Good news again this month in Las Vegas and nationwide in home sales. Nationwide, home values dropped at a third of what they did in March. From February to March prices showed a 2.2% drop but March to April showed a .06% drop. Our inventories have also shrunk for the 25th consecutive month!

Ask anyone out there trying to get into a property, it is not as easy as one may think. Bank owned homes in Las Vegas are the primary sales right now. The problem is being the highest offer. Because of this, short sales are a better option for buyers who can wait one out because you will have less competition of people writing offers on them.

The Feds have just announced that the Making Home Affordable program will refinance homeowners up to 125% of their home value. This will be good news for some but probably will not help as many homeowners here in Las Vegas where real estate values have decreased by 50%.

So the average homeowner, say who bought a home in 2006 for 200,000. That home is now worth 110,000. At a 125% loan value that would leave the homeowner still short over 60,000 in value. I would believe these are probably the majority of the homeowners in Las Vegas who are facing foreclosure.

To refinance you are going to need a job and decent credit. In order to do a loan modification you are going to need to have a job and make ontime payments until they do the modification. This is not everybody’s situation either.

A short sale is an ideal solution for people who can no longer afford their home,and can’t prove a means to make new payments if the loan was reworked.