Las Vegas Home Sales Increase by 85% in March
LAS VEGAS -- SalesTraq reported a median existing-home price of $134,900 in March, a 41.3% decline from the same month a year ago. Existing-home sales during the month increased 85.6% percent to 3,626 recorded closings. It's the same trend housing analyst Larry Murphy of SalesTraq has seen for the past 11 months: rising sales and declining prices.MP: If we tracked the real estate market the way we track auto sales (number of units sold regardless of price), we would conclude that the housing market is booming in places like California, Florida, Northern Virginia, the Twin Cities and Las Vegas. Unit sales for March are up significantly in all of those markets compared to March last year.
Related:
NY Times: Where Home Prices Crashed Early, Signs of a Rebound
Inman News: Home Sales Boom in 'Busted' Markets
6 Comments:
A vast "shadow inventory" of foreclosed homes that banks are holding off the market could wreak havoc with the already battered real estate sector, industry observers say.Lenders nationwide are sitting on hundreds of thousands of foreclosed homes that they have not resold or listed for sale, according to numerous data sources. And foreclosures, which banks unload at fire-sale prices, are a major factor driving home values down."We believe there are in the neighborhood of 600,000 properties nationwide that banks have repossessed but not put on the market," said Rick Sharga, vice president of RealtyTrac, which compiles nationwide statistics on foreclosures. "California probably represents 80,000 of those homes. It could be disastrous if the banks suddenly flooded the market with those distressed properties. You'd have further depreciation and carnage."In a recent study, RealtyTrac compared its database of bank-repossessed homes to MLS listings of for-sale homes in four states, including California. It found a significant disparity - only 30 percent of the foreclosures were listed for sale in the Multiple Listing Service. The remainder is known in the industry as "shadow inventory."San Francisco Chronicle
Dr. Perry,
For some reason the comments generator is not recognizing paragraph breaks.
I don't know if it is something that I'm doing (though I've tried everything I can think of), or something that needs to be adjusted at your end.
Please check. Thanks.
Of course, it would work when I posted that. Errghhh.
What seems most interesting here is that the gross amount spent on homes appears to have increased (at least when you simply multiple the median price by the number of homes). I'd be curious to know the actual gross dollar amount comparison year over year.
Although no one is building here in Las Vegas (new permits), projects are attempting to complete (Fountainblu, MGM CityCenter, Mountain's Edge, etc.) their delayed phases. As homes sell, as your previous commenter pointed out, more homes appear, keeping the inventory for sale between 28-30K. Normally, it takes an inventory of 12K or less, to push prices upward. We've got a long way to go. There is no reason no to want to retire here (vice work here), as a $200K home can get you 1800-2000 SF, with taxes at $1500/year. Sales tax remains reasonable, especially when compared to NY or CA, which both hiked theirs. Although parents with school kids remain angry at the constant budget cuts, government has stayed within their means (unlike CA) and our state's fee based system allows those who do not use government, to avoid paying more than their fair share for government.
Oh man, i better act quick to make my move to Vegas.
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