California research firm RealtyTrac found that Nevada is third in the nation for default activity, continuing a years-long run of appearances in the top five.

However, there are indications that banks are ready to begin tackling default inventories, which would finally start the Nevada housing market’s climb back to normalcy.

RealtyTrac reported that lenders filed 1,037 notices of default to start foreclosure proceedings in July, up 128 percent from the figures for July 2013. It’s the highest number of starts since October, when the state’s Homeowners Bill of Rights took effect and put new restrictions on banks looking to foreclose. Read the full article in the Nevada Review Journal online.

Altos Research found that, while US real estate home prices hit absolute bottom on January 4, 2011, home prices are up 39% since then. Yet every day we see media headlines declaring “weakness” and “disappointment.”

In Altos Research’s view, these attitudes reflect a myopic view of actual market conditions and conflate concerns over the mortgage industry, the otherwise-constrained new construction market, and more broadly, the long-term financial stability of the US consumer with specific current housing market supply and demand dynamics. While these are valid long run concerns, the real-time data paints a much more robust environment than the headlines would indicate. In fact, as of July 2014, home prices are up another 9% year-over-year – the American consumer is anxious to again buy real estate.

Read the entire report on the Altos Research website.

The University of Nevada’s Lied Institute for Real Estate Studies recently released a Report on the Nevada Housing Market that indicates growing strength in the housing market.  Existing home sales in Nevada increased by almost eight percent in May 2014, and new home sales increased by over six percent, the largest month to month increase for new homes since late 2012. New home sales are now beginning to pick back up – good news for the construction industry.

Overall, home prices in Nevada are stabilizing more and more each month, with new home prices increasing in the southern part of the state. The average new home prices remained stable from April 2014 to May 2014.  Read the entire UNLV Lied Institute Report.

A recent report by SalesTraq states that the supply-demand balance in the Las Vegas housing market has remained relatively stable in recent months. Prices in the resale market have continued to increase, availability has remained reasonable, and sales volumes are fairly strong. This has taken place in spite of pullback in the investor segment of the market, suggesting at least a moderate level of pent-up demand from end users.

The share of homes purchased by cash buyers has been retreating since early 2013. A year ago, the share of resale home closings involving a cash buyer was 58 percent – during May 2014 that figured dipped to a little less than 40 percent. With prices rising almost 18 percent year-over-year – and fewer homes moving through the foreclosure/auction process – the report anticipates the number of cash buyers to continue to diminish. Yet in May the effective availability stood at almost three months – the lowest level since August 2013. Read the entire SalesTraq Report.

The Securitization Weekly Overview from Bank of America-Merrill Lynch is forecasting a shift away from single-family home purchases to a rental market. This is not the first report predicting multifamily growth in the past few months, but it does reinforce a common theme – investors are betting on multifamily more often.

Recently, HousingWire reported that more younger Americans are expected to pile into the multifamily market after spending years in their parents’ houses or sharing apartments with roommates. Read the full article on HousingWire.com.