Vegas Housing Stats Show Sale Prices Up

By Natalie Dolce

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LAS VEGAS-Local housing statistics recently released by the Greater Las Vegas Association of Realtors show singlefamily home sales and prices increasing from October to November. According to the association president, Rick Shelton, the latest statistics were somewhat encouraging.

“I’m pleasantly surprised to see local home sales go up from the previous month,” Shelton says. “This is the first time our GLVAR statistics have shown home sales increasing between October and November since at least 2004. We usually see sales decline in November and through the winter months before bouncing back heading into the spring.”

According to GLVAR, the median singlefamily home price in Southern Nevada during November was $134,900, up 1.4% from $133,000 in October, but down 3.6% from one year ago. The median price of local condominiums and townhomes sold in November was $64,900, down 0.2% from $65,000 in October and down 4.6% from one year ago.

In November, 26% 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 28% in October and down from a peak of 34% in June. Meanwhile, according to GLVAR, bank-owned homes accounted for 44% of all existing local home sales in November, the same percentage as October. That’s down from a 2010 peak of 53% in February.

“These percentages are leveling off, but 70% of all our sales still involve a foreclosure or short sale situation,” Shelton adds. The total number of local homes, condominiums and townhomes sold in November was 3,510. That’s up from 3,385 in October, but down from 3,843 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 also been expanded to include repeat buyers.

The percentage of local homes purchased with cash continues to rise, accounting for 47.8% of all local home sales in November, up from 46.5% of all sales in October. Shelton said this percentage of cash buyers is likely a modern-day record for Southern Nevada, and perhaps the highest percentage of cash buyers of any major city in the nation.

GLVAR reported that the total number of homes listed for sale on its Multiple Listing Service also inched up from October to November, with a total of 22,624 singlefamily homes listed for sale at the end of November. That’s up 0.2% from 22,570 homes listed for sale at the end of October. That’s also up 8.5% from one year ago. GLVAR reported a total of 5,839 condos and townhomes listed for sale on its MLS at the end of November. That’s down 0.9% from the previous month, but up 22% from the previous year.

Meanwhile, the number of available properties listed for sale without any sort of pending or contingent offer increased substantially from one year ago, says GLVAR. By the end of November, GLVAR reported 12,581 singlefamily homes listed without any sort of offer. That’s an increase of 1.6% from October, but an increase of 50% from one year ago. For condos and townhomes, the 3,201 properties listed without offers in November represented a decrease of 3.4% from last month but an increase of 75.3% from last year.

See related charts below titled, "Vegas charts."

Categories: West, Residential, Las Vegas