Sad September for sales

Home sales in the Las Vegas Valley reached the lowest monthly total in five years, the Greater Las Vegas Association of Realtors reported Friday.

The 990 sales in September were down 25 percent from the previous month and 43.1 percent from the same month a year ago.

Andrew Pugh of SellFastLV.com called the sales number "ugly."

Realtor Eric Young didn't disagree.

"September is normally a down month for sales, but this is steeper than we usually see," Young said. He blamed some of it on stricter requirements implemented by lenders in August.

The combination of fewer sales and near-record inventory has caused a sharp rise in the time it takes to sell a home, Young said. He calculated a 22.1-month supply of homes on the market.

About 45 percent of the homes are vacant, compared with 3 percent nationally, he said.

"The figure for the Vegas Valley reflects the tremendous number of speculators that are headed for the exits," Young said.

The Realtors group also reported the inventory of single-family homes for sale on the Multiple Listing Service dropped 0.5 percent in September to 24,218, while the number of condominiums and townhomes for sale dropped 0.8 percent to 6,169. The median price of a home sold in September was $285,750, off 4.7 percent from August and 7.8 percent from a year ago.

Devin Reiss, president of the Greater Las Vegas Association of Realtors, said people who may be waiting for the bottom of the housing market should begin looking before conditions change.

"Buyers are there. They're just going to have to feel confidence to get back in the market and realize there's no mystical bottom," he said.

The housing market is in a "holding pattern" with inventory, and Reiss said he never really expected to see much change throughout this year. Prices have been up and down and inventory is steady.

"No one expected such a downturn in the market and a lot of people are stuck holding the bag," Reiss said. "You can't blame Realtors. Everyone has a right to make money.

"If a seller will sell at a price and a buyer will buy, so be it. Value is determined by what the seller is asking and what the buyer is paying. With 5,000 people coming a month, maybe we're undervalued."

It's not that the homes aren't worth the money, said Robin Camacho, Realtor and broker for Direct Access Lending. People are still perceiving there is a "bottoming out" and they're waiting to buy.

"Real estate, like politics, is local," she said. "People looking for a home in Las Vegas don't need to worry about what coastal property in Florida is selling for. They're reading too much into national news.

"If you look around Las Vegas, you'll find areas where the housing values have held. Of course, people in these more established areas aren't dumping their homes. Where are values hit the hardest? In the newer developments, where people used 95 percent or 100 percent financing to buy their homes in the past year or two."

For condos and townhomes, the median sales price increased 0.7 percent in September to $209,000. It's down 3.2 percent from September 2006. There were 213 sales, down 23.5 percent from the previous month and 51.4 percent from a year ago.

The Realtors' statistics are based on transactions through the MLS and do not necessarily account for sales by builders and other transactions not involving a Realtor.

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