Thursday, Jan. 6, 2005 | 10:53 a.m.
When Ray Buehne put his Seven Hills home on the market last July, he was hoping to make a hefty profit that would help him move his family out of state.
It wasn't until six months later -- and $66,500 in price drops -- that he was able to find a buyer. He closes on the 1,700-square-foot house with a pool next week for $362,500.
"We wanted to move because my son has health problems, we need to move to a more humid climate," said Buehne, a software developer for UNLV.
Buehne said he realized after listing the house that the market had changed drastically from earlier in the year.
"I learned timing is everything," he said.
Buehne isn't the only one having to wait. The length of time it is taking to sell some homes in Las Vegas continues to increase as the market supply surpassed demand, causing a stabilization in home prices, local experts said.
Of the 2,522 homes listed in the Multiple Listing Service (MLS) that sold in December, 15 percent of them had been on the market for three months or more before selling, up from 10 percent in November, the Greater Las Vegas Association of Realtors reported Wednesday.
The number of homes listed in the MLS that sat on the market for two to three months before selling in December was 15 percent, the same as November, the association reported.
The majority of homes, almost 70 percent, that sold in December were on the market for two months or less, compared to 75 percent in November, the association reported.
The wait to sell a home is a big change from December 2003, when 82 percent of all homes on the market sold in 60 days or less and of those, 66 percent sold in 30 days or less.
Homes in the MLS represent only resale houses that are being sold through a Realtor.
Lee Barrett, immediate past president of the local Realtors association, said a lot of properties have gone on the market in the past few months and many of those sellers have unrealistic expectations.
"Some owners still think it's the market of 12 months ago," said Barrett, who also is broker/president of Century 21 Barrett & Co. Inc. "A lot of people still think the market is appreciating at that exorbitant rate and owners are anticipating higher values because of what happened last year."
Those high expectations are equating to a house that sits on the market longer.
Joe Garcia, a real estate agent who has worked in the Las Vegas Valley for 27 years, said a little bit of a wait to sell a home is actually a normal market condition. Although Garcia, who works with his wife Sandy selling resale homes in the Rhodes Ranch area, has actually seen a slight decrease in that area as far as how long a home is on the market.
Joe Garcia said homes selling in days -- and in some cases hours -- as they did last year is not normal.
"It was an aberration, as far as what happened, it was unprecedented in Las Vegas," he said.
The report issued by the association also showed that the median price of all available units in December was $339,900, while the median price of units sold in December was $275,000.
Despite the price drops and the long wait to sell, homebuyers such as Buehne can still come out ahead. Buehne sold the house for $140,500 more than he bought it for.
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