Economic Conditions for the Las Vegas Valley February 2012 (includes Henderson & North Las Vegas)

• Foreclosure/Short Sale Listings (1/15/2012): Total Listings 10446; Short Sales: 4935, 47% of all listings; Bank Owned Listings: 2025, 20% of all listings. Short sale and REO listings consume 67% of total listings
• New Home Sales (November 2011, units sold): 356 Year Change -6.8% (excl condo conversions, highrises)
• New Home Sales (November 2011, median price): $204,221 Year Change +4.2% (excl condo conversions, highrises)
• Existing Home Sales (December 2011, units sold): 4098 Year Change +23.7%
• Existing Home Sales (November 2011, median price): $114,000 Year Change: -5.0%
• New Home Permits (November 2011): 250 Year Change +54.3%
• Rental Rate (MLS Monthly Average January 2012): $1447/month

My analysis: Distressed listings (foreclosures and short sales) are 67% of total listings. Units of homes sold is impressive. Credit markets must be watched as underwriting guidelines continue to tighten. Condos are barely financeable. Inventory stopped it's slow increase in December 2010 and now opportunistic buyers are gobbling up inventory through the summer and this trend seems to be continuing through winter. AB 284 is preventing new foreclosures so REO inventory is tight. The rental market is softening due to all the investor/first time buyer combination of activity. This adds more supply and creates less demand. I do believe the rental prices being pressured downward is also causing the resale prices to be pressured downward. Las Vegas is an anomoly to the law of supply & demand, we barely have any inventory yet prices are still declining!

New Residents/Employment Conditions:

• New Residents (December 2011): 4646, Year Change +12.2%
• Total Employment (December 2011): 806,700 Year Change +0.5%
• Unemployment Rate (December 2011) 12.7%, Year Change -2.4%

My analysis: This sector is FINALLY seeing stabilization thus improvement. It is VERY encouraging to seem these numbers improve - even if slightly! Unemployment rate is still painful however the total employed numbers have remained close to stable for a year. Slight increase with unemployment rate the last two months.

Tourism/Gaming Conditions:

• McCarran Airport Total Passengers (December 2011): 3,204,016 Year Change +3.9%
• Gaming Revenue (November 2011): $836,511,394, Year Change +10.4%
• Visitor Volume (November 2011): 3,690,942, Year Change +1.9%
• Convention Attendance (November 2011): 457,686, Year Change +9.2%
• Hotel/Motel Occupancy (November 2011): 86.9% Year Change +2.0%

My analysis: This sector (tourism) needs to see some serious price corrections before we see a comeback. Corporate credit is not coming back any time soon. It will be hard to get convention attendance back up without corporate credit. Glad to see regular tourists are making their way here with the imbalance of the other numbers to replace the convention attendee numbers. Visitor Volume, Gaming Revenue & Convention Attendance are encouraging and hopefully sustainable.

Sources: Salestraq, Home Builder's Research, Greater Las Vegas Association of Realtors, Nevada State Gaming Control Board, Nevada Department of Motor Vehicles, McCarran International Airport, Las Vegas Convention & Visitor's Authority, Nevada Department of Employment, Training and Rehabilitation. Information deemed reliable but not guaranteed. My analysis is my humble opinion