California buyers going after sales of Nevada homes

Out-of-state buyers — led by Californians — accounted for one-third of Las Vegas home sales in June in a reflection of the demand by investors and vacation-home buyers.

Absentee buyers, including investors who live in-state, purchased 46 percent of all homes sold in June. That figure is down from the record 49.9 percent in March, according to statistics released by San Diego-based DataQuick.

Of June’s absentee buyers, 34 percent had a mailing address in Nevada, and 30 percent were based in California, DataQuick reported. Most of the remaining out-of-state buyers were based in New York, 5.6 percent; Pennsylvania, 3 percent; New Jersey, 2.4 percent; Utah, 1.9 percent; and Florida, 1.8 percent.

Three 3 percent of all Las Vegas homes sold in June were bought by foreign buyers based on public property records, which can undercount the actual number, DataQuick said. Of those foreign buyers, 78 percent were from Canada, and 11 percent were from Australia. Buyers with addresses in Israel and China were 8 percent of the total.

Absentee buyers paid a median price of $94,000 in June, which is below the overall median price of $115,000. Those buyers have been seeking value in the housing market — 51 percent of the homes were purchased with cash.

Investors and others paying cash focused on lower-priced homes, with 41.1 percent of June sales priced less than $100,000, the biggest percentage since the housing market started its correction.

Foreign buyers paid a median price of $110,000 for existing homes and $67,900 for resale condo units, DataQuick reported.

Distressed sales, a combination of foreclosures and short sales, accounted for 68.5 percent of existing home sales in June.

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