REAL ESTATE:

Las Vegas home prices, sales rise in October

Monday, Nov. 9, 2009 | 10:12 a.m.

After a two-month dip, home sales rebounded in October and prices continued to hold steady, according to statistics released this morning by the Greater Las Vegas Association of Realtors.

The GLVAR reported 3,535 sales of single-family homes in October, a 5.3 percent increase over September when there were 3,358 sales. Median prices rose nearly 1 percent to $139,100, the highest since it was $138,800 in July.

Sales of condos and town houses fell 1 percent in October to 850, but median prices rose 6.5 percent from $65,720 to $70,000, the GLVAR reported.

Demand for homes continues to be fueled by investors and first-time homebuyers. Cash buyers accounted for 42 percent of the sales.

The sales of foreclosed-upon homes declined in October, falling to 64.5 percent of the total. It was 67 percent in September.

The GLVAR tracks sales only on the Multiple Listing Service. It reported there were 20,998 homes listed at the end of October, about 1 percent higher than September. The GLVAR said there were 8,075 homes listed without offers, a 2 percent increase over September.

In October, owners listed 5,482 homes for sale, an 11 percent increase over September.

Discussion: 24 comments so far…

By Sergio_the_Prophet

11/9/09 at 10:42 a.m.

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42% of all sales were cash. Humm. Can any large realtor chime in and tell us what percentage of cash buyers are Asian, from China in particular?

Also, if the banks wanted to stabilize the housing market, why don't they simply turn their lemons into lemonade and change their thinking on REO's. Why not simply create a new banking division, a RE property management division, and rent out the REO's at fair market value to generate money for themselves and then sell them when they can turn a profit? Why hand these homes over to Chinese nationals (China has a ton of US cash, I have a hunch they're buying up our RE) or any other investor? We the people own the banks by virtue of the tax payer money they accepted. I thus demand that these new business entities of mine (banks) start acting like capitalists and not morons and start making money with the tons of REO's on the market. They could thus manipulate the market (create a demand by taking homes off the market, creating a shortage of homes) to drive prices higher or stabilize at worse. They could start making money by renting the homes for at least 1 yr leases. After 1 year, they can then start think about selling into a strong market.

Why don't the banks do this, which would be common sense? Because they're morons, as are all gov agencies which can't wipe their own arese without first generating red tape and asking permission. Free markets work at the speed of sound, and change happens instantly. Not so when the gov is involved. God help all the sick people when they control your health care.
By byrong1

11/9/09 at 10:49 a.m.

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Banks can't do that it is illegal, although they tried really hard to lobby for it about 5 years ago.

Roughly the same time they were making subprime loans to people who obviously couldn't afford their home and were going to be foreclosed on....hmmm maybe they wanted to get into the real estate game by manipulating people into buying more than they can afford.

If banks can get into any business besides lending money they will no doubt control who gets what money for those seperate business interests and that would cause free markets to fail.
By retiredyoungster

11/9/09 at 11:42 a.m.

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well, the banks arent loaning as best they can even to this day...article last week stated that even Clark County Gov't had trouble purchasing homes in a gov't program they operate cause the banks wouldnt work with them, so they had to return millions of dollars back to the stimulas program. We'll be adding our hoe to this mix as it is going back to the bank - NOT BECAUSE we over bought - we put 62% down but both lost our jobs..when no work = no pay, no program can help you.
By tomfranklin

11/9/09 at 11:51 a.m.

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Actually, the renting of REO's is just getting started. Last week it came out that Fannie-Mae & Freddie-Mac will now rent the homes back to the borrowers that are in foreclosure IF they agree to give the lender a deed in lieu of foreclosure. They will rent for 1 year then the rental goes month-to-month.

I'm not sure how I feel about this? It's a government interference in the free market process and could cause the recovery cycle to be stretched out for decades? It could also very well lead to a huge government owned housing industry and we all know how poorly run any government housing is! Who will do the maintenance of these houses?
By stevem

11/9/09 at 12:13 p.m.

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i don't know what those investors are thinking. i mean...vegas is done. over. we're seeing home sales VOLUME increase, but only seeing a 1% increase in prices?!

ya...i REALLY want to buy a home in vegas.
By vegasfun01

11/9/09 at 12:43 p.m.

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This article fails to mention that home prices declined by 26% year-over-year. A monthly increase is meaningless since it can just be a short-term phenomenon.

