Unclear if housing prices will go up or down

Q: Do you have any idea as to when the existing distressed homes will be released? I know that, because of the lack of inventory, my home is inching up in price, or at least not falling.

I am looking at a six-month or so time frame to sell but do not want to wait to sell and see the market flooded again having waited too long.

I read that it is expected to be low inventory with few homes released, at least through the end of the year.

A: Your guess is as good as mine as to when, or if, the major banks that control most of the distressed properties in Southern Nevada might begin to release more of the homes they haven't yet listed for sale. The same goes for questions about how, when or whether banks might return to the more aggressive foreclosure policies of a few years ago or whether they might continue recent practices that have led to record numbers of short sales.

A short sale is when a lender agrees to sell a property for less than what the borrower owes on the mortgage.

Short sales have been soaring in recent months. At the same time, the number of bank-owned home sales has been decreasing.

In fact, short sales now account for nearly half of all existing homes being sold today in Southern Nevada. Bank-owned homes accounted for less than 14 percent of all existing home sales in September, down from about 50 percent a year before that.

According to the latest statistics from the Greater Las Vegas Association of Realtors, the median price of a single-family home in Southern Nevada has increased for eight straight months, from February through the end of September. At the same time, the number of local homes without pending offers on those actually available for sale has been hovering at about a five- or six-week supply.

That's considered a very tight housing inventory.

I hesitate to make any big predictions about future home prices, but basic economics suggests that as long as the supply stays low and demand remains high, prices have the potential to rise, or at least stay fairly stable. I generally advise clients to act when conditions are favorable for them because you never know when things might change.

Kolleen Kelley is the 2012 president of the GLVAR and has worked in the real estate industry for more than 30 years. To ask her a question, email her at ask@glvar.org. For more information, visit www.lasvegasrealtor.com.