Las Vegas Still Selling More Homes in January, Yet Prices Still Declining

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The local housing market began 2012 in much the same way it ended 2011, local home sales increased compared to the same month last year while prices dipped.

"We continue to sell existing homes at a record pace and at bargain prices," said greater Los Vegas Association of Realtors (GLVAR) President Kolleen Kelley. "Our statistics for January also showed that fewer homes were available for sale, especially bank-owned homes."

Kelley said these same trends shaped the Southern Nevada housing market in 2011, which set a record for existing home sales in a single year. GLVAR reported that 48,186 local properties were sold in 2011, including 38,153 single-family homes and 10,033 condominiums and townhomes. That broke GLVAR's all-time sales record set in 2009, when it reported 46,879 total sales. In 2010, GLVAR reported 43,877 total sales.

"At the rate we're going, 2012 has the potential to be another record sales year," she said.

According to GLVAR, the total number of local homes, condominiums and townhomes sold in the traditionally slow sales month of January was 3,591. That's down from 4,250 in December 2011, but up from 3,214 total sales in January 2011.

Within that total, single-family home sales during January increased by 16.8 percent, while sales of condos and townhomes decreased by 6.4 percent, all when compared to one year ago.

As for home prices, GLVAR reported the median price of single-family homes sold in January was $118,000, down 1.7 percent from $120,000 in December and down 5.6 percent from $125,000 one year ago.

Meanwhile, the median price of local condominiums and townhomes sold in January was $55,000. That's down 6.1 percent from $58,550 the previous month and down 15.3 percent from $64,900 the previous year.

The total number of homes listed for sale on GLVAR's Multiple Listing Service decreased from December to January, with a total of 19,160 single-family homes listed for sale at the end of the month. That's down 0.4 percent from 19,230 single-family homes listed for sale at the end of December and down 12.9 percent from one year ago. GLVAR reported a total of 4,133 condos and townhomes listed for sale on its MLS at the end of January. That's up 1.8 percent from 4,061 condos and townhomes listed in December, but down 25.6 percent from one year ago.

As in past months, the number of available homes listed for sale without any sort of pending or contingent offer also declined compared to the previous month and year. By the end of January, GLVAR reported 8,001 single-family homes listed without any sort of offer. That's down 9.4 percent from 8,831 such homes listed in December and down 35.8 percent from one year ago. For condos and townhomes, the 1,746 properties listed without offers in January represented a 4.7 percent decline from 1,832 such properties listed without offers in December and a decrease of 43.4 percent from one year ago.

In January, GLVAR reported that 52.5 percent of all existing homes sold in Southern Nevada were purchased with cash. That's up from 50.8 percent in December.

Meanwhile, 28.1 percent of all existing local homes sold during January were short sales, which occur when a lender agrees to sell a home for less than what the borrower owes on the mortgage. That's up from 26.6 percent in December, but still down from a peak of 34 percent set in June 2010.

Bank-owned homes accounted for 45.5 percent of all existing home sales in January, down from 46.0 percent in December 2011.

GLVAR reported that the median price of bank-owned single-family homes sold in January was $100,000, down from $104,900 in December. The median price of single-family homes sold as part of a short sale in January was $121,000, down from $125,000 in December.

This month's GLVAR statistics include activity through the end of January 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.

GLVAR report highlights include:

• The monthly value of local real estate transactions tracked through the MLS during January decreased by 17.6 percent to nearly $420 million. For condos and townhomes, the total value of all sales in January was nearly $52 million, down 18.6 percent from December. Compared to one year ago, total sales volumes in January were up 6.5 percent for homes, but down 12.2 percent for condos and townhomes.

• Through January, 56.6 percent of all homes and 63.4 percent of all condos and townhomes sold within 60 days. That compares to December, when 58.3 percent of all homes and 63.7 percent of all condos and townhomes sold within 60 days.