GLVAR posts April figures

Local housing statistics released by the Greater Las Vegas Association of Realtors show the number of homes sold in Southern Nevada increased for the fourth straight month, while local home prices decreased slightly in April.

"We continue to see this as a good sign for the local housing market," GLVAR President Patty Kelley said. "With four months in a row of month-over-month gains in homes sold, we see this as a positive trend."

GLVAR statistics for the month show a slight decline in the median price of homes, condos and townhomes sold in April. As in past months, Kelley said GLVAR experts continue to attribute this slight price decline to the number of short sales and bank-owned properties selling for prices below market value.

"Properties owned by banks and other lenders are still accounting for more than half of all the homes sold each month. Until recent months, this sort of thing was unprecedented," Kelley said.

The association distributes statistics each month based on data collected through its Multiple Listing Service, which does not necessarily account for newly constructed homes sold by local builders. This month's highlights include:

The total number of local single-family homes sold in April was 1,794.

That's up 21.4 percent from 1,478 homes sold in March. For condos and townhomes, 212 were sold in April, up 7.1 percent from 198 sales in March and down 28.4 percent from last April.

The median price of a single-family home sold in the Las Vegas area decreased by 3 percent, from $243,169 in March to $235,875 in April. That's down 22.7 percent from last April.

For more information, visit lasvegasrealtor.com.