Housing Market Still Lagging, Owners Trade Ambition for Realism

By Alex Girda, Associate Editor

Nevada’s housing market is not looking good, especially if you’re a real estate agent. VegasINC magazine used data from a HomeGain survey to point that out this past week. HomeGain is a California-based research and marketing company that surveyed real estate professionals and homeowners to draw conclusions that in the current market seem to surprise no one.

When it comes to the people in the business, 82 percent of those questioned consider that prices will continue their slide during the next six months which is really bleak considering the fact that during Q2 of 2010, 42 percent believed prices would rise. In addition to that, what now could be seen as a jaw-droppingly low number of 29 percent thought prices would continue their descent. Seventy-one percent of those who answered the same question during Q1 of 2011 said prices would decline, no respondents said prices would increase.

The majority of homeowners believed that prices would fall, with 63 percent of those surveyed saying that. A dismal 3 percent believe prices will regain momentum. There has also been a serious decrease in percentage recorded when comparing the answers of homeowners asked whether the price for their house is fair or not. While during the first quarter of 2011, 58 percent believed their houses were worth 10-20 percent more, that segment of owners has dropped to 28.

Future homeowners, however, will increase in number as Home Builders Research reported an increase in the amount of new-home building permits issued during the month of June as compared to both May 2011 and June 2010. However, the rise from 435 permits issued in May to the 459 that were emitted in June doesn’t constitute that much of an upturn, Dennis Smith, an analyst from Home Builders Research, told The Las Vegas Review-Journal. The number should sit around the 450 figure until the end of autumn, that same person said. Nationally, the figures for new houses don’t seem to fit into the pattern indicative of a stable, recovering economy. The statistics are especially depressing considering the fact that up to 20 percent of economic growth during past recessions were due to the housing market.