by Calculated Risk on 12/11/2012 03:59:00 PM

Economist Tom Lawler sent me an update today of short sales and foreclosures for a few selected cities in November.

Note: Reno was corrected (the table yesterday used October numbers instead of November). There will be more cities added soon.

For all of these cities, the percentage of foreclosures is down from a year ago.   The percentage of short sales is up in Las Vegas and Reno, but down in Phoenix and in the mid-Atlantic area.

Look at the overall percent of distressed sales (combined foreclosures and short sales).  There is a large year-over-year decline in distressed sales in all of these cities. 

The two key numbers for real estate markets are 1) inventory, and 2) the percent of conventional sales (non-distressed sales).  Inventory is falling, and the percent of conventional sales is increasing - and those are positive signs.

	Short Sales Share		Foreclosure Sales Share		Total "Distressed" Share
	12-Nov	11-Nov	12-Nov	11-Nov	12-Nov	11-Nov
Las Vegas	41.2%	26.8%	10.7%	46.0%	51.9%	72.8%
Reno	41.0%	36.0%	9.0%	35.0%	50.0%	71.0%
Phoenix	23.2%	29.6%	12.9%	29.8%	36.1%	59.4%
Mid-Atlantic (MRIS)	11.9%	13.7%	8.7%	14.2%	20.6%	27.9%
Memphis*			24.3%	31.3%
Metro Detroit			33.6%	38.7%
*share of existing home sales, based on property records