Las Vegas home sales surge in August; prices decline !!!

Las Vegas home sales surge in August; prices decline !!!

The slowdown in the nation’s economy hasn’t dampened the interest in Southern Nevada’s market for existing homes.

The Greater Las Vegas Association of Realtors reported Thursday that the combined 4,693 sales of homes, condominiums and town homes listed on the Multiple Listing Service is one of the highest in the valley’s history. It’s nine short of the record set in June 2009, when 4,702 sales were reported.

The August sales rose 16 percent over July’s 4,037 and 29 percent over August 2010, the GLVAR reported.

In breaking down single-family homes, sales rose 17 percent compared to July and 31.5 percent over August 2010. The 3,706 sales of single-family homes trails only June’s 3,785 and July 2009’s 3,738 among the best on record, the GLVAR said.

Even condo and town home sales did well. The 987 sales in August were a record for one month.

GLVAR President Paul Bell attributed the sales surge to strong investor demand for homes, low prices and low interest rates. He said there could have been several hundred more sales if banks had approved more short sales.

Despite the gain in sales, prices continued their decline in August dropping to a median price of $120,000 for single-family homes. That’s a decline of $2,000 or 1.6 percent from July and 14 percent or $18,000 from August 2010.

The median price of town homes and condos was $56,000, a 5.1 percent decline from July and 16.4 percent decline from August 2010.

About one-third of all homes sales were for less than $100,000 as cash-buying investors looked for bargains.

The median price of bank-owned single-family homes sold in August was $104,100. The median price of homes sold as part of a short sale was $128,250, the GLVAR reported.

The prices were down from a median of $107,000 for bank-owned homes in July. The median price of short sales in July was $132,000.

Some 51.2 percent of homes sold in August were purchased with cash. Bank-owned homes accounted for 50.2 percent of sales, while short sales constituted 21.7 percent.

The supply of single-family homes on the MLS remained steady at 22,400, a decline of 42 homes from July. The supply of condos and town homes stood at 4,862, a decline of 4.6 percent.

The GLVAR reported 11,190 single-family homes didn’t have offers and 2,387 town homes and condos didn’t have offers.

The GLVAR stat’s track sales on the MLS in Clark, Nye, Lincoln and White Pine counties. Most of the sales are existing homes but some new home sales are included.

In the latest foreclosure stats released today by California-based CoreLogic, foreclosure rates decreased in June over June 2010.

The rate of foreclosures for the Las Vegas area among outstanding mortgage loans was 7.39 percent for June, a decline of 1.5 percentage points compared to June 2010.

The delinquency rate also continued its decline, falling to 16.36 percent of loans 90 days or more delinquent.

The delinquency rate has fallen 16 of the last 17 months. It’s high was 21.01 percent in February 2010.