Home Sales Still Up From Last Year, Prices Still Sliding

By Alex Girda, Associate Editor

The Las Vegas housing market continues its struggle in anonymity as significant drops in prices are followed by only moderate increases or stagnation. The Greater Las Vegas Association of Realtors has posted some lukewarm numbers, VegasINC reports. High unemployment will always drive prices down, and Las Vegas has a 13.6 percent rate which makes a revival unlikely.

The median price of single-family homes that traded hands in October stands at $121,000, a 1.9 percent decrease from the $123,400 recorded during September. It also marks a full 9 percent downturn compared to last October’s $133,000. Condominiums and townhomes looked slightly better, rising 4.4 percent from September pricewise, but it still constitutes a 9.2 percent drop when compared to October 2010.

The Greater Las Vegas Association of Realtors also reported that the total number of homes, condos and townhomes that traded hands in October stood at the 3,881 margin. That’s down from the 4,108 sold in September but up when compared to last year’s October when 3,385 such units were sold.

The increase comes as no surprise considering Las Vegas has been selling really well during the last months, and according to GLVAR president Paul Bell, who was quoted by VegasINC magazine, the drop in prices is a normal development.

One thing is for sure, Las Vegas needs to pick up some steam and push up those prices, because the recession act should be getting really old really fast.