Signs of housing bottom abound

Las Vegas home prices have lost more than half of their value since the peak in 2006, but there are more signs the housing crisis could be reaching the bottom.

The Standard & Poor's/Case-Shiller index released Tuesday showed home prices in 20 major cities including Las Vegas tumbled by 18.6 percent from February 2008. That was slightly better than January's 19 percent and the first time in 25 months -- January 2007 -- the index didn't set a record. But the good news was mixed. All 20 cities in the report showed monthly and annual price declines, but half recorded annual records. Prices fell by more than 10 percent in 15 cities, including Las Vegas, San Francisco and Phoenix. Like Las Vegas, Phoenix home prices have lost more than half their value since peaking in July 2006.

Yet, nine of the metros -- including Dallas, Denver and Boston -- showed improvement in their yearly losses compared to the month before.

Las Vegas-based SalesTraq reported a 41.3 percent decline in the existing-home median price in March from a year ago to $134,900. That followed a 38.1 percent year-over-year decline in February.

Las Vegas has seen home values fall by more than 50 percent from a peak of $289,500 in June 2006.

Larry Murphy, president of SalesTraq, spoke to about 200 Century 21 real estate agents Tuesday and said the feedback was "pretty much unanimous" that the local housing market has improved above and beyond what his numbers are showing.

"My numbers are lagging indicators," Murphy said. "What I don't know is the buying behavior right now in April. They're having to look longer to find a good deal on an REO (real estate-owned) home. They see the inventory as more picked over today than a couple months ago."

Las Vegas had 3,626 existing-home sales in March and the inventory has declined to a 6.5-month supply, Murphy said. Part of it is the $8,000 tax credit for first-time home buyers and part of it is people feeling like the market is at the bottom, he said.

Rich Patterson, a Dallas RE/MAX agent, said in the last two months he's seen a lot of first-time home buyers interested in homes up to $250,000. He attributes the increase to low interest rates and the tax credit.

"The buyers are still getting good deals, but they're not stealing properties," said Patterson, noting that sellers are cutting their asking price about 4 percent to snag a deal.

Last week, home sales data for March also contained some glimmers of hope for a turnaround. Existing-home sales fell just 3 percent from February to March, and new-home sales seemed to have hit bottom.

"We will certainly need a few more months of data before we can determine if home prices are finally turning around," said David Blitzer, chairman of the S&P index committee.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.