Aug 10
29
More Foreclosures Coming to Nevada?
More Foreclosure To Hit Depressed Market
Housing analyst Larry Murphy of Las Vegas based SalesTraq said he’s talking to people in the industry who believe Las Vegas has yet to see the crest of the foreclosure wave.
Hundreds if not thousands of Las Vegas homeowners haven’t made a mortgage payment in more than a year and still haven’t received a foreclosure notice, he said.
“That’s how backed up it is. The banks are overwhelmed,” Murphy said. “If two out of three homeowners in Las Vegas are upside down, it’s a matter of time. If the economy doesn’t improve, a lot of people are going to take a walk and they’re not showing up on the radar right now.”
Nevada leads the nation with one in 119 households receiving a foreclosure filing in November, RealtyTrac reported. The state had 5,549 notices of default, 1,368 notices of trustee sale and 2,378 real estate-owned homes for a total of 9,295 filings, down 33 percent from the same month a year ago.
A survey from RealtyTrac and Trulia.com focusing on buyers’ attitudes toward foreclosures showed investors, trade-up buyers and renters are most likely to purchase a distressed property.
The online survey, conducted Nov. 5-9 by Harris Interactive, found a notable decrease in consumers’ willingness to buy foreclosed properties, with 43 percent of U.S. adults saying that they are at least somewhat likely to consider purchasing a foreclosed home in the future, compared with 55 percent surveyed in May.
A lot of attention has been given to bank-owned properties in Las Vegas, but the real need is to get contingent short sales approved, said Robyn Yates, owner and broker of Windermere Realty.
About 75 percent of all contingent sales in Las Vegas are awaiting bank approval for a short sale, or a sale for less than the mortgage balance. Of the 11,021 contingent home sales, 8,229 are short sales and 1,909 are real estate-owned, or bank-owned.
“There are buyers available and willing to purchase these properties. The need is for the banks holding these notes to approve these sales in a timely fashion,” Yates said.
