When I look at available REO listings I’m looking at a single snapshot in time because that reflects what the consumer is facing on a daily basis. We have seen a drop from over 10,000 available bank owned listings in our MLS to just over 2100 today. We are now seeing REO inventory hit the local market at only about the same rate that existing available properties go under contract. That is creating an insidious multiple offer situation that favors cash sales. But we will wait until the first of 2010 to see if any quantity of new inventory really floods our market.

The Greater Las Vegas residential real estate market did start off strong by recording more units sold than August and September; typically October stats for residential resales begin a seasonal decline. Also keep in mind that I am only addressing residential resale transactions since the numbers and stats surrounding new home sales remains anemic at best. It is expected that economic recovery will begin with a rebound in residential resale homes - and we are beginning to see signs of that! Having a very strong October on the heels of several previous good months is hopeful; however, it only takes one or two down months to give back all the momentum and dampen demand. Still I remain cautiously optimistic that we are beginning to see daylight at the end of the economic recovery tunnel in Las Vegas.

New York Times: “Consumer confidence makes unexpectedly sharp fall in early October” For the record, consumer confidence fell over 5.5 percent. I wouldn’t exactly call that “soaring,” even though you, for some reason seem to think it is.

Commercial construction is pretty much at a stand-still, hotel occupancies keep going down, and the unemployment rate has skyrocketed here in the valley. It came out within the last week that Las Vegas leads the nation in foreclosures, with a rate that is SEVEN times the national average, and 68% of all sales are bank sales of foreclosed homes.

You claim that “The availability of bank-owned listings has dipped.” Again, are you really THAT clueless? There has, in fact, been an increase of nearly 9 percent from last quarter and an increase of nearly 54 percent from the third quarter of 2008.

With all of that said, how can you claim that we are experiencing “A Strong Start to the 4th Quarter of 2009 !” What on earth are you smoking?? And, if you are a realtor I feel so very sorry for your clients.