This October, the mayor of Las Vegas, Oscar Goodman was invited as the keynote speaker of the Las Vegas Real Estate Insider Club.  The house was packed during the said event and unfortunately, some of the guests that have not pre-registered was turned away due to the space constraints of the top floor of the Newport Lofts in downtown Las Vegas. The mayor, known for his stints as being the high-profile defense attorney for the Las Vegas mob, amused the crowd with interesting stories about his ex-clients and his fondness for the movie business.

The main focus of his speech was directed towards the current state of the Las Vegas housing market.  According to him, the huge majority sales closing in the Las Vegas valley continue to be real estate owned (REO) or bank owned property.  The mayor also pointed out that the number of SFRs currently available is not nearly so important to consider as the number of foreclosures being added to the market as REO listings on a monthly basis. Based on his observation,  the number of sales remain consistently high since June and the number of foreclosures are steadily declining, thus, the market is actually facing a shortage situation.

The effect of this is that there are more people who are looking to buy low-priced REO homes than there are homes to sell them. This clarifies why the investors and realtors are faced with multiple offers and bids as they try to purchase homes in the past couple of months. As the REO steadily declines, the mayor has found that a change in direction is now required to provide his investor clients with the continued ability to purchase quality investment properties without having the price bid up to levels incompatible with strong cash flow.