The median sales price of a single-family home in Las Vegas was $310,000 in October, up less than 1 percent from the same month a year ago, the Greater Las Vegas Association of Realtors reported Monday. The price is unchanged from September.
The number of homes sold in October dropped 34.4 percent from a year ago to 1,689, the 13th straight month of declining year-over-year sales.
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Inventory of homes for sale continues to climb at 23,474, a 53.8 percent increase from October 2005. More than 5,000 homes were added to the Multiple Listing Service during the month.
National studies have predicted double-digit declines in median home prices as part of the national housing slowdown, but that hasn't happened in Las Vegas and probably won't, association President Linda Rheinberger said.
These studies don't give enough weight to local economic conditions, especially the lack of private land available for development and continued job and population growth that sets Southern Nevada apart from other regions of the country, she said.
"The history of our local market makes a double-digit decline highly unexpected, barring some sort of catastrophe," Rheinberger said. "Instead, what we are seeing are continued signs of what is referred to as a 'soft landing,' or a market correction."
Both condominium and townhome prices gained 2.6 percent from a year ago to $200,000, which is also unchanged from September. Like the single-family market, condo sales were down 45.2 percent to 357 in October. Condo listings more than doubled from a year ago to a record 6,261.
Rheinberger said the MLS shows steady sales activity with more than 3,400 properties about to close escrow. More than half the homes on the MLS are selling within 60 days.
"If it's priced properly and it's marketed properly, it will sell," Coldwell Banker Wardley Realtor Dave Lampe said. "Our inventory is only a three- to four-month inventory, which is great. Agents that take an overpriced listing and they don't market it, the house doesn't sell. When you run the comps (comparable sales), you have to look back one month. You can't look back six months."
Rheinberger said she sees positive signs in the emerging housing categories of mid-rise and mixed-use developments.
"People haven't had those as an option before and now they're considering that option," she said.
"For those who want that lifestyle, they're buying them, but not at a frenetic pace," she said.
Statistics from the Greater Las Vegas Association of Realtors are based on data collected through the MLS and do not necessarily account for homes sold by local builders or other transactions not involving a Realtor.
