As the spring advances toward summer, the Southern Nevada real estate scene continues to show signs of gradual improvement. The long-expected recovery is still fragile and is in its early stages, so it'll be a while before things return to a more balanced market environment. The mortgage industry, despite its own problems, is one key sector that has been helping all along with low interest rates and its cooperation will be sorely needed in the future, too.
In the month of April there were 1,794 single-family home sales in
Las Vegas, up about 20% from March, reports GLVAR, or Greater Las Vegas Association of Realtors. This turns out to be the fourth consecutive month when the numbers have grown, and done so decisively, a very encouraging trend. In addition, the sales figure is almost 30% higher than the one from April of 2007, another piece of good news. So, the sales side is doing very well right now.
Home values, on the other hand, are still a concern. The median price of a single-family house retreated 3% from March, settling at $235,875, according to GLVAR. This translates into a nearly 23% drop from last year. The main reason here is that banks have assumed an aggressive stance toward foreclosures weighing down their balance sheets and are now offering them at below-market prices. By the way, over half of the homes sold in April were foreclosures.
The MLS inventory still remains high, edging up marginally from March to 22,942. This is the fifth month in a row when it hasn't really moved much either way. As long as it's not increasing this can be considered a positive development, although industry observers are waiting for the day when it begins heading down.
