Prices of Las Vegas homes falling, but they’re still not selling
Home sales in Las Vegas slipped below 1,000 for the second straight month in October and the median price dropped 11.4 percent from a year ago to $274,725, the Greater Las Vegas Association of Realtors reported.
Realtors sold 974 homes during the month compared with 990 sold in September. Home sales are down 42.3 percent from a year ago.
“The unfortunate part of this is we’re getting to that part of the year,” Realtors’ association President Devin Reiss said Tuesday. “We’re going to see that for the next months because we’re near the holidays, so activity slows in general. We’re going to see less listings and less sales. That’s par for the course this time of year.”
Reiss found some encouraging numbers in the October report. The inventory of single-family units listed for sale declined 1.2 percent from September to 23,917, while condo and townhome listings came down 2 percent to 6,045.
The median price of a condo declined 13.5 percent from last year to $175,000.
“That’s affordable for a lot of people, and you want it to remain that way. You definitely like that element that’s affordable housing for a lot of our work force,” Reiss said.
The number of condos sold in October fell 44.8 percent from a year ago to 1,145.
Total sales volume tracked by the Realtors’ association fell 41.5 percent to roughly $365 million.
Association statistics are based on data collected through the Multiple Listing Service and do not necessarily include homes sold by builders, other real estate agents and transactions not involving a Realtor.
Las Vegas existing home prices remain substantially higher than the national median, which was reported at $211,700 in September by real estate consulting firm Hanley Wood Market Intelligence. It’s the lowest since January. Sales are down 19 percent from a year ago at slightly more than 5 million units.
Home Builders Research President Dennis Smith said it’s going to get “bloody and ugly” in Las Vegas for the fourth quarter.
“The resale segment is still looking for the bottom of this cycle,” he said, “but we are encouraged that there appears to be some stabilization in the lending community, which should help consumer confidence.”
Smith said his best guess is resale prices may drop $10,000 to $20,000 more by the end of the year, which would leave it down 13 percent to 15 percent from the previous year.
“When, not if, the banks start to liquidate their growing inventory of foreclosed homes by basing the prices on market demand instead of what the notes are, it will lower the median price further,” he said.
Rick Brenkus of Keller-Williams Realty said it’s a buyer’s market in Las Vegas, not a “wait-and-see market.” Buyers can either wait for the market or make the market, he said.
“You don’t want to buy a house if it doesn’t meet your wants and needs,” Brenkus said. “But you miss 100 percent of the shots you don’t take.”
Brenkus said he didn’t purchase any homes during 2005 and 2006, but he and his wife recently purchased a rental home, answering critics who’ve questioned why Realtors aren’t buying homes themselves if they’re saying it’s a buyer’s market.
Contact reporter Hubble Smith at hsmith@reviewjournal.com or (702) 383-0491.
