Las Vegas Real Estate Demand is shifting quickly. The demand for Las Vegas Homes in August dropped slightly from 4,767 homes sold in July to 4,001 homes, which represents a drop of approximately 15%.
Housing prices also dropped slightly, with median price of $120,000., which matches where the market was in April of this year. The Las Vegas Real Estate market is continuing to send some mixed signals and appears to be chaotic, with competing forces impacting sales numbers.
There are a number of factors contributing to Las Vegas Real Estate Demand:
1) Las Vegas Short Sales are continuing to increase, which means bankers/lenders are working with homeowners directly to prevent foreclosures, with less inventory of homes on the market as a result.
2) Speaking of less inventory, it is in fact dropping quickly and we think this is impacting our overall sales volumes. No surprise here.
3) Foreclosure sales are diminishing as well – we had 1,944 foreclosures for the month of August, contrasted with 2,471 in July. These numbers speak to Las Vegas Short Sales – homes are not being foreclosed as lending institutions are working with homeowners to take a home through the Short Sales Process (selling home while homeowner is in it for less than what is owned on mortgage).
4) Our supply of Las Vegas Real Estate listings is continuing to drop – we had 11,356 existing home listings at the end of the month of August, which represents slightly less than a three month supply of Las Vegas Homes.
5) Investors are continuing to drive our market – much of our inventory in the $50-150k range is being bought quickly by investors who are turning these deals into cash positive investments with 20-30% down on average.
6) Investor interest in Las Vegas Real Estate is also thwarting some percentage of first time home buyers who have just over 60 days left to take advantage of the $8K tax credit being offered by the Federal Government – many homes are generating multiple offers.
7) The average price of New Homes in Las Vegas is edging up a bit, was $108.26 for August, up from $105.44 in July – the highest point this year was in April.
So, what does all this mean? Again, our market is a bit choppy and may be that way for a while; homes are selling at a steady volume but some of the statistics can be misleading. It’s hard to see the proverbial “forest through the trees.” But, the overriding facto is Las Vegas Real Estate is in Demand and that always a good thing!
