How Many Distressed Properties are For Sale in Carson City?

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.

August Home Sales Results for Carson City

The Carson City real estate market continues to be volatile, fluctuating from month to month. Each statistic we track – number of homes sold, median sales price, average per square foot price – is not on any easily visible and steady trend upward, downward. Here is the chart showing the sales history for Carson City for the last 14 months. (Data provided as per the Multiple Listing Service and excludes and manufactured or shared ownership housing.)

So – What does this chart mean? Well, if we take a closer look at the median sales price column, you’ll see that although there have been some dips from month to month, it looks as though overall, the median sales price for Carson City real estate is holding steady. We won’t know for sure for several more months, but it appears that Carson City hit it’s low in April 2008, when the median sales price was $235,000.

What homes are selling and in what price ranges? Here is the breakdown for August:

Carson City August Home Sales by Price

61% of the Carson City homes sold in August sold for under $299,000. When will prices start to trend back up? In order for prices to stabilize, the market needs to absorb the distressed properties, which are deflating prices. The distressed properties are the bank-owned foreclosures (REO’s) and short sales. Next post, we’ll answer the question: Just how many REO’s and short sales are there in Carson City?

Find us on Active Rain Find us on Trulia Find us on Zillow Like us on Facebook Follow us on Twitter Follow our RSS Feed for Great Nevada Homes Find us on Active Rain Find us on Trulia Find us on Zillow