LV area residential real estate sales reach record in June - News

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Jul. 09, 2009
Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal

LV area residential real estate sales reach record in June

By HUBBLE SMITH
LAS VEGAS REVIEW-JOURNAL

Housing in Southern Nevada

Sales of single-family homes, condos and townhomes reached a record 4,702 in June, topping the previous record of 4,414 set in June 2004, the Greater Las Vegas Association of Realtors reported Wednesday.

The record was announced the same day a new survey showed more than half of potential homebuyers nationally say they're still not prepared to jump into the market.

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Locally, Realtors sold 3,785 single-family homes during the month, up 16.3 percent from May and up 70 percent from June 2008. Condo and townhome sales more than tripled from a year ago to 917.

Inventory of homes for sale in Las Vegas shrank to 20,613, a decrease of 11.9 percent from a year ago. Condo listings are down 2.2 percent to 5,416.

"I think it's significant that we sold a record number of homes last month," Realtors association president Sue Naumann said. "We've been closing in on this mark for a few months now."

Median prices held steady at $140,000 for single-family homes, unchanged from the previous month and down 37.8 percent from a year ago. The median price for an existing home was $242,000 in June 2004. Condo prices meanwhile inched up 1.5 percent from May to $66,000. It was the second consecutive month of condo price increases.

"We've been looking at prices declining for so long now, it's refreshing to see them stabilize and some go back up," Naumann said. "Inventory is down, so that's a good thing."

The numbers for June are quite impressive, broker David Brownell of Keller Williams Realty in Las Vegas said. Closings are up 82.5 percent from a year ago, pending sales are up 82 percent and inventory -- taking out pending sales -- is down 40 percent.

His numbers are for the greater Las Vegas area, not including Pahrump, Mesquite, Boulder City and other outlying areas covered by GLVAR.

He said sales numbers would have been higher if banks had not placed a voluntary moratorium on foreclosures last year. The market should welcome the backlog of bank-owned homes that are expected to be coming soon, Brownell said.

"The reason I say that is in 90 percent of scenarios, we're in multiple offer situations," he said. "I had a client on Monday looking to buy a home and found one she wanted. It was on the market for less than 24 hours and we would have been the 19th offer."

Brownell said there were six cash offers on the bank-owned home and just as many conventional loans. The bank will consider those offers before his client's FHA financing, he said.

"When the market price is $230,000 and you have 19 offers and six are cash, I'm going to say the market is undersupplied," he said.

Brownell showed 3,460 closings of real estate-owned, or bank-owned, homes in June, more than double the number from the same month a year. Meanwhile, REO inventory has dropped 42 percent to 2,771, leaving less than one month's supply. Another 5,340 REO closings are pending.

Naumann said she's seeing strong demand from both investors and first-time buyers taking advantage of the $8,000 tax credit.

"They're hearing rumors of interest rate increases and they could very well be priced out of a home if they don't act now," she said. "Plus, we're seeing where parents want to help their children with gifts for down payments to get them out of apartments."

Housing analyst Dennis Smith of Las Vegas-based Home Builders Research said the upward trend in home resales will continue for two to three years because of the affordability factor and also because new home builders can't compete on prices.

"That's the problem. As long as prices continue to go down, we can't say the market is at the bottom," Smith said. "We can say it's getting closer."

In the Realtor.com survey, to be released today, nearly 53 percent of consumers who said they were planning to buy a home in the future cautioned they're not ready to take such a large financial step right now.

Nearly a third of potential homebuyers surveyed cited concern about their jobs as the main reason they would shy away from the housing market. Worries about selling their current home are stopping 16 percent of the prospective buyers surveyed, while just under 8 percent said they fear home prices will keep falling.

Americans recognize there are great deals to be had in the housing market, but many are in too much of a financial pinch at the moment to even think about buying.

Among those consumers who are interested in buying, the survey found, some believe that prices aren't going to fall further and others are looking to take advantage of government incentives designed to kick-start sales.

Nearly one in five potential buyers said they were interested in a deeply discounted foreclosed home, while nearly 15 percent said they want to receive a new $8,000 tax credit for first-time buyers or other state incentives. More than 15 percent said they don't expect prices to drop lower, but many are still taking their time.

GLVAR statistics are based on data collected from the Multiple Listing Service and does not necessarily account for new homes sold by builders, sales by owner and other transactions not involving a Realtor.

