Home sales increase for seven consecutive months

The Greater Las Vegas Association of Realtors reported increased home sales for the seventh straight month in July, with stable inventory and foreclosures lowering home prices slightly.

Bank-owned properties increased their drag on local home prices, according to the GLVAR.

"As in past months, these latest GLVAR statistics are a mixed bag," said GLVAR President Patty Kelley. "It's very encouraging to see that we're selling more homes each month than we did in the previous month and almost twice as many homes as we did during the same month last year. And while it's difficult to watch home prices slide slightly each month due to foreclosures, the good news is that we are taking big chunks of foreclosures out of the inventory each month, and those vacant homes are being purchased by Las Vegas residents who can truly afford them. Once this foreclosure inventory is gone, we anticipate another correction in the resale market and the median price will begin to increase rather quickly."

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. For July, the total number of local single-family homes sold was 2,592.

That's up 16.4 percent from June's 2,226 home sales and up 96.7 percent from July, 2007. For local condos and townhomes, 358 were sold in July, up 21.8 percent from the 294 units sold in June. That's up 18.2 percent compared to July, 2007.

The median price of a single-family home sold in the Las Vegas area decreased by 2.2 percent, from $225,000 in June to $220,000 in July. That's down 25.4 percent from July, 2007 -- representing what Kelley called a "great bargain for buyers ready to buy now."

For condos and townhomes, the median sales price decreased 1.8 percent, from $137,500 in June to $135,000 in July. That's down 30.8 percent from July, 2007. The number of local homes listed for sale through July remained flat, increasing by only 0.1 percent for single-family homes, with 23,423 homes listed in July, compared to 23,388 listed for sale in June.

That inventory of homes is down 2.8 percent from last July.

The number of condos and townhomes listed for sale also remained flat, from 5,537 in June to 5,538 in July. That's 11.7 percent fewer than last July.

Kelley said that local real estate transactions tracked through the MLS during July totaled nearly $660 million worth of single-family homes, up 10.3 percent from nearly $598 million in June and up 32.5 percent from last July..

For more information, visit lasvegasrealtor.com.