Las Vegas housing market soft in October

Anyone who follows the residential real estate market here anticipated pretty much what the official figures from October are now telling us. It's soft out in the field and any sustainable improvement seems to be at least a few months away since we are now heading into the heart of the winter.

The Greater Las Vegas Association of Realtors, or GLVAR, informs us that existing home sales were still down about 40% in October from a year ago. That's about where it has been for the last several months. Besides that, the median house price declined 11.4% from last year to $274,725. The drop was expected and as long as the slide doesn't accelerate from there, it'll be manageable.

Keep in mind that if lenders begin listing their foreclosed homes for sale at the current market prices instead of what the mortgage balances on them are, that would put more downward pressure on median values. We'll see whether they'll do that or not.

And now to the upbeat news. The inventory of single-family homes in the MLS eased down 1.2%, to 23,917. That is the second month in a row when it has decreased some and should the slide continue, we just might start honestly climbing out of this mess sometime next year.

In closing, it's a genuine buyer's market out there in the valley, so take advantage of it.