Las Vegas Home Sales Uptick in June, Prices Continue to Slide

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Based on the latest statistics by the Greater Las Vegas Association of Realtors (GLVAR), local home sales increased significantly in June while prices slipped.

"GLVAR records show this was the third best month ever for the number of existing homes sold in our market," said GLVAR President Paul Bell. "Of course, we'd love to see home prices going up like they did the previous month, instead of down slightly, as they did this month. But that seems to be the way things are going as we continue to bounce along the bottom."

Bell said he expected local home sales to increase in June, which is traditionally a strong month for home sales. But he said the sales numbers were even better than he anticipated.

The total number of local homes, condominiums and townhomes sold in June was 4,540, up from 3,991 total sales in May and up from 4,265 sales one year ago. Within that total, single-family home sales increased by 16.7 percent, while sales of condos and townhomes increased by 3.5 percent when compared to June of 2010.

"This is a very good indicator," Bell said. "This just confirms what an active housing market we have. As for our prices being down a bit this month, we're clearing out a lot of deteriorating and low-priced properties. This is the product type favored by most investors, who are generally restoring these homes and renting them."

According to GLVAR, the median price of a single-family home sold in June was $124,500, down 1.2 percent from $126,000 in May and down 11.1 percent from one year ago.

The median price of local condominiums and townhomes sold in June was $59,900, down 4.5 percent from $62,750 in May and down 14.4 percent from one year ago.

By comparison, GLVAR reported that the median price of bank-owned single-family homes sold in June was $109,000. The median price of all single-family homes sold as part of a short sale in June was $129,000, which was higher than the overall median home price.

According to GLVAR, an even 50.0 percent of all existing homes sold in Southern Nevada during June were purchased with cash. That's down from 51.4 percent in May.

In June, 21.6 percent of all existing homes sold in Southern Nevada were short sales, which occur when a bank agrees to sell a home for less than what the borrower owes on the mortgage. That's down from 23.0 percent in May, and down from a peak of 34 percent set in June 2010.

GLVAR found that bank-owned homes accounted for 47.2 percent of all existing home sales in June, up from 43.8 percent in May.

GLVAR reported that the total number of homes listed for sale on its Multiple Listing Service decreased slightly from May to June, with a total of 22,702 single-family homes listed for sale at the end of June. That's down 0.3 percent from 22,767 homes listed for sale at the end of May, but up 6.3 percent from one year ago.

GLVAR reported a total of 5,248 condos and townhomes listed for sale on its MLS at the end of May. That's down 0.1 percent from 5,255 in May and down 12.5 percent from one year ago.

The number of available properties listed for sale without any sort of pending or contingent offer increased slightly from the previous month for homes, but decreased slightly for condos and townhomes. By the end of June, GLVAR reported 11,350 single-family homes listed without any sort of offer. That's up 0.6 percent from 11,277 homes in May and up 23.7 percent from one year ago.

For condos and townhomes, the 2,656 properties listed without offers in May represented a 0.7 percent decrease from the 2,674 properties listed without offers in May and a decrease of 2.0 percent from last year.

This month's GLVAR statistics include activity through the end of June 2011. 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.

Report Highlights Include:

• The monthly value of local real estate transactions tracked through the MLS during June increased 9.4 percent for homes, to nearly $538 million. For condos and townhomes, the total value of all sales in June was more than $68 million, down 10.3 percent from May. Compared to one year ago, total sales volumes in June were down 4.7 percent for homes and down 16.6 percent for condos and townhomes.

• Through May, 66.6 percent of all homes and 69.7 percent of all condos and townhomes sold within 60 days. That compares to May, when 62.5 percent of all homes and 68.9 percent of all condos and townhomes sold within 60 days.

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