Las Vegas resales stay on an upbeat course in November

The holiday season is upon us although this year it might be more subdued than in a long while due to the overall weakness in the national economy. The mortgage and real estate markets have taken unprecedented punishment in most parts of the country that requires extraordinary efforts and just plain old time to turn around. Southern Nevada housing sector, for its share, has paid dearly for past excesses but has lately shown some flickers of hope that perhaps a tentative recovery may be shaping up.

November statistics from Greater Las Vegas Association of Realtors, or GLVAR, back up the cautiously upbeat sentiment. There were 2,183 single-family house sold last month that is well over double the number for the same month in 2007. True, it's a small drop from October that really is a normal development as the slower-paced winter season sets in. For several months now resales in Las Vegas valley have been significantly better than comparable figures a year ago, an entirely positive sign.

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Las Vegas mortgage foreclosures up.

Nevada moves ahead of Colorado as the state with the highest home loan foreclosure rate in January, reports RealtyTrac. Which means southern Nevada as the population center takes the hardest hit.

One expert cites creative financing, a sizzling housing market and frenzied speculation as reasons to the current foreclosure trend. I'd emphasize that the speculation really did most of the harm, at least here. And now that the subprime lending segment seems to be in a freefall, for the time being anyway, it's going to set back the housing market's recovery period. Anything positive here? Yes, buyer's market.