Las Vegas home sales climb to highest level in 17 months

March sales are just shy of the 5,160 closings in October 2009.

The last time sales topped 5,000 was in June, toward the end of the government’s home buyer tax credit period. Existing-home sales finished the first quarter at 12,515.

“Everybody still has the mindset that the market is in the tank, but the market is as vibrant as it’s ever been,” said David Brownell of Keller Williams Realty in Las Vegas. “To cross the 5,000 mark in March is very significant. It’s huge. There are probably only a handful of months that cross 5,000. To have that in March, what does that mean for June and July? Maybe 5,500?”

The new-home market is still staggering with 279 sales in March, a 44 percent decrease from a year ago, SalesTraq reported. Just 781 new-home closings have been recorded in the first three months, down 41 percent from first quarter of 2010 and far off the pace of last year’s total of 5,438 sales.

The median price of an existing home fell to $108,000, down 10 percent from a year ago and the lowest since 1991. New-home prices fell 6.5 percent to $195,950.

Banks took back 2,099 homes in March, compared with 943 in February and 1,246 in March 2010.

More bank-owned homes will eventually be hitting the market, keeping prices low and appreciation scarce, said Tim Kelly Kiernan of ReMax Extreme.

Banks are approving more short sales, or sales for less than the principal mortgage balance, which is a good thing, he said. There were about 2,000 bank-owned home sales in March and 1,000 short sales.

Equity Title of Nevada showed 3,686 notices of default filed in March, 4,647 notices of trustee sales and 2,119 foreclosures.

ZIP code 89031 in North Las Vegas recorded the highest number of single-family homes sales in March at 171 and an average price of $112,025. The highest average price was $400,875 for 55 home sales in ZIP code 89135 in the southwest valley, according to Equity Title.

Brownell of Keller Williams found 30.8 percent of March closings were in the $50,000 to $100,000 price range and 27.9 percent were in the $100,000 to $150,000 range. There were 512 sales under $50,000 and 64 over $500,000.

Brownell showed an inventory of 14,036 single-family homes for sale in March, up 48 percent from a year ago, but slightly lower than the peak of more than 15,000 in October. Real estate-owned, or bank-owned, inventory climbed 87 percent to 2,581 and short-sale inventory was up 62 percent at 7,120.

“It seems like we’re weeding out some of the distressed inventory,” he said.

The U.S. Commerce Department reported a 7.2 percent increase in new-home construction starts for March, though the annualized figure of 549,000 remains far below normal levels.

In Las Vegas, home builders pulled 339 permits in March, compared with 236 in February and 700 in the same month a year ago, SalesTraq reported.

Contact reporter Hubble Smith at hsmith@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0491.