Southern Nevada Tense Over Foreclosure Predicament

September 10th, 2007

Applied Analysis and Urban Environmental Research’s report released recently, confirmed that foreclosure predicaments have made homeowners in Southern Nevada very distressed.

3,148 foreclosure filings were reported in the region in the second quarter of 2007. The figure is an astounding 793 percent more than last year figure. Moreover, as per the agency’s estimations, 4,536 foreclosure more filings may take place in the coming months. This will be near about 821 percent more than last year.

Clark-County’s newly developed area tops the foreclosure charts followed by Las Vegas and North Las Vegas in the list. This has put lot of pressure on the inflated pile of home inventories in the valley region. The Greater Las Vegas Association of Realtors reported 24,090 piled stock of housing units in the market in July 2007. This is an 18.9 percent increase in the figure from last year.

Devin Reiss, president of GLVAR, quoted that he had warned about this crisis to many prospective buyers’ months ago, and added that now was the time to buy homes, when property prices have gone down so much.

Despite the fact that real estate values have declined, only 1,319 houses have been sold off in July i.e. 35 percent less than the last-year’s record. Median sales prices have gone down by 5 percent less than last year, as sales prices decreased to $296,000 a month ago.

6,270 housing units lying for-sale in the market does not make the market attractive enough because sales are not taking place as they used to. Last month just 304 housing units were sold, thereby declining sales figures by 41 percent. Median sales prices went down slightly to $195,000 i.e. 3.2 percent lower than 2006.

A recent survey projects that the supply of inventories will continue to grow in the same manner since foreclosure filings are likely to increase, said Brian Gordon, Principal of Applied Analysis and Urban Environmental Research in Las Vegas. Experts are not sure about the extent of the current phase; however, they say that it will reside for a long time at augmented levels.

Despite the rising foreclosure rates, various projects are on going. Great Harvest Bread Co. will open a 2,084 sq. foot shop inside Nigro Development’s Siena Town Center at Tropicana Avenue and Hualapai way. Another mega project is by Core Construction at Smoke Ranch Road and Fire Mesa Street - a $1.4 million medical office tenant improvement for Las Vegas Radiology.