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StumbleLas Vegas home prices, sales slip in January
Tuesday, Feb. 9, 2010 | 9:48 a.m.
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Home prices in Southern Nevada dipped slightly in January as investors purchased an even greater percentage of homes, according to statistics released this morning by the Greater Las Vegas Association of Realtors.
The median price of homes sold in January was $134,925, down about 1 percent from $136,000 in December. The price was 15.7 percent below where it was in January 2009.
The 2,608 sales of homes in January was 24 percent lower than the number in December, but sales were 17 percent higher than January 2009, the GLVAR reported.
Foreclosure sales continue to shrink, dropping to 57.4 percent in January, down from 60.1 percent in December. The reason is more lenders are allowing homeowners to sell their properties for less than what’s owed on the mortgage, according to the GLVAR.
The so-called short sales accounted for 21.1 percent of sales in January, a two percentage point increase over December. It has risen consistently over the last several months.
The percentage of Southern Nevada homes purchased with cash in January was 45.5 percent, up from 40.4 percent in December. That’s the highest percentage ever tracked by the GLVAR.
The GLVAR tracks homes on the Multiple Listing Service in Clark, Nye and Lincoln counties.
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but...but...dennis smith said...?
big surprise, the decline continues.
Still need a stable job to buy a house.
Government should understand that renting is good for the economy as renters will move to where the jobs are and good living conditions.
Government policy should remove the incentives for home "ownership" since I don't know of too many people who pay off their mortgage and truly own their home.
how's that hopey changey stuff workin' out for ya?
things will get worse until 2016 when obama gets out of office.
rich people that create jobs and move the economy aren't doing anything for fear of his socialist agenda.
stevem, Could you supply us with any evidence that your statement has any basis in fact and not just a rightwing talking point?
Stevem,
Can you please stop channeling your hero on every single comment forum? That quote made her sound like even more of an idiot.
Investors purchasing a greater share of the homes is a very very bad sign for the long-term health of the housing market here. Remember that this is how the mess in Las Vegas started in the first place.
Home prices are much less likely to increase when too many are owned by investors. First of all the houses are not maintained or upgraded properly, so they are then not as valuable. Secondly, any time there is an increase in demand from buyers, then investors will flood the market with homes and then the prices will "correct" themselves to be basically flat.
This is a free country and a capitalist economy. Nobody should intervene to prevent investors from buying houses. In the short term, they help to buy up places that might otherwise be abandoned, so this is a good thing. In the long term though, they turn Vegas into a gigantic rental market and create a bad and hidden imbalance in supply and demand.
I'm hoping the prices continue on a downward trend until I can get my investment property. Don't worry, folks... the housing market can't stay this depressing forever.
Nightmare, vacant homes owned by banks = no HOA dues or property taxes being paid. If an investor owns the property and rents it out, then someone is paying the taxes and dues owed. Isn't that better than the home sitting abandoned and squatters/homeless vagrants living in the house?
The headline forgot to say "unexpectedly". When the green shoots fail to grow it is always unexpected.
stevem...its a beautiful day but with your head stuck up your A#@ you cant see it.
The most interesting item in this piece is that 45.5% were sold for cash. The highest percentage ever. This means that loans are still extremely difficult to get. The credit crisis is a child of the mortgage/ real estate bubble. The banks are still building reserves to take care of a massive bad loan portfolio, thus they are necessarily wary to loan and in this economy few are willing to bet on the business being there should they contemplate a new project so those asking for a loan are few. This suggests that hard times will continue for a good while.
Socialist programs like the one that pays the unemployed have been extended with federal stimulus program dollars. I applaud the Obama administration and the Democrat led Congress for using stimulus dollars in this way.
Had there been no stimulus package the number of unemployed whose benefits would have expired would have had a significant downward push on economic activity, making things even worse.
This is not a good story for Las Vegas, A good story is when we read that unemployment has dropped. Homes are bought and sold for whatever reason, but jobs are won and lost for very specific reasons, and right now all of these carpetbagger outside corporations are behind the investment home buying. The unemployment is because of a national depression, and idiot stubborn corporate ownership of Nevada casinos who refuse to bring back all of the lost value once offered which attracts tourists to our state.
You can get a house cheap but what about property tax.Nevada is in great need of your money now where do you think they are going to get it (property tax).
