The still high numbers of properties listed for Las Vegas home auctions have depressed home prices in all neighborhoods in the Las Vegas area in 2009, based on reports from SalesTraq.
Throughout Las Vegas, the median sales price for existing homes dropped to $128,108, a whopping 38-percent fall from the median in 2008. The sales price median for zip codes was about $120,000 to $125,000, a decrease of 23 percent from the zip code median in 2008.
Among the high-end neighborhoods which suffered steep price drops were zip codes 89146 and 89109, where prices fell by 57 percent and 60 percent, respectively.
The 10-percent drop by the least affected neighborhoods, such as zip codes 89123 and 89107, was still a relatively sharp price drop when compared to price declines in other cities. The median sales price in zip code 89107 in 2009 was $70,500.
The zip code 89146 was the only neighborhood that experienced a price appreciation in 2008, but in 2009, it also succumbed to steep price declines, posting a stunning 57-percent drop to $110,000 in 2009.
Analysts said that Las Vegas home auctions have made homes in the city tremendously undervalued. They said that the current prices of homes are much below the amounts of money needed to build homes.
Larry Murphy, president of SalesTraq, noted that the prices of previously-owned homes in Las Vegas reached its highest level in 2006 at $285,000 and then fell in August last year to $120,000.
Murphy also said that the total number of foreclosed homes in Las Vegas in 2009 – about 26,000 units – will be replicated this year. The zip code 89131, which suffered most last year with 1,167 foreclosure homes, is again expected post a lot of filings.
The pace of foreclosure in the area slowed, but the trend was still upward, with 17.4 foreclosures being posted for every 1,000 households.
Murphy also said that he agreed with other analysts that pre foreclosures in Las Vegas will increase, but he contended that actual foreclosures will not increase as sharply as over the past year because more lenders will agree to short sales.
Analysts also contended that more residential properties will enter Las Vegas home auctions because of strategic defaults. They noted that online forums and social networks are full of talks about the option of strategic default, encouraging more distressed homeowners to consider walking away when their homes have become extremely underwater.
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