Las Vegas real estate soft

The statistics are in for April and the news are pretty much the same as they have been for months now. The residential real estate market here is under the weather. Let's take a look at some of the actual numbers. Home Builders Research counted 1,568 new home sales in April which signifies a 40% drop from the same month last year. That's high. Existing home sales declined 36%. Not good.

The only bright spot continues to be the price. The median resale price for April was $285,000, a slight improvement from last year when it averaged $283,500. On the new home side it went down a little, by 3.1% to be exact, to $318,346. So, the struggle goes on.

Builders are taking fewer permits now, so that inventory is gradually falling, and as that happens, the currently high resale inventory will start heading down, too. And that's precisely what's needed. Bring down the resale inventory and then the market will steady up. The house sellers in the valley play a large role in the equation. They have to price their properties correctly to attract qualified buyers, but they haven't done so yet. And that is a sizable impediment to any recovery.