie acquired 53,549 residences in the first quarter and seeks an additional 8.5 billion dollars in taxpayer funds from the Treasury which would bring the total advances to 100 billion dollars.
