Forrest's Training & Education

Real Estate Today is NAR’s new talk radio show hosted by Gil Gross that airs on the Internet at www.retradio.com as well as XM Radio channel 158, Sirius Channel 102 as well as podcasts. You can even receive the broadcast on your cell phone.  Real Estate Today opens doors for buyers and sellers with critical and credible information on the real estate market.  It’s fast paced and fact packed with experts, interviews, call-ins, field reports and timely market conditions.  The website maintains broadcast archives and is a great resource for researching housing market stats.

Let’s start off by downloading the March 2009 Greater Las Vegas Market Stats for Single Family Residences listed under one million dollars.  Please note the “Available Homes” count; inventory levels dropped significantly in each of the past two months even as the closings have soared.  REO sales still accounted for eighty percent (80%) of the March closings with another eight percent (8%) attributed to short sales.  March closings sold according to the following sales terms:

     Sold Term                                       Average Sale Price

• Cash          35%                                   $123,000
• Conv         27%                                    $210,000
• FHA          31%                                    $161,000
• VA               7%                                    $191,000

Market activity and closed units soared in March despite the fact that the average closed sales price has dropped 35% in the past twelve months.  In truth the price drops have fueled a robust resale market.  However, parts of Henderson (Area 606 and zipcode 89052 in particular) continue to hold their own on closed sales prices.  Average sales prices in that area remain right at $310,000.  It’s also noteworthy that area 405 saw average sales prices jump nearly $20,000 in March.

Finally, let’s take a brief look at current REO vs Short Sale Listings.

Isn’t it interesting that we have more short sale listings than REO listings but end up the month with 80% of GLVAR closings being attributed to REO sales and only 8% due to Short Sale closings?  This really showcases the terrible inefficiencies in processing and closing short sales in this market.  The short sale transaction process remains in worse shape than the Big 3 automaker’s assembly lines in Detroit!