70% of July home sales in Las Vegas were foreclosures

Las Vegas home sales rose above a year ago for the 11th consecutive month in July as investors and first-time buyers -- including many making ‘cash’ deals -- continued to target lower-cost, post-foreclosure properties. The overall median sale price fell nearly 4 percent from June, marking a low point for the decade and ending a brief period in which that price gauge and others had held steady, a real estate information service reported. Nearly 70 percent of the Las Vegas-area houses and condos that resold in July were foreclosure resales, meaning those homes had been foreclosed on in the prior 12 months. That was the same as in June but up from 62.5 percent in July 2008. Foreclosure resales peaked in April at 73.7 percent of total resales, according to MDA DataQuick of San Diego. The firm tracks real estate trends nationally via public property records.

Last month 43.4 percent of the Southland houses and condos that resold had been foreclosed on in the prior year – the lowest level since June 2008. July’s foreclosure resales figure was down from 45.3 percent in June and from a peak 56.7 percent in February 2009.