Existing-home sales up – but not in West
Existing-home sales edged up in January, while a seller’s market is developing and home prices continue to rise steadily above year-ago levels, the National Association of Realtors reported Thursday.
Total existing-home sales, which are completed transactions that include single-family homes, townhomes and condos, increased 0.4 percent to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 4.92 million in January, the association reported. They’re 9.1 percent above the 4.51 million in January 2012.
Sales rose in every region but the West, which is the most constrained by limited inventory.
Las Vegas-based Home Builders Research counted 3,490 existing-home sales in January, a 9.8 percent decrease from 3,871 in the same month a year ago.
“It’s down and I’m surprised it’s not down more because there’s no inventory,” said Dennis Smith, president of Home Builders Research. “The numbers are down for inventory, and they continue to go down month by month.”
That’s pushing a lot of prospective buyers into the new-home market because they can’t find existing homes that meet their requirements, the housing analyst said. Builders closed escrow on 513 new homes in January, more than double the 216 sales from a year ago.
Smith said the market is seeing a transition from short sales and foreclosures to more traditional sales, or equity sales. Realtors are showing 10,000 short-sale listings, or homes that are being offered at less than the mortgage balance, but only about 500 of those are not in contingent or pending status.
Tight inventory is a major factor in the market, NAR chief economist Lawrence Yun said.
“Buyer traffic is continuing to pick up, while seller traffic is holding steady,” he said. “In fact, buyer traffic is 40 percent above a year ago, so there is plenty of demand but insufficient inventory to improve sales more strongly. We’ve transitioned into a seller’s market in much of the country.”
The national median existing-home price was $173,600 in January, up 12.3 percent from January 2012, which is the 11th consecutive month of year-over-year price increases. The January gain is the strongest since November 2005 when it rose 12.9 percent.
The median resale price in Las Vegas jumped 25 percent year-over-year to $135,000 in January, while the new-home price rose 6.7 percent to $220,700, Home Builders Research found.
Smith expects to see a continued bump in Las Vegas home prices this year as long as inventory remains tight. He’s comfortable in projecting a 10 percent increase before the end of the year.
Foreclosures and short sales accounted for 23 percent of January sales, down from 24 percent in December and 35 percent in January 2012, NAR reported.
Foreclosures were about 12 percent of the market in Las Vegas and short sales were about 37 percent, according to statistics from the Greater Las Vegas Association of Realtors.
Contact reporter Hubble Smith at hsmith@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0491.
