Thursday, June 11, 2009 | 9:36 a.m.
Beyond the Sun
Sun Archives
- Next foreclosure wave building with defaults on fixed-rate loans (6-8-2009)
- Report: Nevada's 31 percent home price drop tops nation (5-28-2009)
- Las Vegas banks hit hard by bad loans (4-10-2009)
- Housing collapse evident in falling tax appraisal values (4-6-2009)
- Report: 58.2 percent of Las Vegas homes have negative equity (3-4-2009)
- How Obama's mortgage relief plan pencils out (2-21-2009)
- Nevada's foreclosure rate tops nation once again (2-12-2009)
- Analysts disagree on timing of real estate turnaround (2-11-2009)
- Home sales slow as prices continue to tumble (2-10-2009)
Although foreclosures fell in the nation in May, Las Vegas and Nevada weren't so lucky.
California-based RealtyTrac reported 8,876 notices of default were filed in May, the second highest month this year after 10,351 in March. The notices of default on a loan are the first stage in the foreclosure process.
Foreclosures show no sign of abating with 3,051 homes repossessed in May after dipping to 2,478 repossessions in April, a 23 percent increase.
Overall, the number of foreclosure filings rose 5.5 percent in May to 17,157 when compared with April. Filings are 83 percent higher than May 2008, which helped Nevada keep its No. 1 ranking in the nation that it has held for 2 1⁄2 years.
That means one in every 64 homes had a foreclosure filing in May, more than six times the national average, according to RealtyTrac. The second highest state was California with one filing for every 144 housing units. Florida was third, followed by Arizona and Utah.
The nation saw a 6 percent decline in foreclosures compared with April.
Even though there was a moratorium on foreclosures earlier this year, the April drop in repossessions had some real estate observers suggesting that would help set the stage for a rebound in homes prices. But the potential for a new round of foreclosures could suggest home prices might fall more.
The Greater Las Vegas Association of Realtors reports that prices of homes listed by Realtors have fallen 55 percent from their peak of $315,000 in June 2006. The median price of Realtor-listed homes sold in May was $140,000, a drop of less than $2,000 from April.
Las Vegas housing analyst Steve Bottfeld, executive vice president of Marketing Solution, said the increase in foreclosures is occurring faster than he anticipated. But this wave is likely to be different than previous rounds of investor-owned properties and others stuck with adjustable rate mortgages that reset, he said.
“This is middle-income families who are being impacted now,” Bottfeld said. That means the foreclosed homes are likely to be in higher price ranges, thus the median sales price of homes will increase, he said.
The Las Vegas Valley continued to hold the top spot as well for metropolitan areas of at least 200,000 in population. The city’s foreclosure filings increased 4 percent from April and 78 percent from May 2008.
Las Vegas had 14,681 foreclosure filings, one for every 54 households.
Las Vegas had 7,643 notices of default filed in May, which is 78 percent higher than May 2008. There were 2,566 homes repossessed, 529 more than April. There were 2,950 homes repossessed in Clark County in May 2008.
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