The Las Vegas housing market showed no signs of slowing down in April, a local research analyst said Tuesday.

Dennis Smith, president of Home Builders Research, counted 2,822 new home sales during the month, bringing the year-to-date total to 10,513, up nearly 12 percent from a year ago.

"The market is pretty good," Smith said. "It's not excellent, but it's pretty good. We're seeing inventory drying up in new homes and resales look steady."

April's numbers include 545 apartment conversions, which is a 19.3 percent market share. Not including conversions, new home sales would be down 4.2 percent. Typical new homes include single-family detached, new and converted condominiums and townhomes.

The median price for a new home that closed escrow in April was $281,355, an increase of $47,995, or 20.6 percent, from the same month a year ago. Excluding apartment conversions, the median price was $310,000.

In the resale market, there were 5,274 recorded sales at a median price of $268,000, a 21.8 percent increase. Total sales of existing homes are down 14.7 percent for the year at 17,972.

Smith said double-digit appreciation rates are not a true indication of recent adjustments in home prices in Las Vegas. Looking at price changes for new homes since January shows a much slower pace of appreciation.

"The perception is that housing prices are going down," said Ron Cale, broker and owner of Prudential Americana in Las Vegas. "The reason is low-end condos are a higher percentage of our total sales."

After the huge price increases in the first half of last year, home owners should be satisfied they haven't seen any significant price reductions this year, Smith said.

"The housing bubble -- and I hate that term -- is when prices are abnormally high, the job growth and in-migration in general terms don't support those prices," Smith said. "What (Federal Reserve Chairman Alan) Greenspan has been saying is any pricing bubble in the marketplace is regional, and more than that, it's local. People in Las Vegas who've seen their home values go up and don't go anywhere else and experience other prices, to them we have a pricing bubble."

During the past 15 to 20 years, Las Vegas has been an anomaly compared with other models of housing market activity around the country, Smith said.

"If in fact we do see a drop in prices, historically it's not going to be more than 10 percent or 15 percent. Whatever, we're still much, much better off than we were a year ago," he said.

SalesTraq, another Las Vegas-based housing research firm, reported 2,831 new home closings in April at a median price of $293,350, a 24.6 percent increase from the same month a year ago.

New home permits dropped 50 percent from a year ago to 2,273, bringing the four-month total to 8,808. Homes for sale stayed on the market for an average of 48 days, compared with 21 days in April 2004, and sales price was 98 percent of list price, SalesTraq reported.

"What I see -- to quote Greenspan from a few years ago -- is the 'irrational exuberance' is now gone from the market," Cale said. "What we see now is people buying homes for reasons that can sustain a healthy market. They need a place to live. Last year, people that would have gone to the casino to roll the dice instead rolled the dice in real estate."

Cale said entry-level homes less than $300,000 and condominium conversions are strong in Las Vegas.

Cale and several agents from his office camped out on behalf of clients for the Past three releases of a D.R. Horton subdivision in Silverado Ranch, going after "patio homes" with base prices under $200,000, he said.