Las Vegas region August home sales pulled out of the steep descent they experienced in July but still dropped to the lowest level in two years and fell well below average. Various gauges suggested little home price movement last month, a real estate information service reported. A total of 4,270 new and resale houses and condos sold in the Las Vegas-Paradise metro area (Clark County) in August, down 0.9 percent from July and down 9.5 percent from a year earlier, according to MDA DataQuick of San Diego. The firm tracks real estate trends nationally via public property records. On average, the region?s sales have risen 5.7 percent between July and August since 1994, when DataQuick?s complete Las Vegas region statistics begin. Last month?s sales tally was the lowest for an August since August 2008, when 4,048 homes sold, and it was 16.6 percent below average for the month since 1994. Sales of newly built homes last month were the lowest on record for an August, slipping 6.3 percent from July and 5.3 percent from a year earlier. August sales of existing (not new) single-family detached houses fell 1.5 percent from July and fell 13.0 percent from a year ago. Resales of condos rose 3.9 percent from July and rose 1.7 percent from August 2009. Total sales in August didn?t fall as sharply as in July, when the market lost most of the boost that federal home buyer tax credits had provided. July sales fell 22.2 percent from June and fell 18.8 percent from a year earlier. The now-expired credits spurred many buyers to purchase homes sooner than they otherwise would have, creating a market lull in their wake. Sales have also suffered from a weak economic recovery, a lack of significant job growth and potential homebuyers? concerns about job security. Moreover, without the tax credit deadlines, only ultra-low mortgage rates are pressuring would-be buyers to purchase sooner rather than later. Some will still take their time to assess changing market conditions. Last month foreclosure resales ? homes that had been foreclosed on in the prior 12 months ? rose to 52.3 percent of the Las Vegas resale market, up from 48.9 percent in July but down from 68.4 percent a year earlier. Up until July, foreclosure resales had declined each month since they peaked at 73.7 percent of the resale market in April 2009. The median price paid for all new and resale houses and condos sold in the Las Vegas metro area in August was $130,000, flat compared with $129,900 in July and $130,000 a year earlier. This year?s highest monthly median ? $139,000 ? was in June. Last month?s median was 58.3 percent below the peak $312,000 median in November 2006. The median price paid last month for resale single-family detached houses ? the region?s largest home-type category ? was $135,000, up from $129,000 in July but the same as it was a year earlier. The August resale house median stood 56.8 percent below its peak of $312,250 in August 2006. The median price paid last month for resale condos was $70,000, down from $71,000 in July but up 3.7 percent from $67,500 a year earlier. The resale condo median has been hovering a bit above or below $70,000 each month for more than a year. August?s resale condo median was 65.5 percent below its $203,000 peak in August 2006. An alternative price gauge ? the median paid per square foot for resale single-family detached houses ? held steady at $76 last month, the same as for both July and a year earlier. Last month marked the fifth consecutive month in which that price measure didn?t fall year-over-year. Prior to this April, the median paid per square foot had declined year-over-year each month since late 2006. August?s figure was 60.0 percent below the peak of $190 paid per square foot in May and June of 2006. Meanwhile, foreclosures fell last month from July and remained lower than a year ago. In August, lenders foreclosed on 2,445 single-family house and condo units in the Las Vegas region, down 9.5 percent from July and down 14.5 percent from a year ago. The peak month was February 2009, when lenders foreclosed on 3,718 homes. The figures are based on the number of Trustees Deeds filed at the county recorder?s office. In the first eight months of this year, 19,363 Las Vegas region houses and condo units were lost to foreclosure, down 16.0 percent from the same period last year. The foreclosure totals can include units that the county assessor has designated condos, but are currently used as apartments (e.g. a 100-unit complex designated as condos but used as apartments could be foreclosed on and those units would be reflected in the foreclosure total for that month).
