Thursday, Aug. 4, 2005 | 11:05 a.m.
After a brief lull, the Las Vegas housing market reached a new milestone in July with a median sales price of $306,950.
Monthly statistics released by the Greater Las Vegas Association of Realtors showed that the median price of all homes sold in the month jumped 2.3 percent from the $300,000 mark where prices sat throughout May and June.
While the sales price increase was off the record pace set in 2004, housing industry analysts hailed the return to stable appreciation rates.
"This is good," said Myrna Kingham, president of the GLVAR. "We learned a lot last year. It was exciting, but this is better. ... A stable market is always better."
Dennis Smith, president of Home Builders Research Inc., agreed.
"The long-term outlook looks very good," he said. "That's the best thing that can happen is for (prices) to slow down for awhile. The faster they go up, the faster they are going to come down."
In July, 3,240 homes were sold, down 2.4 percent from the 3,318 units sold in June, based on records from the GLVAR's Multiple Listing Service.
The percentage of homes selling in 30 days or less increased to 52.3 percent in July, up from 51.6 percent in June. The rate is still down, however, from the 82 percent recorded in May 2004.
At the end of July, 15,169 homes were listed for sale, down a slight 0.1 percent from June. The median list price of available units was $364,900, up 1.4 percent from June and up 7.6 percent from June 2004.
Kingham said the strong sales price performance in July fit standard trends.
"Usually July and August are the strongest selling months," she said. "That's because kids are out of school."
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