Valley inventory of homes for sale rises 1.1 percent

The inventory of homes for sale on the Multiple Listing Service grew 1.1 percent in August to 24,341, the smallest monthly increase this year, the Greater Las Vegas Association of Realtors reported.

At the same time, the median home price gained 1.7 percent in August to $299,900. It's down 3.9 percent from the same month a year ago.

Realtors reported 1,316 single-family home sales during the month, down 0.2 percent from July and down 37.2 percent from August 2006.

Devin Reiss, president of the Realtors association, said he can understand why people may be questioning his assertion that the local housing market presents a buying opportunity.

Housing experts disagree about when home prices will rise again across the board. But Reiss advises clients who may be waiting for prices to "bottom out" to start looking for a home before conditions change, particularly lending qualifications.

"There's no guarantees one way or another about prices," he said. "But I do know how strong our economy is and where interest rates are. If anything, we're going to see over the long haul that interest rates will go up. Either way, you might find yourself waiting on the sideline."

Listings of condominiums and townhomes for sale in Las Vegas fell 0.8 percent to 6,221 in August. The median price for 285 units sold during the month was $190,000, down 2.6 percent from the previous month and 8 percent from a year ago.

Reiss noted that all local real estate transactions tracked through the Multiple Listing Service translated to more than $503 million in sales volume, up 1.1 percent from July.

Through August, about half (50.7 percent) of all single-family homes and 41.8 percent of condos and townhomes sold within 60 days, compared with 59.1 percent and 54.3 percent, respectively, a year ago.

The association's statistics are based on data collected through the MLS and do not necessarily account for home sales by local builders and transactions not involving a Realtor.

David Lampe of Coldwell Banker Wardley said he put two homes in escrow during August. Homes will sell if owners adjust their prices, he said.

"You have to price the home properly and market the home properly," he said. "Not all 24,000 homes (on the MLS) are properly priced. Lots of people put their home on the market but not to sell. They're still thinking three years back."

Lampe said people who understand the market don't mind "taking a hit" on their current home because they know they're going to make it back on their next home.

Debi Averett of Phoenix-based Housingdoom.com said she was surprised to see that Las Vegas home sales weren't down more in August.

Most buyers prefer to close at the end of the month and in August the last day of the month was a Friday before a three-day weekend, a great time to move, she said.

"When that happens, expect a bunch of closings at the end of the month," Averett said.

"The other thing that happened was all the lenders closing so many loan programs. A lot of programs weren't going to be available after the end of August, so that motivated a lot of folks to close ASAP," Averett also said.