Las Vegas Home Prices Spike 24% in 2012, Third Best Sales Year on Record

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According to the Greater Las Vegas Association of Realtors (GLVAR), local home prices increased again in December, finishing 2012 with prices 24 percent higher than they were at the beginning of the year.
 
"Rising home prices were the big story of the year," said 2013 GLVAR President Dave Tina. "It was also a good year for local home sales, ranking as our third best sales year ever. And we could have sold more existing homes in 2012 if we had more homes on the market. We ended the year with about a five-week supply of available inventory."
 
GLVAR's statistics through December 2012 show a dramatic transition from foreclosures to short sales -which occur when a lender agrees to sell a home for less than what the borrower owes on the mortgage. The percentage of existing homes sold as part of a short sale set a new record in December, accounting for 45.8 percent of all sales. Foreclosures, which made up more than half of all sales a few years ago, accounted for only 9.5 percent of all sales in December 2012.
 
Tina, who succeeded Kolleen Kelley as GLVAR president on Jan. 1, expects the steady stream of short sales to continue in 2013, since Congress voted last week to extend the Mortgage Forgiveness Debt Relief Act by one year to Dec. 31, 2013. After that date, any amount of money a bank writes off in agreeing to sell a home as part of a short sale will become taxable when sellers file their income taxes.
 
With prices increasing and inventory low, local agents are reporting a rise in the number of homes sold by "traditional" sellers - as opposed to lenders, who are responsible for the short sales and foreclosures that have dominated the local housing market in recent years.
 
GLVAR said the total number of local homes, condominiums and townhomes sold in December was 3,624. That's up from 3,293 in November, but down from 4,250 total sales in December 2011. Compared to November, single-family home sales during December increased by 10.4 percent, while sales of condos and townhomes increased by 8.5 percent. Compared to one year ago, home sales were down 14.3 percent, while condo and townhome sales were down 16.5 percent.

As for prices, GLVAR reported the median price of single-family homes sold in December was $149,000, up 2.1 percent from $146,000 in November and up 24.2 percent from one year ago. Local home prices haven't posted this kind of appreciation since at least 2004. Meanwhile, the median price of local condominiums and townhomes sold in December was $76,000, up 2.7 percent from $74,000 in November and up 29.8 percent from one year ago.

The total number of homes listed for sale on GLVAR's Multiple Listing Service declined in December, with a total of 14,601 single-family homes listed for sale at the end of the month. That's down 6.6 percent from 15,637 homes listed for sale at the end of November and down 24.1 percent from one year ago. GLVAR reported a total of 3,477 condos and townhomes listed for sale on its MLS at the end of December, down 5.1 percent from 3,662 condos and townhomes listed at the end of November and down 14.4 percent from one year ago.

As for the number of available homes listed for sale without any sort of pending or contingent offer by the end of December, GLVAR reported 3,688 single-family homes listed without any sort of offer. That's down 4.2 percent from 3,849 such homes listed in November and down 58.2 percent from one year ago. For condos and townhomes, the 1,251 properties listed without offers in December represented a 2.7 percent increase from 1,218 such properties in November, but a decrease of 31.7 percent from one year ago.
 
In December, GLVAR reported that 55.2 percent of all existing homes sold in Southern Nevada were purchased with cash. That's up from 52.7 percent in November.
 
Meanwhile, 45.8 percent of all existing local homes sold during December were short sales. That's up from 41.2 percent in November and up from 26.6 percent one year ago. It surpassed the previous peak of 44.8 percent set in September 2012. Bank-owned homes accounted for 9.5 percent of all existing home sales in December, down from 10.7 percent in November.
 
GLVAR reported that the median price of bank-owned single-family homes sold in December was $140,000, up from $139,001 in November. The median price of single-family homes sold as part of a short sale in December was $139,800, up from $130,000 in November.
 
These GLVAR statistics include activity through the end of December 2012. GLVAR distributes such statistics each month based on data collected through its MLS, which does not necessarily account for newly constructed homes sold by local builders or for sale by owners.

Other highlights include:
 

• The monthly value of local real estate transactions tracked through the MLS during December increased by 10.6 percent for homes to more than $541 million. For condos and townhomes, the total value of all sales in December was nearly $69 million, up 7.2 percent from November. Compared to one year ago, total sales volumes in December were up 6.2 percent for homes and up 8.1 percent for condos and townhomes.

• In December, 68.9 percent of all homes and 71.8 percent of all condos and townhomes sold within 60 days. That compares to November, when 69.9 percent of all homes and 73.6 percent of all condos and townhomes sold within 60 days.