by Calculated Risk on 11/06/2014 10:57:00 AM

This is a key distressed market to follow since Las Vegas has seen the largest price decline of any of the Case-Shiller composite 20 cities.

The Greater Las Vegas Association of Realtors reported GLVAR reports dip in local home prices

According to GLVAR, the total number of existing local homes, condominiums and townhomes sold in October was 2,861, down from 2,982 in September and down from 3,192 one year ago. At the current pace, [GLVAR President Heidi] Kasama said Southern Nevada has about a four-month supply of available properties. REALTORS® consider a six-month supply to be a balanced market.
...
GLVAR said 35.1 percent all local properties sold in October were purchased with cash. That’s up from 34.3 percent in September, but still well short of the February 2013 peak of 59.5 percent, suggesting that fewer investors have been buying homes in Southern Nevada.
...
For nearly two years, GLVAR has reported fewer distressed sales and more traditional home sales, where lenders are not controlling the transaction. That trend generally continued in October, when GLVAR reported that 10.6 percent of all local sales were short sales – which occur when lenders allow borrowers to sell a home for less than what they owe on the mortgage. That’s up from 10.4 percent in September. Another 8.9 percent of all October sales were bank-owned properties, up from 8.8 percent in September and matching the percentage in August.
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The total number of single-family homes listed for sale on GLVAR’s Multiple Listing Service in October was 14,430, up 4.1 percent from 13,857 in September, but down 3.9 percent from one year ago. ...

By the end of October, GLVAR reported 8,880 single-family homes listed without any sort of offer. That’s up 8.3 percent from 8,196 such homes listed in September and up 25.6 percent from one year ago. For condos and townhomes, the 2,548 properties listed without offers in October represented a 5.5 percent increase from 2,415 such properties listed in September and a 13.4 percent increase from one year ago.
emphasis added

There are several key trends that we've been following:

1) Overall sales were down 10.4% year-over-year.

2) However conventional (equity, not distressed) sales were only down slightly year-over-year.  In October 2013, only 73.0% of all sales were conventional equity.  This year, in October 2014, 80.5% were equity sales. 

3) The percent of cash sales has declined year-over-year from 44.9% in October 2013 to 35.1% in October 2014. (investor buying appears to be declining).

4) Non-contingent inventory is up 25.6% year-over-year. The table below shows the year-over-year change for non-contingent inventory in Las Vegas. Inventory declined sharply through early 2013, and then inventory started increasing sharply year-over-year. It appears the inventory build is slowing (an important change in many areas).

Las Vegas: Year-over-year Change in Non-contingent Inventory
Month	YoY
Jan-13	-58.3%
Feb-13	-53.4%
Mar-13	-42.1%
Apr-13	-24.1%
May-13	-13.2%
Jun-13	3.7%
Jul-13	9.0%
Aug-13	41.1%
Sep-13	60.5%
Oct-13	73.4%
Nov-13	77.4%
Dec-13	78.6%
Jan-14	96.2%
Feb-14	107.3%
Mar-14	127.9%
Apr-14	103.1%
May-14	100.6%
Jun-14	86.2%
Jul-14	55.2%
Aug-14	38.8%
Sep-14	29.5%
Oct-14	25.6%