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LV area residential real estate sales reach record in June!

Sales of single-family homes, condos and townhomes reached a record 4,702 in June, topping the previous record of 4,414 set in June 2004, the Greater Las Vegas Association of Realtors reported Wednesday.

The record was announced the same day a new survey showed more than half of potential homebuyers nationally say they're still not prepared to jump into the market.

Locally, Realtors sold 3,785 single-family homes during the month, up 16.3 percent from May and up 70 percent from June 2008. Condo and townhome sales more than tripled from a year ago to 917.
Inventory of homes for sale in Las Vegas shrank to 20,613, a decrease of 11.9 percent from a year ago. Condo listings are down 2.2 percent to 5,416.

"I think it's significant that we sold a record number of homes last month," Realtors association president Sue Naumann said. "We've been closing in on this mark for a few months now."

Median prices held steady at $140,000 for single-family homes, unchanged from the previous month and down 37.8 percent from a year ago. The median price for an existing home was $242,000 in June 2004. Condo prices meanwhile inched up 1.5 percent from May to $66,000. It was the second consecutive month of condo price increases.

"We've been looking at prices declining for so long now, it's refreshing to see them stabilize and some go back up," Naumann said. "Inventory is down, so that's a good thing."

The numbers for June are quite impressive, broker David Brownell of Keller Williams Realty in Las Vegas said. Closings are up 82.5 percent from a year ago, pending sales are up 82 percent and inventory -- taking out pending sales -- is down 40 percent.

His numbers are for the greater Las Vegas area, not including Pahrump, Mesquite, Boulder City and other outlying areas covered by GLVAR.

He said sales numbers would have been higher if banks had not placed a voluntary moratorium on foreclosures last year. The market should welcome the backlog of bank-owned homes that are expected to be coming soon, Brownell said.

"The reason I say that is in 90 percent of scenarios, we're in multiple offer situations," he said. "I had a client on Monday looking to buy a home and found one she wanted. It was on the market for less than 24 hours and we would have been the 19th offer."

Brownell said there were six cash offers on the bank-owned home and just as many conventional loans. The bank will consider those offers before his client's FHA financing, he said.

"When the market price is $230,000 and you have 19 offers and six are cash, I'm going to say the market is undersupplied," he said.

Brownell showed 3,460 closings of real estate-owned, or bank-owned, homes in June, more than double the number from the same month a year. Meanwhile, REO inventory has dropped 42 percent to 2,771, leaving less than one month's supply. Another 5,340 REO closings are pending.

Naumann said she's seeing strong demand from both investors and first-time buyers taking advantage of the $8,000 tax credit.

"They're hearing rumors of interest rate increases and they could very well be priced out of a home if they don't act now," she said. "Plus, we're seeing where parents want to help their children with gifts for down payments to get them out of apartments."

Housing analyst Dennis Smith of Las Vegas-based Home Builders Research said the upward trend in home resales will continue for two to three years because of the affordability factor and also because new home builders can't compete on prices.

"That's the problem. As long as prices continue to go down, we can't say the market is at the bottom," Smith said. "We can say it's getting closer."

In the Realtor.com survey, to be released today, nearly 53 percent of consumers who said they were planning to buy a home in the future cautioned they're not ready to take such a large financial step right now.

Nearly a third of potential homebuyers surveyed cited concern about their jobs as the main reason they would shy away from the housing market. Worries about selling their current home are stopping 16 percent of the prospective buyers surveyed, while just under 8 percent said they fear home prices will keep falling.

Americans recognize there are great deals to be had in the housing market, but many are in too much of a financial pinch at the moment to even think about buying.

Among those consumers who are interested in buying, the survey found, some believe that prices aren't going to fall further and others are looking to take advantage of government incentives designed to kick-start sales.

Nearly one in five potential buyers said they were interested in a deeply discounted foreclosed home, while nearly 15 percent said they want to receive a new $8,000 tax credit for first-time buyers or other state incentives. More than 15 percent said they don't expect prices to drop lower, but many are still taking their time.

GLVAR statistics are based on data collected from the Multiple Listing Service and does not necessarily account for new homes sold by builders, sales by owner and other transactions not involving a Realtor.

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Housing inventory increase expected
Lifted ban means wave of Las Vegas foreclosures is likely

A wave of foreclosures is expected to hit Las Vegas as banks lift a voluntary moratorium that was extended from March to the end of May, though nobody has an accurate estimate of how many bank-owned homes will be added to an already bulging inventory.

