Archive for the 'Nevada Articles' Category

Las Vegas home prices improved in April as bank repo homes for sale dropped in number and in percentage during the month, based on data from the Greater Las Vegas Association of Realtors.

As the percentage of repossession houses for sale dropped, the price median for all houses sold in April increased to $142,000, marking a jump of 4.4 percent from the March median of $136,000 and an increase of 0.2 percent from the April 2009 median of $141,720. The price increase in April marked the first time prices rose year-over-year.

During the month, Las Vegas repossessed homes accounted for 43 of total home sales, down substantially from 53 percent two months earlier. In contrast, the percentage of short sales jumped from 22 percent to 27 percent of total sales.

Analysts at Home Builders Research contended that home prices in April surged because even first time home buyers turned to new homes when they could not find lower-priced bank repo homes. A total of 708 new homes were sold in March and another 707 new homes were sold in April, marking substantial increases from the 400 new homes sold in February.

Because of the sudden surge in demand for new homes, the median for newly-built houses increased to $208,178 in March, compared to January and February.

In contrast to the slowdown in foreclosure sales in metro Las Vegas, the number of repossessed homes in Nevada spiked in April to 4,096 units, up by 57.5 percent from 2,601 units in March.

Among the top four states in foreclosure rate, Nevada was the only one which posted a month-over-month increase in filings. Also, it was still on top of the foreclosure rate chart. Arizona, Florida and California all improved their foreclosure situation.

Additionally, the percentage of bank repo homes in Nevada as a portion of total filings in the state increased from 17.6 percent in March to 25.3 percent in April. Total foreclosure filings increased by 10 percent over the month to more than 16,200 filings.

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State worker Sindy Scarce has called on the Nevada Supreme Court to extend repo homes mediation for those homeowners who are on the brink of losing their properties to foreclosures.

Testifying before the court, she said that she is in danger of losing her house located in Carson City within 90 days because of the furloughs required by the Nevada Legislature. She told the court that she wants to modify her loan to avoid the notice of default.

The Nevada Supreme Court is in the process of writing the repo homes mediation rules which would allow distressed homeowners to request for intervention that requires participation of lenders once the notice of foreclosure had been issued. The court is expected to finalize the rules by next week with the mediation to start on August 1.

Author of the law and Clark County Legal Services executive director, Assembly Speaker Barbara Buckley expects that mediation cases will flood the court because Nevada tops the country in terms of foreclosure rate.

According to Chief Justice Jim Hardesty, the Supreme Court will try to reach out to lending institutions to determine if they are willing to go into voluntary repo homes mediation to help distressed homeowners save their properties from foreclosures.

However, he pointed out that the law requires that mediation could only be adopted on foreclosure cases filed not later than July 1. The law does not cover foreclosures that are pending, Hardesty added.

Meanwhile, Buckley said that lending institutions must be required to send their representatives to the mediation process. But these representatives should have the authority to make decisions on behalf of lending institutions.

She pointed out that many troubled homeowners are complaining that they could not reach someone in banks or lending institutions who has the authority to provide answers on their problems. She added that if lenders send in individuals to mediations who have only limited authority, the process could be derailed.

Assistant professor at the University of Las Vegas‘ Boyd School Ray Patterson said that a mediator need not be a lawyer. But already, over 400 lawyers and skilled mediators have applied to join the repo homes mediation program. And an administrator is set to be hired by the court for the mediation program.

With more than seven percent of its total residential properties in foreclosure in 2008, Nevada topped all other U.S. states in foreclosure rate last year. In the foreclosure report of California-based housing research firm RealtyTrac, Nevada had 77,693 properties in foreclosure in 2008, a jump of 126 percent from its 2007 foreclosure level and an overwhelming jump of 530 percent from its 2006 level.

Nevada’s foreclosure rate is much higher than the nationwide foreclosure rate of 1.8 percent in 2008. Across the nation, there were 2.3 million homes which were foreclosed last year, a jump of 81 percent from 2007 figures.

The hardest hit area in the state is Clark County, which includes Las Vegas, with 67,223 units in foreclosure. This represents 8.9 percent of all the county’s homes, an increase of 121 percent from the foreclosure rate in 2007. Among large U.S. cities, Las Vegas is second in foreclosure rate, with nearly 9 percent of its residential properties in foreclosure.

The other hard-hit counties in Nevada are Lyon which posted a foreclosure rate of 7.7 percent, Nye which posted 5.6 percent, Washoe which had 3.9 percent and Douglas which posted 2.07 percent. Washoe, which includes Reno, had 6,790 units in foreclosure.

Daren Blomquist of RealtyTrac said he expects the foreclosure rate to continue to increase in the West in 2009 because of the rise in unemployment and the scheduled increase in interest rates for adjustable-rate mortgages. He is doubtful about the effects of foreclosure interventions because of the failure of many foreclosure mitigation initiatives launched in 2008.

Mark Zandi, chief economist of Moody’s online research firm Economy.com, is doubtful about the recovery of the housing market in 2009. He said the current recession and the market overloaded with repossessed properties will push down home prices deeper into the pit. He indicated 2010 as the probable start of recovery.