Also, home recovery will never happen until banks start lending again. It is impossible to get a bank loan on any condo in Vegas right now and homes require at least 20% down now. Investors may make a killing in a few years but I bet it will be another 10+ years before things recovery in the housing market, especially in Vegas, CA, AZ, and FL.

I feel sorry for anyone that bought a home 2-4 years ago -- the best thing for those people to do is to walk away as quickly as possible. Most already have and good for them. Because the banks have proven that they don't care about homeowners so you shouldn't keep paying a mortgage when the property is underwater. Let the bank eat the costs. And just wait until they start raising borrowing costs and cutting off everyone's credit cards or raising rates, etc. The worst is yet to come because of poor leadership all around this country.
By fogcity

11/9/09 at 12:54 p.m.

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If banks are keeping foreclosed homes off the market, the all-cash investors may be in for a big surprise. They could have a property which has gone down in value, and also they may have an empty house because will all of the people leaving LV there may be noone to rent to.
By azbycx0918

11/9/09 at 1:04 p.m.

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stevem, you are on this site almost daily spewing about how bad Las Vegas is and that it is on its way to ruination. Yet, you are a real estate agent who probably profited mightily during the boom years of 2004-2006. So, my question to you is whether you voiced your negative opinions about the future of Las Vegas to all your clients during 2004-2006 before they purchased their house? Did you tell them the truth about how you felt or did you lie to them and say that you thought it was a great time to buy?
By Det__Munch

11/9/09 at 1:29 p.m.

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Demand for homes continues to be fueled by investors and first-time homebuyers. Cash buyers accounted for 42 percent of the sales.

I wonder what the percentage was for the first-time buyers? 5% 10%????

Maybe all those people who got jobs at City Center were the first timers.
By tvegas

11/9/09 at 2:18 p.m.

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If you got a job at City Center you can't afford to buy a house.
By byrong1

11/9/09 at 2:43 p.m.

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true that tvegas, I know a girl with two college degrees and several years of office experiance and she is lucky because she got hired for $11 an hour with no benefits.
By unclegig

11/9/09 at 3:52 p.m.

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My 2-cent suggestion: Why won't the City or County with all the stimulus money cut the red tapes (pay cash like the prosectors) and buy the soon- to-be foreclosed homes from the bank and turn around sell it to the current owners for 10% more. Most of these homeowners have steady jobs and can afford the new lower payments instead of foreclosing there upside down mortgages. The mortgage companies kept the govt. stimulus money and would rather incur bigger losses through foreclosures than help the current homeowners through loan modifications.
By unclegig

11/9/09 at 3:53 p.m.

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Correction to my post above: prospectors not prosectors..
By byrong1

11/9/09 at 4:28 p.m.

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unclegig, read the article "Cities, county find buying valley homes isn't easy" it a link given in the Most Read section.
By petef

11/9/09 at 6:09 p.m.

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vegasfun01... where do you get your information? I bought a second home, condo, in Feb and got a mortgage from Bank of America, no problem. How can you state banks are not making mortgages on condos? I know they are not making mortgages to those who are not credit worthy, something that should have been done many years ago. I do not support a bank giving back on their loan to the homeowner. Does the homeowner give their profit to the bank when things go well? NO. Why should a bank forgive a part of the loan amount? the buyer took the risk to make money, as well as loose money, as did the bank writing the loan. As long as banks do not share in the appreciation they should not have to share in the depreciation with the homeowner. I know it is the same thing, they foreclose and sell for a big loss, but at least it does not reward the homeowner for his own mistake.
By unclegig

11/9/09 at 9:09 p.m.

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The City and County are not so successful because of so many stupid regulations (red tapes) they have to follow and so they can't compete with the private buyers. I'm talking about the City and County using their stimulus money to buy soon to be foreclosed homes and flipping it back to the current homeowners for a 10% profit. The City don't have to do any repairs because there is no change of occupants. This is a win-win situation for banks, troubled homeowners, and the City. Sometimes we have to remove our blinders and think outside the box because what is happening now is a lose-lose situations. The banks, homeowners, and the neighborhood are all suffering because some close minded people don't want to let go of the past.
By environprotector

11/10/09 at 5:19 a.m.

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Oh yeah I can't wait to buy a house in Vegas and live next door to squatters and drug addicts...
By vegasfun01

11/10/09 at 8:28 a.m.

