For the first time the Reno’s housing market has joined the growing list across the country of metropolitan areas recovering from one of the worst housing crises in decades.  It continued to show improvement in January.  Reno has seen a 4.7 percent growth in building permits since its low in June 2009, a 12.3 percent increase in home prices since February 2012 and a 3.3 percent improvement in employment since February 2012.  All good sign’s that we are once again moving towards a healthier market.

A limited sales inventory of existing homes – has increased the median sale price, according to  the Reno/Sparks Association of Realtors February report. In January 2012 the median home price was $135,000, today it has jumped to $182.500.  It has also been noted that over 4,000 new Reno/Sparks homeowners no longer had “underwater” attached to their homes during the fourth quarter of 2012, according to a report released Tuesday by analytic firm Corelogic.  Negative equity, also known as being “underwater” or “upside down, means that the homeowner owes more than their home than it is worth.

Nevada’s state attorney general and the head of a Las Vegas nonprofit consumer counseling agency unveiled a program and an advertising campaign on Monday aimed at giving distressed  homeowners facing foreclosure a free one-stop place to seek counseling, referrals and legal support.   This program is to help those residents facing foreclosure or have lost their homes, as well as those seeking loan modifications or who are current but underwater on their home loans.  It will also help people who are working toward home ownership.  Money for the Home Again program comes from $57 million Nevada received from five of the nation’s largest banks as part of a national foreclosure settlement last February.