Housing sales, prices steady

By Brian Wargo (contact), In Business reporter

Fri, Oct 23, 2009 (3 a.m.)

If statistics are a gauge, the Las Vegas housing market is holding steady and the worst of the recession may be in the rearview mirror.

Whether it’s prices, sales of new or existing homes or even home construction, the numbers have been steady for several months, according to SalesTraq data.

For example, the 4,311 exiting-homes sales in September marked the sixth consecutive month with at least 4,000 sales. The high was 4,675 in July.

Even the prices for those homes haven’t fluctuated much in recent months. The $123,500 median price in September is $3,500 higher than August, but prices have ranged from $120,000 to $125,000 for the past six months.

“The catchphrase used in the financial world is ‘stocks were trading in a narrow range today,’ and I guess that’s what’s happening with real estate prices,” SalesTraq President Larry Murphy said. “It looks to me like prices have stopped dropping.”

Murphy said he may have to eat his words at some point, but suggested analysts might look at the second quarter as the bottom of the market and that it stabilized in the third quarter.

“It is encouraging,” Murphy said. “This is the first time I am able to use that word. It looks like the worst is behind us at this point.”

Even the new-home market has remained fairly consistent, albeit weak, when compared with what is happening in the existing-home market.

In September 459 new homes sold. From June to September, the number of new homes sold has ranged from 409 to 472. Over that time, prices ranged from $209,000 to $211,350.

Builders have also been consistent about the number of permits they are taking out to construct homes: 452 permits in July, 427 in August and 407 in September.

Even the number of homes repossessed from June to September has held steady with a high of 2,486 in June and a low of 1,944 in August.

The one statistic that’s not steady is inventory, which is declining. The number of existing homes on the Multiple Listing Service was 20,573 in January, and it fell 10,698 in September, its lowest level of the year. SalesTraq said that is a 2 1/2-month supply.

Discussion: 1 comment so far…

By bam1969

10/23/09 at 8:33 a.m.

Suggest removal

larry murphy, the same guy who in the spring of 2007 announced to a packed house of realtors that "the market has officially hit bottom". what a hack.