Local existing-home sales surge
Resales pass 2,600 units for first month since March '07.
The number of existing homes sold locally in May surged to its best showing in 14 months even as sales of new homes lagged, according to two new housing reports released this week.
Statistics from local research firms Home Builders Research and SalesTraq revealed a 5.2 percent jump in resales in May, with buyers snapping up 2,606 units. Buyers bought 2,477 existing homes in the same month a year ago.
The last time resale closings surpassed 2,600 homes in a single month was March 2007. Closings on existing properties spent fall and winter mired at around 1,500 units a month.
"May data for the Las Vegas housing market suggests that recovery has begun for the resale market," SalesTraq President Larry Murphy said.
The supply of resales on the market in May dropped to 20,573 units, down about 20 percent from 25,282 units a year earlier. That gives the market an existing-home inventory of about 10 months, Murphy said, just outside the six- to nine-month range analysts consider healthy.
The indicators paint a picture of a market that could come back to life soon.
The local analysts' improved resale reports follow other recent signs of life in the local market.
A June 2 report from banking company National City Corp. and analysis firm Global Insight found that housing prices in Las Vegas returned to historic norms in the first quarter. The study's authors noted that additional price declines could visit Southern Nevada, but they called Las Vegas a "fairly valued market" and added that most of the area's price correction had passed.
Plus, the median price of single-family homes sold through the Greater Las Vegas Association of Realtors halted its yearlong slide in the spring, with prices rising slightly from April to May. Single-family homes sold through the association's members went for a median of $236,692 in May, up from $235,875 in April.
Jun. 19, 2008
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