The total number of homes for sale in Las Vegas declined to 16,202 in April, compared with 21,338 in the same month a year ago, Las Vegas-based SalesTraq reported.

Real estate-owned, or bank-owned inventory stood at 14,722, up from 11,628 a year ago, but down from the previous two months.

Housing analyst Larry Murphy of SalesTraq said he's heard there could be an inventory of unreleased bank-owned homes ranging from 20,000 to 30,000. It's an impossible number for anyone to "get their arms around," he said.

"This thing is like a cloud of mystery out there. We can all hypothesize," Murphy said.

Bank-owned inventory came down in March and April, and Murphy said he's waiting to see May's data to draw any conclusions.

The country is still in the "middle innings" of the bursting of the great housing bubble, said Whitney Tilson, principal of New York investment firm T2 Partners. He recently published a 75-page report that said there's more pain to come.

It takes an average of 15 months from the first missed mortgage payment to a trustee sale of the home, usually by auction, he said. The subprime loans that defaulted in early 2007 led to the wave of foreclosures in 2008.

"We predicted in early 2008 that it would get so bad that it would require large-scale government intervention, which has occurred, and we're not finished yet," Tilson said.

Given that other types of loans with longer reset dates are now starting to default at catastrophic rates, the "sober implications" are for foreclosures and auctions to extend into 2009 and beyond, driving home prices down further, he said.

More than $200 billion in option ARMs are still outstanding, including $29 billion that will reset by the end of this year and another $67 billion that will reset in 2010, according to Washington, D.C.-based Zuckerman Spaeder. The average borrower's mortgage payment of $1,672 will increase by $1,053.

Alexis McGee of Sacramento, Calif.-based Foreclosures.com said there's a "phantom" inventory of repossessed properties not showing up for sale on the Multiple Listing Service. Only about 30 percent of them are listed on the market, McGee said.

Foreclosures.com counted 18,505 real estate-owned homes in Clark County through April, compared with 7,251 a year ago. Preforeclosures rose to 33,917 in the first four months, up from 20,363 a year ago.

The foreclosure inventory in Las Vegas has dried up for now, Earl Crouse of Better Homes Realty said. He expects it to stay that way until the fourth quarter.

Banks are "stepping up" to comply with the Obama administration's guidelines to keep people in their homes, Crouse said. Some banks are renting homes back to previous owners.

"They know they're stabilizing the market by pulling back (on bank-owned inventory) and getting multiple cash offers for anything $125,000 to $200,000," he said. "Banks are going to lose anyway, but it's less they're going to lose."

Tim Kelly Kiernan of ReMax Brodkin Group said the current foreclosure inventory is "being picked over pretty good" with lots of cash deals. Lenders are being more flexible in negotiations, he said.

His research indicates that banks are indeed holding back hundreds of thousands of properties nationwide. There were nearly 500 notices of default filed in Las Vegas on June 8, he said.

"That is just one day, so if we just do the math, more foreclosures are coming and fast," Kiernan said. "Unless the Obama administration does something to stop this, home values will continue to fall."

Murphy of SalesTraq said he agrees with most of the conclusions in T2 Partners' report from a national standpoint.

However, Las Vegas has been on the leading edge of everything that's happened in the housing market, from skyrocketing appreciation and home sales to the subprime mortgage crisis and foreclosure problems.

"I think things happening nationally are six months behind what's happening in Las Vegas and Sacramento," Murphy said. "I think we've already gone through most of the pain in Las Vegas."

Both Las Vegas and Sacramento have reported significant increases in resales over the past 12 months. Prices are still slipping, but not as much. The Greater Las Vegas Association of Realtors showed a 1.8 percent decline in the median price for May, or about $1,700, compared with monthly declines of $10,000 in previous months.
Three new waves of

defaults seen breaking

The first two waves of mortgage losses are mostly behind us but three more waves are coming, two of them in the housing market and one in commercial real estate, an executive for a New York investment firm said Friday.

There's more pain to come, said Whitney Tilson, principal of T2 Partners and publisher of a June report on the housing and credit crisis.

While the majority of mortgage defaults so far have been subprime borrowers, more middle- and upper-income homeowners are starting to walk away from their mortgages, he said from New York.