Contact reporter Hubble Smith at hsmith@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0491. The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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Please enter your name Name: Please enter your email Email: Please enter a comment COMMENTS : (word count limit is 300) You have reached the maximum number of words allowed Current Word Count: Note: Comments made by reporters and editors of the Las Vegas Review-Journal are presented with a yellow background. AJ wrote on July 13, 2009 01:12 PM: Bouvier-- I feel it is appropriate to educate you a bit so you can focus your blame in the appropriate direction. The housing bust really didn't have anything to do with the lack of regulation of 'exotic' loans by the 'prior admin'. 51% of foreclosures have been prime loans and the driving force is negative equity (accounting for 47% of foreclosures with unemployment in a distant 2nd), not your exotic subprime loans (Liebowitz, WSJ, 7/3/09, http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124657539489189043.html). This indicates there has been a severe distortion in housing prices upward during the boom by artificial excess demand. So, it really comes down to the force feeding of -all types of- mortgage loans, exotic and traditional, by the large Government Sponsered Enterprises we call Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae. They packaged and securitized them (at the direction of Congress, not Bush) in an attempt to create 'affordable housing', this type of large scale involvement will certainly cause market disruptions. Furthermore, it was the easy money policies of the Fed and Greenspan who made these highly risky mortgages possible and deserve much of the blame. Using artificially low rates, the Fed was undermining the ability of market actors (banks and homebuyers) to fully evaluate risk and gather appropriate information from the price level as both were severely distorted. I'm not saying the banks and Bush are 100% guilt free, but they are by no means responsible. The easy money policies of the Fed and the 'affordable housing' policies of Congress are to blame for the massive bust we experienced in housing and subsequently in the economy. Bouvier wrote on July 12, 2009 01:00 PM: I just put in an offer on a condo in Lake Las Vegas on the first day it went on the market. - The bank accepted my offer within a few days. Shortly after, 4 more offers came in on the following weekend. Thank goodness I got my offer in early. - I think there are multiple bids on premium propties. The one I bought had a view of the lake. There are dozens of other LLV condos that have been on the market for months with out any offers. Especially as there is no financing. - The banks and govt (prior admin) are reaping what they sowed by not regulating mortgages more closely. Allowing "exotic" loans, which we all knew would fail. - A friend of a friend was able to obtain a home loan in 2007 with a 450 credit score. Guess what?, you don't get a 450 credit score without trying. That house is now foreclosed, of course. Someone who couldn't pay their bills prior to the housing bubble should never have been allowed to own a home. - The housing market and our country will rebound. However, we all must remain positive and not focus so much on the gloom/doom that the media wants. Their gloom and doom is what sells newspapers. $50,000 offer wrote on July 09, 2009 09:50 PM: I offer $50,000 (fifty thousand) for City Center Condo, 15th floor or higher, with city view. You have 24 hours to reply. willy wrote on July 09, 2009 09:32 PM: Gotta love the doom and gloom commentators. If they were giving the houses away people would be complaining the property tax was too high to be able to afford them. Whatever people, every sorry excuse just doesn't work with rational folks. Stats are stats, they aren't dangerous unless you insist they are. Record number of houses sold. Bidding wars present on more houses than not. Inventories down. Come up with all the conspiracy theories you want, facts are facts. BabyDaddy wrote on July 09, 2009 04:57 PM: Hmmmmmm, I thought Alla Obama was going to make sure the banks unloaded these homes at "affordable" prices.. looks like another empty promise from the false prophet... hey bigdickdaddy, let's have coffee Patrick wrote on July 09, 2009 04:28 PM: I find these comments interesting, it appears there is price fixing among banks and real estate agents. I have serious doubts that in these poor economic times there are so many properties with several bids. Properties being removed from the market when there were serious buyers. Plus the inventory of vacant houses waiting to go on the market. Lets face it "Las Vegas" the product has been oversold. mike lamb wrote on July 09, 2009 02:37 PM: If anyone is needing home repairs from remodles to light work call mike at home improvement 870-8384 The End wrote on July 09, 2009 12:40 PM: Duck - a - du Whats a matter, forgot to save few bucks so you could leave the wasteland. The ONLY purpose Vegas or Nevada serves is to come in during a boom, make a few bucks, and leave. What kind of idiot would enjoy living in 3rd World filth in the middle of nowhere? Oh well, I got mine, got out, never been happier. Joe Bama wrote on July 09, 2009 11:44 AM: Here we go again. Buy now before you get priced out! OH STOP IT wrote on July 09, 2009 10:27 AM: None of you were complaining during the boom! NONE OF YOU..... the bubble had to burst at some point. Read All Comments