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Housing Sales Up More Than 50 Percent,

Las Vegas Housing Market Turning Around

 

POSTED: 9:31 am PDT August 6, 2008

UPDATED: 10:45 am PDT August 6, 2008

LAS VEGAS -- After two years of a slumping housing market in the Valley, things may be finally turning around.

The monthly sales volume in Las Vegas is up more than 50 percent.

The greater Las Vegas Association of Realtors said 60 percent of those sales are from foreclosures.

Nevada is one of the top foreclosure states in the nation.

  

  

Home sales up for 7th month; prices fall

By Tim Richardson

Wed, Aug 6, 2008 (3:16 p.m.)

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• Statistics on July home sales
• News release on July stats

Sun archives

• July 25 -- Nevada leads nation in rate of foreclosures
• July 9 -- Home sales rise as prices continue slide

Home sales picked up their pace last month as prices continued their slide.

The number of homes sold by a Realtor in the Las Vegas area last month increased for a seventh consecutive month. The Greater Las Vegas Association of Realtors said today that 2,592 single-family homes were sold in July, compared to 2,226 in June. The July number is up 97 percent from July 2007.

Despite the sales increase, the median price of homes sold last month was down to $220,000. That's a decrease of more than 2 percent compared to last month and a fall of more than 25 percent in the past year.

"As in past months, these latest GLVAR statistics are a mixed bag," Realtor association President Patty Kelley said in a statement today.

Kelley said bank-owned houses are dragging prices down.

Nevada had the highest foreclosure rate in the nation in the second quarter of the year, according to data from Calif.-based RealtyTrac Inc. In Las Vegas, one in every 35 households received a foreclosure notice last quarter -- the third-highest rate of any city in the country.

The Realtor association said 358 condos were sold last month, which is up from 294 in June and up 18 percent compared to July 2007. The median price of those condos, at $135,000, fell nearly 2 percent in the last month, and has fallen about 31 percent in the past year, according to numbers released today.

The number of homes and condos for sale remained steady, with 23,423 homes and 5,538 condos on the market.

At July's sales pace, the valley has a nine-month supply of homes and a 15 1/2-month supply of condos on the market.

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By Christine Dugas, USA TODAY

There's a glimmer of hope in the neon city of Nevada, where home sales are starting to heat up after two dismal years. In fact, sales in Las Vegas have risen over the past six months.

Bank-owned foreclosed properties are setting the pace. With prices falling, the homes are grabbing attention. The median home price was $225,000 in June, down from a peak of $315,000 in June 2006.

"About 60% of everything that is selling is foreclosed properties," says Patty Kelley, president of the Greater Las Vegas Association of Realtors. "A feeding frenzy of buyers is coming in and picking up property at the 50 cents to 60 cents on the dollar that owners had paid for it."

Las Vegas was one of the first areas hit by the subprime mortgage collapse. In a city where many gamblers have lost their shirts in casinos, many investors and other home buyers lost their luck in the mortgage market. After the housing bubble burst, foreclosures rose quickly. Last year, Nevada posted the nation's highest state foreclosure rate, according to RealtyTrac.

It's unclear if the housing market has hit a true bottom and begun to reverse course for good. "We're not looking for things to rally vastly until the end of 2009," Kelley says.

FIND MORE STORIES IN: Canada | RealtyTrac | University of Nevada-Las Vegas

Las Vegas is apparently in a local recession, says Keith Schwer, a professor of economics at the University of Nevada-Las Vegas. The area, he says, has been hard hit by speculation and excessive supplies in the housing market. Even worse, fuel prices have battered the tourist-based city as airfares have increased and schedules have been reduced.

"We may have been able to avoid a recession had it not been for the rise in energy prices," Schwer says.

Though the slowdown in the national economy is causing many Americans to hold back on buying a home, Las Vegas still enjoys an advantage. Many foreigners love to visit the city, and some are eager to take advantage of the lower prices and favorable currency exchange rates.

"We're getting a lot more people from Canada and other foreign countries who are able to pick up property that they can afford," Kelley says.

Local residents may also help lift the housing market after some new casinos open at the end of the year and in late 2009 and produce jobs, Schwer says. While Las Vegas may have been one of the first cities to suffer from the housing crisis, it now may lead the way out of the slump, he says.

The most expensive Gary Primm is selling a lavish two-story house built in 1991 with two detached guest homes on 9.88 acres. Price: $21 million Bedrooms: 6 Bathrooms: 5 full baths, 1 three-quarter bath Size: 11,381 square feet Features: Personal theater, beauty salon, personal gym, billiards room, climate-controlled wine cellar, outside pool with water slide and waterfalls, tunnel to a showcase garage with separate autowashing and repair stations, a kennel, stable and equestrian training facility, an underground shooting range. Median-price home This house, built in 1988, is on the market. Price: $225,000 Bedrooms: 3 Bathrooms: 2 full baths Size: 1,240 square feet Features: Gas fireplace in great room, breakfast nook, pantry, laundry room, in-ground swimming pool, hot tub and waterfall.

Russ Smith Sales/Marketing Development TitleOne of Las Vegas 2485 Village View Dr., Ste. 190 Henderson, NV  89074 cell: 702-510-9862 fax: 702-853-1549 www.titleonelv.com