Roughly one-fourth of homeowners with a mortgage owe more than the home is worth, making them much more likely to default. Among those who purchased in the past five years, 30 percent are underwater. The figures are worse in bubble markets such as Las Vegas, where 61.4 percent of buyers in the last five years are underwater, according to Moody's Economy.com.

The early wave of defaults came from fraud and speculation, starting in late 2006 when home prices started to fall, Tilson said.

The next wave was borrowers who went into "payment shock" when their adjustable mortgage rates reset. Two-year teaser subprime loans written in early 2005 started to reset in early 2007, though those defaults are tapering off as low interest rates mitigate the shock.

Tilson, author of "More Mortgage Meltdown," is now seeing the third wave of prime loans defaulting due to job losses and home price declines. Prime loan default rates have jumped from 0.5 percent to 4.5 percent in the last year, he said.

In California, the average mortgage owed on homes in foreclosure is $412,000, while the average appraised value of those homes is only $235,000. That's going to cause a lot of people to walk away from their obligation, Tilson said.

"The average person in foreclosure in California is 43 percent underwater, so it's not like these people are close to the edge and you can save them with a loan modification," he said. "These people are deep, deep underwater. Are you going to keep paying when you're that far underwater?"

A fourth wave of prime jumbo loans, second liens and home equity lines of credit started to swell in early 2008, again created by job losses and home price declines.

When both the husband and wife were working, they could afford a big mortgage, Tilson said. Now, with 10 percent unemployment and some 3.5 million job losses, they're tightening their belts.

"It's not just unemployment, it's underemployment, people taking cuts in pay and working fewer hours. So what you're seeing is the middle and high end start to tip over," he said.

Wave No. 5 involves losses among loans outside the housing sector, the largest being $3.5 trillion in commercial real estate. Commercial mortgage delinquency rates have doubled since early 2008.

Tilson thinks housing prices will reach the fair market value trend line when they fall 40 percent from their peak based on the S&P Case-Shiller index, which implies a further decline of 5 percent to 10 percent from the first quarter.

"It's almost certain that prices will reach these levels," Tilson said. "The key question is whether housing prices will go crashing through the trend line and fall well below fair value. Unfortunately, this is very likely."

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How many homes do banks really own?

Mon, Jun 1, 2009 (2 a.m.)

Housing analysts and Realtors have long speculated about how many foreclosures are lurking in the Las Vegas market.

Foreclosures have dominated the housing market with more than 60 percent of the sales each month being bank-owned properties. That continues to drive down prices.

With sales at their highest level since June 2006 and first-time homebuyers and investors gobbling up inventory, it has raised the question of whether lenders will flood the market with a backlog of foreclosures.

Some analysts have suggested that banks may have as many as 25,000 homes in foreclosure inventory that they have been holding back to prevent prices from dropping too far.

Dennis Smith, president of Home Builders Research, says the inventory of existing homes continues to be a hot topic. He says that if you supplement the Multiple Listing Service data with daily anecdotal information that comes from Realtors, it appears the inventory of existing homes has reached the point where major banks will soon start releasing some of their foreclosure properties that they have been holding back.

That could mean thousands of homes that banks will want to clear from their books, Smith says.

“Realtors who specialize in foreclosures and bank-owned properties are certainly gearing up for a flood of listings during the upcoming weeks,” Smith says.

Based on a recent calculation by a Realtor friend of Smith, there are about 11,100 single-family homes for sale without an existing offer, he says. That translates into about a three to four months of inventory, Smith says.

There were 5,276 bank-owned single-family homes listed for sale in the valley and of those 2,623 had contingent offers, Smith says. That leaves an inventory of 2,653. About half of those homes don’t have offers.

“This substantiates what we have been hearing for weeks,” Smith says. “There are very few (bank-owned) single-family homes that are currently available without offers to buy. If this is what the banks are waiting for, it has arrived. It is not going to change the downward pricing trend of the resale segment for some time yet. However, it is the first real positive sign that there is definitely a light at the end of our tunnel.”

How many homes will be released because of this limited supply is yet to be determined, Smith says. The question is whether there will be enough demand to absorb that inventory.

“Some of the Realtors I respect believe there are plenty of investors and demand from out-of-town people,” Smith says. “However, I believe it is too early to make that call, and they are basing their opinion on hope. Until we know how many properties are going to be released in the marketplace, it is impossible to forecast how long it will take to absorb them.”

Although there are a lot of investors who are active in Las Vegas to take advantage of the low prices, Smith points out that UNLV reports 30,000 vacant homes.

