A year-end look at the housing market in and around Las Vegas is telling property owners what many already knew.

Home Builders Research says new home sales were down more than 45 percent for the year, compared with the boom in 2006. Existing home sales were just as weak. They were down almost 41 percent.

Northern Nevada home builders are cutting jobs and inventory to survive the coming year and slumping housing market. Perry DiLoreto, a Damonte Ranch developer in south Reno, said he is not building a single house and is waiting until buyers are more confident about their jobs and housing prices and are ready to buy.

Nationwide, home construction starts in 2007 dropped 24.8 percent, the largest decline in 27 years.

- From the Associated Press

This entry was posted on Tuesday, January 22nd, 2008 at 11:12 am and is filed under Economy, Real Estate. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.