Las Vegas Condo Sales up 16% in June, as REO Sales Dip to Two-Year Low

Home sales improved in the Las Vegas Metro Area during month-over-month in June, but the current state of the housing industry there is still struggling to stabilize, according to last month’s update from MDA DataQuick. Las Vegas sales are mostly up this year, however, the percentage of properties being sold that are foreclosed or real-estate owned (REO) is dropping. The number of houses and condos resold jumped up to a total of 4,480 or 16.1% from May, but decreased 11.2% from June 2009. Sales of all newly built houses and condos shot up to 917 last month, up 74% from May and 93.1% from last year. MDA DataQuick reported home sale prices on the rise, but said it does not necessarily see a trend.  The median price for all new and resale single-family house was $136,290, up 1.7% from May and up 1% from a year ago. Foreclosures also eased last month with 2,630 single-family house and condo units foreclosing in the Las Vegas region; down 2.6% from May and down 27.4% from last year. However, foreclosures also fell to 46.4% of all resales in June calculating the lowest proportion of foreclosure resales since January 2008. In the beginning of 2010, these sales made up 63.3% of the market. MDA DataQuick reported that in the first six months of 2010, 14,206 Las Vegas region houses and condo units were lost to foreclosure, dropping 13.9% from the same six-month period of 2009. Write to Christine Ricciardi.