Many investors have been able to get a 12 percent return from rentals, Smith says. But because the sales to investors have increased the rental supply, that return has dropped to about 10 percent.

“If the return on their investment continues to soften, we will see many of the investors stop buying homes,” Smith says. “Although it would hurt the short-term numbers, it might be for the good of the long-term status of the housing market.

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May 16, 2009

Las Vegas Bank-owned homes gobbled up!

Headlines scream almost daily about soaring foreclosures, that more than 1 million homes were lost to foreclosure in 2008 and the number is expected to top 1.2 million this year.

The good news in Las Vegas is that bargain-hunting buyers are chomping through the foreclosure inventory at a faster pace than other parts of the nation.

Existing-home sales increased 77 percent in the first quarter to 9,122, and roughly two-thirds of those sales were bank-owned properties, said Larry Murphy, president of SalesTraq, a Las Vegas-based research firm.

He counted 2,376 bank-owned dispositions in March, compared with 1,846 acquisitions, leaving bank-owned inventory at 15,954 properties. It's the first time dispositions have outnumbered acquisitions since Murphy started keeping track.

"It could be a fluke," he said. "I'm curious to see if it happens twice."

Clark County had 4,863 foreclosures for April, down 37.2 percent from 7,747 in March, but up 154 percent from 1,911 in the same month a year ago, Sacramento, Calif-based Foreclosures.com reported.

Preforeclosure filings, which start with a notice of default, dropped to 8,639 in April from a record 11,593 in March. There were 4,426 Clark County preforeclosure filings in April 2008.

Banks have also become more sophisticated and savvy with REO pricing, Murphy said. They'll list a foreclosure at below-market value to create competitive bidding between interested parties, bringing in multiple offers and getting a better price in the final analysis, Murphy said.

The median price of a foreclosure sale in March was $127,500, compared with $149,900 for homes that were not bank-owned, SalesTraq reported.

"The multiple bids for homes under $200,000 are here for a while," Steve Hawks of Platinum Real Estate Professionals said. "The homes under $200,000 are in short supply, and then you have investors competing with first-time homebuyers to make it even more competitive."

As for bidding wars, buyers don't want to overbid on a foreclosure home because it might not appraise high enough for the loan, Hawks said.

"The cash buyer can bid as high as they want, so in this market, the edge goes to the investor with cash," he said. "Don't count the builders out. Frustrated buyers can take heart that builders have retooled and are building smaller homes, which will increase supply for first-time homebuyers."

Banks need cash and their bulging portfolios of "hidden" foreclosure inventory are one way to help them get it, said Alexis McGee, president of Foreclosures.com. If they price the homes right, it could translate to incredible deals for consumers on bank-owned foreclosure inventory, she said.

"This isn't a pipe dream amid a recession with 8.9 percent national unemployment and foreclosures at all-time highs," McGee said. "Now is the time for homebuyers and investors to press capital-hungry banks to unload their phantom REO inventory."

The "phantom" inventory is lender-repossessed properties that are not showing up for sale on the Multiple Listing Service. Only about 30 percent of REOs are listed on the MLS, McGee said.

"This is a staggering low number," she said. "That leaves 70 percent of lender-owned REOs that no one knows about potentially available for sale."

The number of REO listings in Las Vegas had been declining since February, when certain foreclosure moratoriums were enacted by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, as well as by some of the large lenders, Frank Nason of Residential Resources said.

He saw a 5 percent drop in the first week of May from the previous week, the largest weekly drop since he's been tracking the statistics.

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May 12, 2009

Tax Credit Can Be Used for Down Payment

Shaun Donovan, secretary of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, recently said the Federal Housing Administration is going to permit its lenders to allow homebuyers to use the $8,000 tax credit as a down payment. The move will allow eligible homebuyers to access the funds immediately at the closing table.

Daily Real Estate News | May 12, 2009 |

Tax Credit Can Be Used for Down Payment

Previously, most buyers wouldn't receive the funds until after they filed their tax return, and that deterred some people from using the credit. The NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF REALTORS® has been calling for the change.

“We all want to enable FHA consumers to access the home buyer tax credit funds when they close on their home loans so that the cash can be used as a down payment,” Donovan says. His remarks came in an address to several thousand REALTORS® gathered Tuesday morning at "The Real Estate Summit: Advancing the U.S. Economy," at the 2009 REALTORS® Midyear Legislative Meetings & Trade Expo in Washington, D.C..

