Realtors’ numbers show need for stimulus

By Buck Wargo

Friday, Feb. 13, 2009 | 2 a.m.

A stimulus for the housing market can’t come soon enough for Las Vegas.

Home sales slowed in January as prices continued to fall, according to statistics released by the Greater Las Vegas Association of Realtors.

Median home prices fell 8.6 percent in January to $160,000 and show no sign of abating. The price is 49 percent below the market high of $315,000 recorded by the Realtors group in June 2006. Prices have fallen 36 percent since January 2008.

In January the 2,224 sales were an 11 percent decline from December. Sales, however, are still ahead of January 2008 by 126 percent, according to the Realtors group, which tracks all home sales using the Multiple Listing Service.

January is usually one of the slowest months for home buying, association President Sue Naumann said. But she said she was encouraged by sales so far ahead of last’s year pace.

“While we’d like to see home prices stabilize soon, we’re at least encouraged to see the number of homes listed for sale remaining stable month after month,” Naumann said.

Dennis Smith, president of Home Builders Research, said he sees the drop in sales as a sign that homeowners are waiting for the government to take action and concerns about the broader economy.

“If you don’t have job growth, you aren’t going to sell houses,” Smith said. “If people are losing their jobs, you shouldn’t expect much in terms of housing sales.”

The decline in home prices is exacerbated by foreclosures, Naumann said. More than three out of four homes sold in January were owned by banks, she said.

“Lenders are selling these bank-owned homes at such low prices that it drives down the price of all properties in the area,” Naumann said.

The release of the statistics Feb. 10 came as the Treasury Department announced it would devote $50 billion in federal funds to stem foreclosures.

Smith said that could be important because listings could rise in the coming months as banks are holding back on putting homes on the market. There could be as many as 27,000 homes in the hands of banks, and that will put more downward pressure on prices, he said.

“I still think it is going to be the end of this year before prices flatten, and we won’t see improvement until next year,” Smith said. “I don’t know how low it can go ... No one does.”

The version of the stimulus bill approved by the Senate, meanwhile, creates a tax credit worth 10 percent of the value of a new or existing home with a cap of $15,000, up from the current $7,500 first-time home buyer tax credit. The credit wouldn’t have to be repaid as long as the homeowner stays in their house for three years.

“That is not going to change anything overnight, but it is a step in the right direction,” Smith said.

The inventory of single-family homes dipped slightly in January even though there was a jump in new listings. At the end of January, 21,935 homes were listed, a 1 percent drop from December, the Realtors group reported.

The 5,002 new listings in January were nearly 10 percent more than December. The median price of those listings was $174,900, a 3 percent increase over what homeowners were seeing in December.

Smith said he expects the number of listings to increase because people are losing their jobs.

“We have had a lot of people not listing their homes and waiting for the market to change,” Smith said. “Common sense would tell us because we have had so many jobs being lost, that houses are going to come up for sale and people will be in default.”

In the condominium and town-house market, 440 units sold in January, a decline of 3.3 percent from December. Sales, however, are up 162 percent compared with January 2008.

The inventory was 5,527 units, a half-percent jump over December, with 1,211 new listings in January, a 12 percent increase compared with December. The median price of those new listings was $99,900.