As of September 5, 2008, there are 350 homes available for sale in the Carson City real estate market. (These numbers do not include manufactured or shared ownership housing.) Of the 350 homes available, 16 properties are REO’s and 33 are short sales, according to the Multiple Listing Service. That means 14% of the homes available for sale are distressed properties.

There are 62 properties under contract or pending sale in Carson City. Of those 62, 9 are REO’s and 19 are short sales. Since REO’s are easier to negotiate, since it is typically one bank and one buyer, it makes sense that they are selling more quickly than the short sales. Short sales involve multiple parties, and potentially more than one bank, and thus are significantly more difficult to get through to close of escrow. If inventory levels of REO’s and short sales do not increase, then we have approximately 3 months of inventory of distressed properties remaining in the market. However, due to economic uncertainty and the current credit-crunch – which affects buyer’s ability to qualify and bank’s desire to lend – we anticipate more dark clouds ahead in the Carson City real estate market, and Northern Nevada as a whole.