Mesquite Market Quarterly
Third Quarter 2009
By Chris W. Miller ABR, CRS, GRI
Sales are up and prices are down and falling!
Beware of pending home sales numbers, the conversion rate from pending to actually closed transactions is falling daily as deals blow up. Pending short sales in general are not closing. When you hear pending home sales, it is a misleading indicator.
In Mesquite we actually closed:
Median Price $ Per Square foot
39 Resale Homes $192,400 $113
13 New Homes $208,984 $125
15 Condos $87,500 $77
29 Town Homes $130,000 $88
Total 93 closed sales $150,900 $99
43 of the total 93 were distressed properties.
229 listings went out of the active inventory as failed. Active available listed residential property remained stable at around 400 with over 60% vacant.
221 new listings were added to active and 85 of those were distressed properties, either short sales or bank owned (REO) foreclosures. "Notice of defaults" continue to increase. Between Spet. 1 and Oct. 12 there were 54 NOD's filed in Mesquite, that is 9 per week!
2 vacant lots sold in Calais and averaged $125,000.
No commercial transactions closed. Vacancy remains at historic high rate in all catagories.
The market is averaging around twenty active resale listings at Sun City, but you would never know it since they do not allow signs, period, even inside your own window.
Over 50% of the current pending transactions are distressed properties. The banks are holding more and more real estate as defaults rise and individuals realize they are stuck as well. Unrealized bank losses are mounting as wealth evaporates.
The amount of shadow inventory is impossible to calculate. Based on unlisted bank owned property, defaults and failed listings, the number is far larger than the 400 active listings, maybe double.
Given the future uncertainty in taxation, health care costs, income, asset value growth, cost of living inflation, and home values retiring buyers have become increasingly cautious. The market is mainly being supported by high loan to value government backed FHA loans, and interest rate risk appears far greater than home price increases. Prices continue to fall.
There are seemingly good values available.......Buyer Beware!
Chris W. Miller
ERA Brokers Consolidated
Mesquite NV 89027
702- 346-7200
435-862-5951
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