Note that an earlier analysis for condominium transactions included information from the Clark County Assessor’s office. That data includes transactions that were the result of foreclosures, bulk (multiple parcel sales), and trustee sales as well as ‘normal’ arm’s length transactions.

 

The classification of unit types was somewhat different, also. The MLS information presented here removes all high-rise units from the mix but includes, predominately, stacked-flat units as well as mid-rise units (e.g. a Strip project Manhattan). So, while the assessor information shows a substantial drop in stacked-flat units from February to March, this MLS analysis shows a 27% increase due to the combination of two unit types.

 

Average – Median Sales Price 2009                                                  

 

 

 

The rate of decline rises and falls every month but continues its downward trend. It’s almost inconceivable to imagine but the median price per square foot of condominiums sold through the MLS has declined almost 46% since last March when the median sales price was $162,250!

 

At least the number of transactions is up 79% from March 2008 and a little more than 70% for the entire 1^st quarter.

 

There were 961 total transactions for the quarter. Sixty-four were Normal, 56 were short sales, and 841 were REO.

 

 

Due to the number of Short Sale transactions I thought I would provide a breakdown by the 3 types of transactons: Normal or arm’s length, short sale and REO (bank-owned).

 

While the data is always open to interpretation, based upon how I view this condominium information there is a message to the financial institutions and government agencies ostensibly bent on ‘helping’ the market: the message I take away is that if short sale transactions can be expedited and facilitated the ultimate losses suffered financially and emotionally would be far less than allowing more than 90% of these short sale (over 10,000 currently listed) end up in foreclosure.

 

The bogus ‘help’ offered by the Feds (and some of the states) has only exacerbated the problem by slowing the process of cleaning up the mess. Instead of expediting short sale transactions, the process that I and my associates encounter is one of confusion and delay on the part of most of the financial institutions.

 

Instead of resorting to bulk sales of foreclosed properties the banks, Fannie & Freddie are waiting to see how they can get the taxpayer to take the bullet and bail them out at the financial expense of the taxpayer and emotional expense of the homeowners.

This graph illustrates how the short sales and foreclosures are squeezing out the normal sellers. In August of 2008 nearly ¼ of all listings were considered Normal. That is now down to 7% of all listings. Short sale listings has increased as a percentage of listings, now over 44% but accounted for less than 6% of all successful closings during the quarter.

 

Does anyone believe that when the bulk of the bank-owned properties get absorbed there won’t be a rush to the exits by normal sellers wishing to dispose of their properties due to illness, job less, life changes, etc. keeping the market depressed for an additional period of time?

 

Average Sales Price of $116,070 and an average of $93.37 per square foot while the median sales price was $90,000 and a median value ratio of $83.52. Prices ranged from $29,500 to $600,000 with sizes ranging from 392 square feet to 2,245 square feet.

 

Normal properties were on the market for an average of 87 days with the median at 64.

 

Average Sales Price of $74,473 and an average of $71.01 per square foot while the median sales price was $65,000 and a median value ratio of $66.83.  If you strip out the impact of higher prices and value ratios for the short sale transactions that are lumped together with REO transactions the REO numbers are even more dismal. Prices ranged from $17,000 to $650,000 with sizes ranging from 462 square feet to 2,475 square feet.

 

Days on the market (before contract) ranged from 1 to 496 days with the median at 50 days.

 

Not surprisingly, none of the REO properties was occupied while only 15.6% of the non-REO properties was occupied.

 

Methodology: Data is downloaded from the Greater Las Vegas Association of Realtors MLS website into a spreadsheet for analysis & graphing. During the course of the analysis errors are corrected that are discovered, e.g. in November 2008 data a sales price of $326,000 was reported as $32,600,000 – enough to skew the median sales price for the month by 5% and skew the average by over 11%. While we do our best to cross-check information with Clark County assessor records and use a variety of statistical checks to discover errors Residential Resources, Inc. cannot guarantee the accuracy of the data. We do believe that given the meticulous ‘scrubbing’ we do that any undetected errors (including errors of omission) do not substantially affect the statistics presented.

 

There is usually a discrepancy between our total closing figures compared to other sources, such as GLVAR, since we eliminate closings that are actually condominium properties that end up in the single family residential category as well as sales reported as lease-options. Additionally, since MLS data is self-reported, it may take an agent/office a couple of weeks to accurately report a closing date for the previous month – they are subject to fines so the margin for error is not great. Since we generally download our data on the 5^th of the following month (depending upon the day of the week) there may be properties that show up after our download.

 

Conclusions and interpretations are solely those of Residential Resources, Inc.

For further information on this or Northern Nevada (Reno/Sparks and Fernley/Fallon) or for a quote on custom analysis please contact:

 

Frank Nason, President

702-597-2855 Office or Toll-free 866-597-2855

5520 South Fort Apache Road

Las Vegas, Nevada 89148

 

To download a copy of this and the northern Nevada report with additional graphs please visit: