In Las Vegas and Henderson, short sales are catching up with foreclosures. Nearly 30 percent
of existing home sales in April were short sales compared with 25% in March reported the Vegas Association of Realtors.

Meanwhile, bank-owned home sales declined 36.9% in April, down from 40.7% in March.

The trend indicates a greater likelihood that home prices will continue to soften, as short
sales and foreclosures typically sell at sharp discounts.

It also suggests a shift in the way lenders handle mortgages that have gone unpaid. Lenders may be
favoring short sales rather than waiting for troubled loans to go through the foreclosure process.

"A short sales is a safer alternative to avoid any potential problems that they may face because of
the way they've processed foreclosures."

Last year, mortgage lenders grappled with allegations that they have been processing foreclosures without
verifying documents.

Las Vegas based SalesTraq showed 258 Bank repossessions in April, the lowest number since
the firm began tracking data.

For the past 12 months, bank repos declined 27.4% to 13,444 month. Fewer than 1,000 notices of default
are being filed each month, compared with 3,000 to 4,000 a month prior to the robo-signing low in October.

"The biggest winner from this law are the banks as they have an excuse for not showing real losses on their
balance sheets."

A separate report from CoreLogic showed 66,000 completed foreclosures nationally in April, about the same as March, and down from 78,000 a year ago.

Nevada has the fourth highest foreclosure inventory as a percentage of all mortgaged homes, compared with New York at 5 percent.