He says FHA’s approved lenders will be permitted to “monetize” the tax credit through short-term bridge loans. This will allow eligible home buyers to access the funds immediately at the closing table.

Other Solutions for Today's Market

During his address at the summit, Donovan went on to say that the Obama administration plans to further stabilize the housing market. “I do think we have some early signs that the market overall is stabilizing,” Donovan says. “Since January we’ve seen both home sales moving up and down around a relatively stable number and we are seeing the first signs that the rapid decline in home prices is starting to abate.”

The morning session included a panel discussion that was moderated by CNBC’s Ron Insana. Panelists examined cutting-edge solutions necessary to promote and preserve homeownership and real estate development, stimulate the economy, and protect the nation’s taxpayers. They also shared their ideas on what the role and responsibility of the federal government is in the revitalization effort.

“Right now the Federal Reserve is the market,” said panelist Jay Brinkman, chief economist for the Mortgage Bankers Association. “What will be the effect when the Fed stops buying?” Brinkman explained that an exit strategy must be planned for the long-term; the federal government cannot continue to support the mortgage markets indefinitely.

“We are thrilled that so many high-caliber individuals were able to join us today at this important meeting to promote stability in the housing market and the U.S. economy,” said NAR President Charles McMillan. “We look forward to an ongoing dialogue and action toward this goal, during our midyear meetings this week and beyond.”

The real estate summit is part of the 2009 REALTORS® Midyear Legislative Meetings & Trade Expo. During the week ending May 16, more than 8,500 REALTORS® will attend meetings, visit lawmakers and inspire action on Capitol Hill.

Source: NAR

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MAY 9, 2009

Pardee goes back to building new houses

New construction signals good news for industry

Pardee Homes is moving forward with new home construction at several Las Vegas Valley neighborhoods. Many industry watchers are calling this a positive sign for the market.

"The fact that we're focusing our efforts on new construction is an indication that we've finally moved through a majority of our inventory homes," said Southern Nevada Division President Klif Andrews.

"And, this is good news for buyers who once again have a choice in decisions such as cabinets and countertops and great options through our LivingSmart program."

All of Pardee's newly designed homes are part of the builder's LivingSmart brand, a program with standard and optional features that boost energy efficiency, save water, improve indoor air quality and encourage material conservation and the use of recycled or sustainable resources, Andrews said.

LivingSmart provides standard materials, systems and features with EnergySmart, EarthSmart, WaterSmart and HealthSmart advantages. To these, buyers can add water conditioning, tankless water heaters and central vacuum systems. Optional features vary by home and neighborhood.

Presently, Pardee has new homes under construction at Solamar in the Centennial Hills area in northwestern Las Vegas, Montclaire in the Anthem area of Henderson and Bella Fiore at Lake Las Vegas Resort.

Construction will start this month on new homes at Northpointe and Riverstone in North Las Vegas and Rosetta in Mountain's Edge.

"It continues to be an exceptional time to purchase a new construction home, which typically has a higher level of features as well as lower prices than inventory homes and foreclosures. The best deals aren't limited to existing homes," Andrews said.

Andrews said he believed buyers lost the opportunity to make many decisions in their new homes over the past several months as builders, including Pardee Homes, worked to sell inventory homes.

"New construction allows us to go back to our preferred way of business and that is to give our customers a choice in personalizing their new home.

Solamar includes one- and two-story floor plans that range from 2,491 to 3,152 square feet with as many as five bedrooms. Home sites average 7,000 square feet, and home prices start from the high $200,000s.

CALL ME @ (702) 808-4561 FOR A PRIVATE TOUR OF ALL THEIR MODELS.

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REAL ESTATE: Las Vegas home sales soar by 78 percent

Median price falls by nearly 40 percent.

Las Vegas is emerging as a national leader in the housing market recovery with 13 consecutive months of increasing home sales, though the trend of declining prices continued in April, the Greater Las Vegas Association of Realtors reported Friday.

Realtors sold 3,198 single-family homes in April, a 78.3 percent increase from the same month a year ago. Sales have more than doubled for the first four months of the year.

However, the median price dropped 39.9 percent to $141,720 as bank-owned properties dominate the market, accounting for about 80 percent of all sales and driving prices down.

