Las Vegas Housing Market Still 'Bouncing Along Bottom' in October, Reports GLVAR

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According to a new report from the Greater Las Vegas Association of Realtors (GLVAR), Southern Nevada housing market is still bouncing along the bottom.

GLVAR's President Rick Shelton said, "GLVAR's latest statistics are following seasonal trends and didn't present any real surprises."

"As expected, we saw fewer local homes sold in October than September. This has been the case every year since at least 2005," Shelton said. "We can also expect less activity in the coming months as we head into what is traditionally our slowest season for home sales. After weathering the holiday months of November, December and January, I'd expect local home sales and hopefully prices to pick up a bit through 2011."

According to GLVAR, the median single-family home price in Southern Nevada during October was $133,000, down 1.5 percent from $135,000 in September and down 4.4 percent from $139,100 in October of 2009. The median price of local condominiums and townhomes sold in October was $65,000, matching September's median price, and down 7.1 percent from $70,000 one year ago.

In October, 28 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 30 percent in September and a peak of 34 percent in June.

Meanwhile, bank-owned homes accounted for 42 percent of all existing local home sales in October, unchanged from September. That's down from a 2010 peak of 53 percent in February.

The total number of local homes, condominiums and townhomes sold in October was 3,385. That's down from 3,603 in September and from 4,385 total sales one year ago - when Shelton said home sales were lifted by a now-expired federal tax credit for first-time homebuyers that had just been expanded to include repeat buyers.

The percentage of local homes purchased with cash continues to approach half of all home sales, accounting for 46.5 percent of all sales in October, up from 45.4 percent in September. Shelton said this percentage of cash buyers may be a modern-day record for Southern Nevada.

"In fact," he added, "we're not aware of any other major city in the nation that has seen such a high percentage of cash buyers for such a prolonged period of time. This speaks volumes about our housing market and how well-funded buyers believe that prices here will eventually appreciate."

After five straight months of increasing inventory, GLVAR reported that the total number of homes listed for sale on its Multiple Listing Service declined slightly from September to October. GLVAR reported a total of 22,570 single-family homes listed for sale at the end of October. That's down 0.7 percent from 22,719 single-family homes listed for sale at the end of September, but up 7.5 percent from one year ago.

GLVAR reported a total of 5,892 condos and townhomes listed for sale on its MLS at the end of October. That's down 0.9 percent from 5,945 in September, but up 20.1 percent from one year ago.

At the same time, the number of available properties listed for sale without any sort of pending or contingent offer increased. By the end of October, GLVAR reported 12,379 single-family homes listed without any sort of offer. That's an increase of 4.1 percent from September and an increase of 53.3 percent from one year ago. For condos and townhomes, the 3,314 properties listed without offers in October represented an increase of 5.2 percent from last month and 75.9 percent from last year.

This month's GLVAR statistics include activity through the end of October 2010. 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 GLVAR Report Highlights Include:

• The value of local real estate transactions tracked through the MLS during October decreased by 12.8 percent for homes, to nearly $416 million. For condos and townhomes, the total value of all sales was more than $65 million in October, down 16 percent from September. Compared to one year ago, total sales volumes in October were down 28.6 percent for homes and down 12.6 percent for condos and townhomes.

• Through October, 63.4 percent of all homes and 64.2 percent of all condos and townhomes sold within 60 days. That compares to September when 66.6 percent of all homes and 66.6 percent of all condos and townhomes sold within 60 days.

 

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