A Key Development In Las Vegas Real Estate Suggests House Price Gains Are Probably Going To Slow

This is a key distressed market to follow since Las Vegas has seen the largest price decline of any of the Case-Shiller composite 20 cities.

The Greater Las Vegas Association of Realtors reported GLVAR reports 19-month run of rising home prices, increased inventory

There are several key trends that we've been following:

1) Overall sales were down slightly from July, and down about 4% year-over-year.

2) Conventional sales are up sharply. In August 2012, only 39.4% of all sales were conventional. This year, in August 2013, 67% were conventional. That is an increase in conventional sales of about 63% (of course there is heavily investor buying, but that is still quite an increase in non-distressed sales).

3) Most distressed sales are short sales instead of foreclosures (over 3 to 1).

4) and most interesting right now is that non-contingent inventory (year-over-year) is now increasing quickly. Non-contingent inventory is up 41.1% year-over-year!

This suggests inventory has bottomed in Las Vegas (A major theme for housing in 2013). And this suggests price increases will slow.