The inventory of homes for sale, which peaked above 24,000 in 2007, has steadily declined to 22,112 in April, down 3.6 percent from a year ago.

With home prices dropping and 30-year, fixed-rate mortgages at historical lows, buyers are finding opportunities for affordable homeownership in Las Vegas, said Sue Naumann, president of the Greater Las Vegas Association of Realtors.

"I've had good luck lately," she said. "I have a first-time buyer of a foreclosure through FHA (the Federal Housing Administration). We're just waiting for it to close. I have a cash buyer, a retiree from California. I haven't sold to as many investors lately, but I get a lot of inquiries."

Dan Van Epp, principal of Van Epp Cos., said inventory declined because of the Fed's moratorium on foreclosures from November through March. California also saw foreclosure sales drop to almost nothing as most of those foreclosures were left over from the last quarter of 2008, he said.

"We are beginning to see the bottom of this mess, but we're not in a climb out of it," Van Epp said.

California foreclosure activity is expected to pick up for the rest of the year and peak in the fourth quarter, and Van Epp said he predicts the same trend for Nevada.

Banks are not in a position to "fool around" with negotiations when they put a real estate-owned property on the marketplace, he said. They calculate what the market value is and drop the price a little from there to line people up for multiple bids. That's why the spread in the bid-versus-cash equation is quite narrow, Van Epp said.

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LAS VEGAS HOME SALES ARE RISING !

Where is the Las Vegas Market Headed ?

Website: www.elzieyates.com

Real Estate and Development

NEWS UPDATE

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DON'T MISS OUT ON THE GOLDEN AGE FOR FIRST-TIME HOME BUYERS.

Five or 10 years from now, when the financial crisis has ended and housing prices are up smartly once more, we will look in the rearview mirror and realize that we missed a golden age for first-time home buyers.

Then, everyone who sat on their down payment savings accounts for a few years too long will kick themselves for not taking advantage of what may turn out to be the buying opportunity of a lifetime for those who can qualify for a mortgage.

Unfortunately, we do not know when this golden age will begin, because we will be able to identify a bottom to the housing market only with the benefit of hindsight. But as it does with the stock market, the moment will probably arrive when everyone is feeling the most pessimistic.

That moment is certainly getting closer. Housing prices have fallen drastically from their peak levels in many areas of the country. Rates on 30-year fixed-rate mortgages are already close to 5.5 percent, and this week there were suggestions that the federal government might try to drive them down to 4.5 percent, a truly incredible figure to be able to lock in for three decades.

Meanwhile, first-time home buyers have the same advantage they have always had, which is that they do not have to sell their old place before buying a new one. That is an added advantage in areas where many available houses simply are not moving, because the people trying to sell them will not be bidding against you.

If you’re hoping for a recovery in the housing market, you ought to be cheering on the first-time home buyers. When they purchase homes, their sellers are free to move on or move up, stimulating further sales.

But if you are a potential first-time buyer yourself, or lending or giving the down payment to one, you are probably as frightened as you are tempted by all the “For Sale” signs that have become “On Sale” signs. So let’s quickly review some of the still-grim pricing data in certain areas — and consider the reasoning offered up by first-time buyers who have forged ahead anyhow. Hope you enjoyed this article.

January 15,2009 Forbes Magazine.

Something funny's happening in Las Vegas Home sale prices from last year are down 28%, but home sales are up 15%.

The reason? Motivated sellers--those in distress or foreclosure--or banks with too many homes on the books are slashing asking prices in order to unload their properties. Motivated sellers in Las Vegas accounted for 64% of sales in October, the highest rate in the country according to Radar Logic, a New York-based derivatives firm that provided the data for this story.

That means buyers are getting deals and hastening Las Vegas' recovery. In fact, buyers are eating up inventory fast enough that the discounts offered by motivated sellers are tightening as supply contracts. The difference between what motivated sellers have to offer and what non-motivated sellers can command has held steady for three months at a 17% discount, versus the 33% national average. So while it's still a buyers' market, prices have dropped to a level that's stimulated demand.

"There's a pretty active housing market, it's simply at a lower-priced inventory," says Michael Feder, chief executive of Radar Logic. "And there are now bidding wars taking place over homes in foreclosure."

America's Best 5 Cities For Home Buyers

1. Las Vegas, Nev.

Median home price: $211,600
Motivated sales as percent of total sales: 64%
One year ago: 28%
Motivated prices, relative to others: 17%
One year ago: 18% less