Low las vegas real estate prices attracting cash investors

Low home prices in the Las Vegas area are attracting more and more cash buyers and absentee purchases – those who buy and have the bill sent to an alternate address. These buyers, usually investors or vacation homebuyers from California and other regions in Nevada, accounted for 45.9% of June sales. Cash buyers made up 50.6% of the market and paid an average of $83,000 for a home. The Las Vegas real estate market has been struggling and a large percentage of sales were for distressed properties that are in foreclosure or short sales. These home prices drag down new-home prices, but even so these did not sell well in June. For more on this continue reading the following article from The Street.

Home sales rose more than usual in the Las Vegas region last month compared with May but fell short of a year earlier amid exceptionally weak new-home sales. The median price paid for a home dropped from both May and a year earlier as foreclosure resales and sub-$100,000 transactions accounted for a higher portion of all transactions, a real estate information service reported.

In June, 5,262 new and resale houses and condos closed escrow in the Las Vegas-Paradise metro area (Clark County), up 15.1% from May but down 5.1% from June 2010, according to San Diego-based DataQuick.. The firm tracks real estate trends nationally via public property records.

On average, the region's sales have risen 9.5% between May and June since 1994, when DataQuick's complete Las Vegas region statistics begin. June's sales total fell 1.3% short of the average number of homes sold in June, but only because new-home sales were so low -- the second-lowest on record for a June. The resale market performed relatively well last month: Resales of houses and condos rose 14.4% from May and 2.2% from June 2010, when outgoing federal homebuyer tax credits gave the market a final boost. Last month's resales were 35.7% above average for the month of June.

Source: NuWire Investor