By: Las Vegas Now Staff
Lead by short sales and foreclosures, home sales rose 35 percent last month, extending the upward swing to three months according to the March real estate report released today by the Greater Las Vegas Association of Realtors. On a yearly basis, sales are off nearly 8 percent from March of 2007. The median price of homes continued to decline, and now stands at $243,000, down 1.4 percent from February and down 20.3 percent from March of 2007.
Many analysts are forecasting a bottom to the housing market later this year, and in fact, prices may not have much more room to fall, once the bulk of foreclosures and short sales work through the system. That’s because some home prices have actually fallen below the cost to build a new home.
“We are cautiously optimistic about what the GLVAR statistics indicate this month about the state of the local real estate market,” GLVAR President Patty Kelley said. “We are starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel. While local home prices are still declining, we don’t anticipate that prices can get much lower because homes are now selling for less than what it would cost to build that same home today.”
Nevada continues to lead the country in foreclosure rates, although the rate appears to be slowing according to data released by Realty Trac. All eyes will be on the March numbers when they are released later this month.