Politicians and their blind followers will blame the other party but this all boiled down to the fact that we Americans are self-centered and greedy and took on way too much debt. Blame the banks, corporations and politicians for this all you want. We're to blame. We consume too much, we waste too much, we owe too much, we eat too much and we complain too much.
True, government failed in setting aside money when things were going well (although it turns out this wealth was a mirage) but what do you expect? We would revolt if politicians don't pander to our whims. And this goes for both liberal and conservative, blue or red. Same thing.
Until we as citizens change our own behavior and take responsibility, this will only continue.
"rich people that create jobs and move the economy aren't doing anything for fear of his socialist agenda."
Stevem you are 100% correct! Until Obama and the other progressives are removed, everyone is on hold for fear of the rules being changed again in mid-stream. No body is going to risk their capital until the country is back on track!
Nevada has to do it's share of the work by getting rid of Harry Reid
On Ronald Reagan's last trip to Las Vegas he warned American's how dangerous Harry Reid was, now we know how very right the was! >>> http://www.reaganslastcampaign.com/
any evidence?
with bush = home prices rose
without bush = home prices fall
with bush = employment in vegas grew
without bush = unemployment increased
what other evidence do you need?
Hey Stevem,you are right. I will be so glad when Harry is gone. Got to have hope for LV and with a Republican in office there will be.
Sara has more brains in her little finger than alot of the libs who live in Vegas.
Too bad she can't run in Nevada.
lovinvegas, who has there head stuck up their ---??????
For those of you who have walked away, or are thinking of walking away from your mortgage, and all you hear are the meathead politicians, lenders and others including friends, family and neighbors saying,"Its your obligation to pay. Its your moral duty" blah blah blah, I have a very interesting article for you to read. Its in your financial best interest to walk, and until all of you do so, the only winners will be the banks, the government, and sleezy investors who will turn your home into section 8 housing. It is NOT immoral to do whats best for your financial best interest, and paying for a house that will NEVER regain its equity, is WRONG!!!!
Read on:
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/10/magazi...
stevem,
It started here in 03:
http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/index....
Is he still laughing?
and with help from him:
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB12381122...
tomfranklin,
Reaganomocs = deja vu
The PON (Party Of No) does neither have a plan nor a leader and keeps rehearsing bad scripts from the Reagan years. Reagan,although a mediocre actor, played a good President and introduced Hollywood to politics.
Reaganomics here:
http://www.econlib.org/library/Enc1/Reag...
growth was because of non existent money being lent because of greedy agents pushing up prices and banks need to lend money to make money not because of bush who cant string two words in a decent sentance
i'm renting a 975 sq. foot single family home @ the 215 and far hills...what's a fair price for the rent? 2 beds, 2 baths, single story.
"Sara has more brains in her little finger than alot of the libs who live in Vegas.
Too bad she can't run in Nevada."
LOLOLOLOLOL Now that is funny!!!
That hope and change is really working great for us. Our employment numbers are dismal; we're either losing our homes or their value keeps dropping. I tried to sell my home and can't even do that now. Hey Harry, where's the help for your home state?
Hey Harry, where's the help for your home state?
And that is where the problem lies - he gives 2 &hits about the State. He and Gibbons - two peas in a pod. They care more about their own agendas then the good of the State.
stevem: any evidence?
with bush = home prices rose
without bush = home prices fall
with bush = employment in vegas grew
without bush = unemployment increased
what other evidence do you need?
That's plenty of evidence that you were hiding behind the door when God passed out the brains.
Not a good idea but I will post it anyway.
Falling home prices, lack of jobs and empty hotels are just a few of the problems that face Las Vegas. What can be done to attract people to Las Vegas ? Maybe it is time to branch out. There are a great many people that are bed bound that have dialysis treatments three times a week. Few nursing homes in California offer in house dialysis and this requires transporting the patient to and from dialysis three times a week which cost about $800.00 per round trip and then there is the dialysis which is $ 500.00 per treatment. for a total weekly price of close to $4,000.00 or about $200,000.00 per year. The empty hotels in Las Vegas could be remodeled and used as nursing homes which could offer in house dialysis for far less costs than is presently available in California. The question is would insurance companies or families transfer patients to Las Vegas to save $100,000.00 per year per patient? Dialysis technicians start at $12.00 per hour and go up to $25.00 and hour. Most people want to be close to their loved ones in their time of need so would they move to Las Vegas to save a large amount of money ?