The average price of a single family home fell 4.9 percent from $273,000 in November and is 15.1 percent off the mark from December 2006, according the Greater Las Vegas Association of Realtors.

The big drop seems to be related to sales of foreclosed homes or short sales. From the assocation’s press release:

“GLVAR President Patty Kelley said December is traditionally a slow month for home sales, mostly due to the holiday season. She said December’s GLVAR statistics may not, however, be a true reflection of the marketplace due to the high number of local homes that are vacant and owned by investors, banks and other lenders, who sold last month at deeply discounted prices to get the properties off their 2007 books.”

Read the entire press release after the jump.

GLVAR reports median price drops to $260,000 due to high volume of bank sales

Following trends from the final months of 2007, statistics released today by the Greater Las Vegas Association of REALTORS® (GLVAR) show that local home prices decreased for single-family homes sold in December, despite the number of local homes on the market continuing to decline.

LVAR President Patty Kelley said December is traditionally a slow month for home sales, mostly due to the holiday season. She said December’s GLVAR statistics may not, however, be a true reflection of the marketplace due to the high number of local homes that are vacant and owned by investors, banks and other lenders, who sold last month at deeply discounted prices to get the properties off their 2007 books.

Our Multiple Listing Service shows that 879 homes were sold in our area during December,” Kelley said. “Nearly one-third of these homes had either been repossessed or were what we call short sales. We see that 228 of the 879 December home sales were repossessed homes, and another 48 were short-sale homes.”
A short sale is when a mortgage holder or bank allows a homeowner to sell a home for less than what is owed on the loan, she explained.

“I believe that percentage may actually be closer to 40 percent of all home sales, since banks are under enormous pressure to get these properties off their books. In any case, this has resulted in significant numbers of homes selling well below market value and appraised value, creating an artificially low median price. I think the one real bright spot in December’s numbers is the continued decline in listings. This should begin to really put pressure on availability and hold value for property owners who have experienced any short-term losses.”
This month’s GLVAR statistics include activity through the end of December. The association distributes such statistics each month based on data collected through its Multiple Listing Service (MLS), which does not necessarily account for newly constructed homes sold by local builders. This month’s highlights include:

• The median price of a single-family home sold in the Las Vegas area decreased 4.9 percent from $273,500 in November to $260,000 in December. That’s down 15.1 percent from last December.
• For condos and townhomes, the median sales price in December increased 2.8 percent from $180,000 in November to $185,000 in December. That’s down 5.1 percent from last December.
•  The number of local homes listed for sale through December decreased 6.3 percent for single-family homes, with 22,005 homes listed for sale, compared to 23,494 homes listed for sale in November. That’s up 23.4 percent from December 2006.
• The number of condos and townhomes listed for sale declined by 8 percent from 5,989 in November to 5,508 in December. That’s an increase of 14.0 percent from the number of condos and townhomes listed in December 2006.
• The total number of local single-family homes sold in December was 879. That’s down 9.2 percent from the 968 homes sold in November. On an annual basis, the number of homes sold declined 46.5 percent from December 2006. For condos and townhomes, 167 units were sold in December, up 3.1 percent from 162 sales in November and down 55.1 percent from last December. Kelley said that all the local real estate transactions tracked through the MLS translated into more than $280 million of sales volume, down 18.0 percent from last month.
• Through December, 47.0 percent of all single-family homes and 40.8 percent of all condos and townhomes sold within 60 days. In November, 45.5 percent of all single-family homes and 43.9 percent of all condos and townhomes sold within 60 days.

To arrange interviews with GLVAR experts, please call George McCabe or Brandi Segura at (702) 967-2222 or (702) 325-7358.

About the GLVAR
GLVAR was founded in 1947 and provides its nearly 16,000 local members with education, training and political representation. The local representative of the National Association of REALTORS®, GLVAR is the largest professional organization in Southern Nevada.  Each GLVAR member receives the highest level of professional training and must abide by a strict code of ethics. For more information, visit www.lasvegasrealtor.com.

Tags: home prices, home valuee

Categories: Economy, Real Estate