SalesTraq reported the median price for new homes in the valley in August was $309,241, 13 percent below its peak in April 2006. The median existing-home price was $270,000 in August, down 6.8 percent from its June 2006 peak.

The prices of new and existing homes have been steadily dropping in Las Vegas since mid-2006 and likely will continue to plummet.

That’s according to several professional traders and national economists monitoring the valley’s real estate market. Futures contracts on the housing market that trade on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange indicate Las Vegas is sliding toward the country’s largest price decline. Some are predicting as much as a 20-percent drop in home prices by 2010.

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