May Home Sales and Foreclosure Data for Washoe County, NV

The Center for Regional Studies has just finished updating the May 2010 home sales and foreclosure data for Washoe County and the news is mixed.  First, the good news: sales of new and existing single family homes were up 4% in May compared to a year ago, and it wasn’t just because of strong existing home sales — NEW home sales actually posted an increase!  April and May both showed higher new home sales than any month in nearly a year, although with fewer than 70 new homes sold in each of those months, the sales rate is still far below where it was before the housing crash when 275-300 new home sales per month was the norm.  And while the median sales price of homes continues to fall in Washoe County, at least the rate of change is slowing.  The median sales price of new and existing homes fell 6% in May compared to a year ago, but at least it’s not a double digit decline.  Condo sales, too, were up in May (46%) although the median sale price of those units was 40% lower than a year ago.  And now the bad news…

Foreclosures appeared to be lessening during the first quarter of 2010, but April and May proved that to be a short lived trend.  1,100 homes were foreclosed in the first five months of 2010, which was 6% greater than a year ago.  Foreclosures are a HUGE problem for the area, even though the total number of bank owned homes is small relative to the total number of housing units, they have a dramatic impact on the values of ALL homes in the area.  So long as we are seeing foreclosures rising, it’s going to be impossible to talk about recovery in the housing market.  And sales of foreclosed homes — which up until recently had been strong enough to keep pace with foreclosures — have really cooled off lately with a 36% drop in May compared to last year.  None of this points to a market nearing recovery…

Notices of Default (NODs) are issued by banks once a borrower is 90 days late with payment — these are seen as a “leading indicator” to foreclosures since they tell us how many distressed units are out there.  Not all units with a NOD filed end up in foreclosure, but a good percentage of them DO.  It’s encouraging that NODs filed in the first 5 months of 2010 were 9% fewer than a year ago, but it could be more indicative of banks dragging their feet than showing any actual improvement in the measure.

For more information on the area’s housing market, visit our website and be sure to subscribe to our News and Announcements with our RSS Feed.