• Vegas Sales Up as Foreclosures Remain Dominant
• Phoenix Home Sale Prices Rise on Fewer Distressed Sales
• Foreclosure Inventory Drying Up in Vegas: MDA DataQuick
• Phoenix Home Sales Volume Continues to Improve
• Phoenix Home Sales Up 11% in June While Home Prices Remain Level

The volume of November home sales in Las Vegas trailed off 5.5% from October, but spiked 44% from the start of 2009, according a report from MDA DataQuick.

The San Diego-based information provider said the home sale surge comes from the usual factors: price declines, low mortgage rates and the federal tax credit for homebuyers.

Foreclosure resales continued to dominate the Vegas housing market but also continue to gradually decline, according to MDA DataQuick. In November, 64.2% of homes and condos in Las Vegas were foreclosure resales, down from 66.8% in October and 68.1% below levels seen in November 2008. In April 2009, foreclosure sales peaked, taking up 73.7% of the region’s sales activity, but that percentage has declined every month since — perhaps as lenders and servicers have held up foreclosure activity.

The 4,787 new and resale homes and condos was the highest number of sales for a Vegas November since 2006, when 5,803 homes sold. November marked the 15th consecutive month that sales increased from one year earlier.

The region’s median sales price continued to fall on a year-over-year basis — marking 31 consecutive months of declining prices — and by November, it stood 56.8% below its $312,000 peak, recorded in November 2006. This November, the median price paid for all new and resale houses reached $134,900, up 3.8% from October but down sharply 29% from $190,000 last year.

Write to Jon Prior.