Home sales continued to slide in Las Vegas during August, dropping 37 percent from the same month a year ago to 2,097, the Greater Las Vegas Association of Realtors reported Friday.
It's the 11th consecutive month of declining single-family home sales, starting with a 1.2 percent drop in October to a 38.5 percent drop in July.
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Local research firm Home Builders Research counted 26,817 resales through July, a decrease of 7,661, or 22.2 percent from a year ago.
The local housing market showed stability in the inventory of homes for sale, which grew by slightly more than 100 to 20,384 in August, and median price, up 0.6 percent from last month at $312,000. Compared with the same month a year ago, inventory is up 32.8 percent and price is up 1 percent.
"What you're seeing is a few things," Susquehanna Financial Group housing analyst Stephen East said. "On the existing (resale) side, while the price may not change, sellers are willing to pay closing costs or put money in escrow. On the new side, it's incentives. Builders want to keep prices up so people who bought six months ago don't feel like they suddenly have a big loss on the house."
East places more validity in the reporting of existing home prices than new home prices and said it's possible for Las Vegas to have 18 months of flat prices "because you ran so far so fast."
Nearly 60 percent of single-family homes and 64.3 percent of condos and townhomes sold in fewer than 60 days, an indication that the market is not as crippled as some experts claim, said Linda Rheinberger, president of Greater Las Vegas Association of Realtors.
"If a property is correctly positioned in price and terms, then it will sell fairly quickly," she said.
Sellers are beginning to understand the housing trend and fewer speculative sellers are putting their homes on the market, Rheinberger said.
"If they're not players, get out of the way," she said. "Either delist the house if you're just testing the waters or maybe sit back and wait."
For local condos and townhomes, the median sales price in August was $206,500, up 2.5 percent from July and up 3.8 percent from one year ago. A total of 512 units were sold, up 1.4 percent from the previous month and down 37.1 percent from one year ago. Condo listings have nearly doubled from a year ago at 5,040, compared with 2,649 in August 2005.
Association statistics are based on records from the Multiple Listing Service and do not necessarily account for newly constructed homes sold by local builders or other transactions not involving a Realtor.
Dennis Smith of Home Builders Research said Las Vegas is not alone in the throes of a declining housing market. Resales have dropped 25 percent in Phoenix and inventory has surpassed 45,000.
"Homeowners refuse to believe their home is worth less than it was a year or two ago," Smith said. "It's hard for anybody to give up even part of the 30 (percent) or 40 percent appreciation gain realized over the past year or two."