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pet - you must be one of the "lucky" ones. from real estate agents I've talked to, lending is non-existent for condo-hotel projects like CityCenter and Trump - all cash is now needed. And while I would normally agree that homeowners shouldn't give the keys back, the fact that the greedy banks have taken tax payer money and refuse to lend to those same tax payers, then I think the game has changed. People need to protect themselves because banks and the government will screw you over big time. Lot of fraud going on...
By PrecisionPEI

11/11/09 at 12:43 a.m.

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Sergio,

We have heard a significant amount of anecdotal data suggesting that there are large numbers of Asian (specifically, Chinese) investors in the Las Vegas market buying investment property.

That being said, I've yet to experience this personally (I am genetically Chinese and I speak Mandarin) and the hard data is not easy to find. The best the Recorder's office can generate for us right now is whether the mailing address of the tax statement matches the property's physical address; I believe this is used as the proxy to determine whether a property has been purchased by an investor.

Overall, there appear to be a significant amount of strong opinions here - our interpretation of the data is that it's a step in the right direction but it's far too early to call a recovery.

Incidentally, we are seeing a tick up in the pricing for land and finished lots, typically a leading indicator home values. Whether this tick up is a sustainable trend or a blip remains to be seen.

Long term, it seems rational that the inventory will be absorbed and we cannot continue to sell homes at below replacement cost. In the interim, we feel that there is significant opportunity for both investors and home buyers alike.

David Kang
By fremmasmind

11/11/09 at 5:35 a.m.

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stevem to want home prices to rise higher and faster you are wanting a repeat performance of what we are trying to work out of right now.
By justtired

11/11/09 at 7:33 a.m.

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Unfortunately, things are likely to get worse, before they get better in both the sfr and condo market. The number of mortgages that are in default is rising, not shrinking. I am a perfect example, having been stupid enough to NOT DEFAULT on my purchase contract for a hi-rise condo, Instead of losing about $75K on lost deposit, I am losing about 250K on a defaulted condo. I paid $670K with $520K in loans and 100K to improve my lovely bare floor, "designer ready" unit. I have it for sale now at less than $400K and haven't had one offer in 1.5 months. Probably not worth more than $325K.

My point is this...I was, and still consider myself to be, a Prime borrower. My decision to stop paying on my mortgage was simple. I am not going to spend $4,000 per month (hi-rise living is expensive) on a unit that will likely take many, many years to recover some if any of my equity. I am not a deadbeat who couldnt afford it (at the time), but it makes no financial sense to continue feeding my money into this sinkhole.

No NOD has been filed yet by the lender, although I am 6 months in arrears. What are they waiting for? Since it is B of A, that should be enough of an answer.

I would rather be wrong about my thoughts on the future. Vegas is a great City, but government policies of easy money, and our consumption mentality fueled by credit expansionist policies have created asset price dislocations that will ultimately bite us all again in the near future.
By llking

11/11/09 at 7:52 a.m.

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justtired,

You're not alone in this situation. My SIL has 3 properties that she had stopped making payments for 8 months or more. In the meantime, she's collecting rents from the tenants.

llking
By Det__Munch

11/11/09 at 8:33 a.m.

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My SIL has 3 properties that she had stopped making payments for 8 months or more. In the meantime, she's collecting rents from the tenants.

Mmmm......gee, what a "nice" person. Too bad her tenants know nothing about this. She ought to remember: what goes around, comes around. Karma is a b**** and it gets ya'!
By Bouvier

11/15/09 at 7:03 p.m.

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Great post by PeteF... Very good point. Homeowner's don't give their equity to the bank when things are good. How irresponsible to just walk away when you are upside down and make everyone else pay for THEIR poor decision. Nobody twisted anyone's arms to buy these properties. Man up to your choices and ride it out! People who do this ARE deadbeats, contrary to what a poster Justtired seems to think.

People got greedy with quick profits of the housing boom and got caught with their pants down. These walk-away irresponsible homeowners are adding fuel to the housing crisis.

Karma does have a way of biting back. I hope that the banks will NEVER make a loan to someone who walks away from their loans because they are upside down. There has to be some accountability for their actions.

By the way, I bought property in Nevada with cash. I'm 100% American. There is little to no financing on certain condo projects. Financing depends on a specific factors of the project determined by the lenders.