Apr 08
8
Maybe you saw today’s news that pending home sales are at an all-time low… well, a low since the National Association of Realtors started compiling those figures in 2001. It’s down 1.9% from last month and 21.4% since last year! Of course, not all regions had the same performance. To listen to the market gurus talk on CNBC this morning, you would think that a long, dark road is ahead for our nation as they made fun of the NAR for daring to predict yet again that there would be a recovery real soon now. Alan Greenspan even did an exclusive interview with CNBC where he disavowed any responsibility for the current mortgage mess.
Meanwhile, a small chorus of experts is joining me in saying that “Southern Nevada’s housing slump is on the verge of hitting rock bottom, if it hasn’t already done so.” Of course if you have been looking at the actual data for Las Vegas residential real estate on a regular basis (and many thanks to Tim Kuptz for making this available every week in an easy-to-read format), you have already seen inventory start to fall and pending sales start to rise. It’s going to take some time to get through the excess inventory, and it’s going to take time to get back to “normal” levels of short sales and repossessed property (bank owned or “REO”). There may even be a little more room for prices to fall in the short term. However, our housing market on the right track at last. When all is said and done, Las Vegas is still ranked #9 nationally in population growth, and all those people moving here still need places to live.
