Home prices

The median price of an existing single-family Las Vegas home rose to $118,000 in May, up $3,000 from the previous month and up 6 percent from a year ago, according to Home Builders Research President Dennis Smith.

"The key thing there is they've gone up five consecutive months," Mr. Smith said Monday. "That's a trend. We're seeing positive changes, but it's not fixed yet because of underwater mortgages."

Mr. Smith said the price increase is to be expected, given the shortage of single-family home inventory, which fell to 2,553 listings without a contingent or pending offer as of last week. The lack of resale inventory has been attributed to implementation of a state law that makes it tougher for banks to foreclose.

And that could be a problem. A Reuters report last week suggests that anti-foreclosure laws are actually extending the real estate slump. It cites Nevada, where a sudden slowdown in foreclosures, the report says, is "feeding a 'mini-bubble' in prices that few believe is sustainable."

Reuters quotes a Las Vegas foreclosure defense lawyer "who has spent the last six years trying to help vulnerable borrowers deal with unscrupulous banks" as saying the Nevada statute "had completely changed his view of the nature of the crisis. 'This law has become a mockery,' he said. 'I am now turning down clients every day who I know have no intention of ever trying to pay their mortgage. They just want to stay in their homes for free. And that is a bad situation for everyone, lenders and homeowners.' "

Indeed, it would be Pollyannish to pretend a new boom is at hand. In fact, about 60 percent of Las Vegas mortgages are still underwater, compared to a national average of 25 percent. Thus the bargain-hunting at the low end of the scale, by investors as well as would-be owner occupants.

Still, Gov. Brian Sandoval is upbeat about the state's economic progress. Meeting with the Review-Journal's editorial board last week, he noted that state revenues are $40 million to $60 million ahead of where the Economic Forum had predicted a year ago.

The state's anti-foreclosure law deserves continued scrutiny. Five months of better news aren't enough to trump five years of bad news. But the trend is in the right direction.