Las Vegas home prices plummet to lowest level since fall 2001

By Buck Wargo

Friday, April 17, 2009 | 2 a.m.

The good news is that demand for Las Vegas homes jumped in March, but the bad news is that prices dropped to the lowest level since fall 2001.

The median price of new homes sold in March was $149,000, a 4.2 percent decline from February. That’s 39 percent below March 2008, according to statistics released by the Greater Las Vegas Association of Realtors.

The group tracks homes sold by Realtors in Clark and surrounding counties, and some of those sales include new homes.

In March, 2,980 homes sold, a 30 percent increase over February and 102 percent jump over March 2008, according to the group. Bank sales accounted for three out of every four sales.

“We don’t see any big surprises in this month’s statistics,” the group’s president, Sue Naumann, said. “From the perspective of local Realtors, it’s good to see so many more homes selling each month. If you’re a seller, you’re concerned about this ongoing decline in home prices, but if you’re a buyer, it’s great news because homes here are more affordable than they’ve been in perhaps a generation.”

It appears prices will continue to fall. The median price of new listings in March was 3.2 percent below February and the median list price of available units was 4.2 percent below February’s. The median new-home price peaked at $315,000 in June 2006.

The group has 22,812 single-family homes on the Multiple Listing Service at the end of March. That’s 3 percent higher than February and the same as March 2008.

In March the 5,643 new listings are 14 percent more than in February.

In the condo and town house market, 604 units sold, a 37 percent increase over February. The median price, however, fell 6 percent from February to $70,500. That price is 57 percent below a year ago.

The 5,884 units listed are a 3.5 percent increase over February. Also, 1,362 new listings of condos and town houses were 13 percent higher than February.

In March, $515 million worth of homes sold, a 22 percent increase over February and 14 percent increase over March 2008.