Most people would expect to get a discount when buying a foreclosed home.
But not in the Las Vegas Valley.
Las Vegas home buyers on average received no discount at all in September when buying a seized home from a bank as compared to a traditional sale, according to a report out today from Seattle-based research firm Zillow. That’s down from a 3 percent discount in September 2011 and a 24 percent price break at its peak in October 2004.
Phoenix was the only other metro area tracked by Zillow with no discount in September, while home buyers nationwide could expect a 7.7 percent price break.
The largest discounts were in Pittsburgh (27.4 percent), Cleveland (25.8 percent) and Cincinnati (20.2 percent).
Regions with the smallest price breaks have competitive housing markets, with many people willing to pay the same price for a foreclosed home as a nondistressed one “simply to take advantage of historic affordability,” Zillow chief economist Stan Humphries said in the report.
Buying foreclosed homes in areas like Phoenix and Las Vegas, he added, “is no longer just for investors.”
Prices are inching higher, as well. In Las Vegas, the median price of bank-owned single-family homes sold in October was $132,575, up 2 percent from September, according to the Greater Las Vegas Association of Realtors.