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for more than a year, the housing supply has been
very tight and homes are selling at a very brisk pace.
HAVE LOCAL HOME PRICES HIT THE BOTTOM?
• It’s difficult to predict if and when home prices
might hit the proverbial “bottom,” or lowest price
over a given period of time. What we can say is that
prices went up 24 percent in 2012.
• With more than half of all local homes selling
for cash, it’s obvious that thousands of “smart
money” buyers purchasing properties here each
month believe local homes are a good
investment.
ARE CASH BUYERS GOOD FOR THE HOUSING MARKET?
• This steady stream of cash buyers speaks
volumes about the future of Las Vegas, which has
always had strong selling points. These include
our affordable housing options, world-class
resorts, entertainment, dining and shopping
offerings, warm weather, low taxes and more.
• Though we’d love to see more owner-occupants
buying homes, investors buying homes and
renting them to others is better than the
alternative of leaving homes vacant. At least
investors are putting people into homes. This
helps our neighborhoods.
WHAT CAN BE DONE ABOUT ALL THESE FORECLOSURES?
• We’re actually seeing far fewer foreclosures in
Southern Nevada.
• For years, REALTORS ® have been urging banks,
lawmakers and others to work together to
encourage and streamline short sales as a more
beneficial alternative to foreclosure.
• Again, we’ve made great progress in this area. By
the end of 2012, short sales accounted for nearly
half of all existing local home sales, while
foreclosures accounted for fewer than 10 percent
of all local home sales. n
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SOUTHERN NEVADA REALTOR ® MARCH 2013 www.LasVegasRealtor.com