Resale housing purchases down

Jennifer Shubinski

Monday, Aug. 22, 2005 | 10:52 a.m.

The number of resale houses sold in the Las Vegas Valley decreased in July compared to the same month a year ago, while at the same time the price of those houses went up.

The cost of a resale house in the Las Vegas Valley was $280,000 in July, which translates into a year-to-year increase of $32,510 (13 percent), Home Builders Research reported last week.

Dennis Smith, president of Home Builders Research Inc. said in his monthly newsletter that the increase in the median resale housing price is impressive, considering that the number of resale listings has hovered at 15,000 at any given time this year.

While the price of a resale house went up, the actual number of previously-owned houses sold in July went down year-over-year 13.8 percent to 5,534 houses, Smith reported.

But the decline in the number of homes sold is not an indication that the Las Vegas home market is deflating, he said in his monthly newsletter.

"It made sense to us that the resale segment would slow from the over-heated state of 2004," Smith said. "Slowing to a more normal pace is not a reason for a gloom and doom attitude."

The cost of a new house in the Las Vegas Valley also increased in July over the previous year.

The median cost of a new house (not including apartment-to-condo conversions) in July was $317,909, compared to July 2004 when the cost was $238,957, Home Builders Research reported.

There were 3,071 recorded new home sales in July, bringing the 2005 total to 19,998, a year-to-year increase of 3,616 or 22.1 percent, Smith reported.

There were 610 apartment-to-condo conversions in July, bringing the number of conversions sold through July in 2005 to 3,429.

And while the number of new houses sold increased in July, the number of new home permits pulled declined. There were 3,384 new home permits issued in July, bringing the year's total to 18,890, a year-to-year decrease of 4,182 or 18 percent, Smith reported.

Smith said the number of housing permits pulled has returned to a more balanced state than in 2004, when the number of permits pulled by area builders fluctuated wildly.