BT : Vegas home prices slip 34% in October

Business Times - 03 Dec 2009


Vegas home prices slip 34% in October

(LAS VEGAS) Las Vegas home prices fell 34 per cent in October from a year-earlier as foreclosed properties accounted for two-thirds of sales, reducing the value of single-family houses and condominiums, MDA DataQuick said on Tuesday.

The median price paid for all new and re-sold houses and condos in the Las Vegas metropolitan area fell to US$130,000 in October from US$196,000 a year earlier, the San Diego- based real estate research company said on Tuesday in a statement.

The price has been at or close to US$130,000 since July and hasn't fallen below that level since April 1999, when it was US$129,000.

Homes that had been foreclosed on in the previous 12 months rose to 67 per cent of resales in October, from 65 per cent a year earlier, MDA DataQuick said.

It was the highest foreclosure rate that month among metropolitan areas with populations of 200,000 or more, according to RealtyTrac Inc.

A total of 5,068 new and resale houses and condominiums were sold in the Las Vegas-Paradise metropolitan, an increase of 1.1 per cent from September and 22 per cent from a year earlier, MDA DataQuick said.

Of those, 485 were newly built, down 34 per cent from a year earlier\. \-- Bloomberg