April Las Vegas Home Sale Press Release

Las Vegas Region April Home Sales

Las Vegas-area homes sold at the fastest pace for an April in seven years as investor and cash buying neared record levels and sales in the $200,000-to-$500,000 range soared 81 percent from a year ago. The median price paid for a home rose to the highest level in nearly four and a half years, driven up by price appreciation, a surge in mid- to up-market activity and a big drop in foreclosure resales, a real estate information service reported.

In April, 4,869 new and resale houses and condos closed escrow in the Las Vegas-Paradise metro area (Clark County). That was up 8.6 percent from the month before and up 7.0 percent from a year earlier, according to San Diego-based DataQuick. The firm tracks real estate trends nationally via public property records.

On average, sales have declined 4.2 percent between March and April since 1994, when DataQuick’s complete Las Vegas-area statistics begin. Last month's year-over-year increase in total sales follows 10 consecutive months of year-over-year declines.

Total April sales were the highest for that month since April 2006, when 6,663 homes sold, and last month's sales were 4.6 percent above the average number of homes sold during all months of April since 1994. Resales of houses and condos combined were 29.6 percent higher than average for the month of April, while sales of newly built homes were 50.8 percent below average for the month. Although new-home sales remain low in an historical context, they’ve been rising in recent months, increasing 39.6 percent in April compared with a year earlier. New-home sales this April were the highest for that month in five years.

Sales of mid- to high-cost homes continued to jump compared with year-ago levels, while the number of low-end deals plunged.

Sales of homes priced below $100,000 dropped 42.2 percent in April compared with a year earlier, while the number of transactions below $200,000 fell 13.2 percent year-over-year. Sales above $200,000 surged 85.9 percent year-over-year, pushed up by the combination of home price appreciation and the increase in sales in mid- to high-end markets. April sales of homes priced from $200,000 to $500,000 – a range that would include many move-up purchases – jumped 80.9 percent from a year earlier, while the number sold over $500,000 rose 138.5 percent. (Sales from $200,000 to $500,000 accounted for 30.7 percent of all sales, while the $500,000-plus market made up 3.9 percent of all sales).

Last month 34.6 percent of the sales were for more than $200,000 -- the highest level in 52 months (since December 2008) and up from 19.8 percent a year ago. Sales below $100,000 represented 21.7 percent of all April transactions -- the lowest level since December 2008 and down from 40.0 percent a year earlier.

Among the larger cities in the region, total April sales rose 7.1 percent from a year earlier in Henderson, which had a median sale price of $195,000 last month, up 25.8 percent year-over-year. Sales increased 9.1 percent from a year earlier in Las Vegas, which posted a $159,000 median, up 39.5 percent year-over-year. Sales fell 8.9 percent year-over-year in North Las Vegas, where the April median sale price was $135,100, up 32.5 percent from a year ago.

The median price paid for all new and resale houses and condos sold across the Las Vegas region (Clark County) in April was $160,000, which is the highest for any month since the median was $175,000 in December 2008. Last month's median rose 3.2 percent from $155,000 in March and shot up 34.5 percent from $119,000 in April 2012. The median has risen year-over-year for 13 consecutive months, with those gains ranging from 1.7 percent to 34.8 percent. Those annual gains have been double-digit for the past 10 consecutive months.

Recent sharp gains in the median sale price reflect price appreciation triggered by strong demand meeting a relatively low supply of homes for sale, as well as changes in market mix. Fewer of the homes re-selling now are low-cost foreclosed properties, and more are mid-to high-end homes. Included in the latter group are newly built homes, which on average sell for more than resale homes. In April, new homes accounted for 14.6 percent of total sales, up from 11.2 percent of sales a year earlier.

Despite the median’s year-over-year surge in April, it was still 48.7 percent below its November 2006 peak of $312,000. The median has been rising off a cyclical low point of $110,000 in January 2012, which was the lowest level since the median was also $110,000 in April 1994.

An alternative home-price gauge – the median paid per square foot for resale single-family detached houses – rose to $89 in April. That was up 3.5 percent from March and up 32.8 percent from a year earlier, marking the 11th consecutive month with a year-over-year gain. April’s median paid per square foot was 53.2 percent lower than the peak $190 paid per square foot in May and June 2006.

The median paid per square foot for resale condos in April was $73, up 33.0 percent from a year ago.

Other Las Vegas region April highlights:
•Foreclosure resales – homes that had been foreclosed on in the prior 12 months – accounted for 12.2 percent of Las Vegas resale activity in April. That was down from 13.6 percent the month before and 43.7 percent a year earlier. Foreclosure resales, which peaked at 73.7 percent of the resale market in April 2009, have dipped in recent months to the lowest level since summer 2007.
•Short sales – transactions where the sale price fell short of what was owed on the property – accounted for an estimated 30.3 percent of the Las Vegas-area resale market in April. That compares with an estimated 33.1 percent the prior month and 29.4 percent a year earlier. The estimated short sale level has exceeded the foreclosure resale level for the past 11 months.
•Sales of multi-million-dollar homes rose sharply. Last month 11 houses and condos sold for $2 million or more, up from one such sale in April 2012. During the first four months of this year 33 homes sold for $2 million-plus, nearly double the number -- 17 -- sold in the same period in 2012.
•Absentee buyers – mainly investors and vacation-home buyers – purchased 53.1 percent of all homes sold in the Las Vegas area last month. That was down a tad from a record 53.2 percent the month before and up from 50.5 percent a year earlier. Absentee buyers paid a median $136,000 last month, up 41.7 percent from a year earlier. Absentee buyers are those who indicated at the time of sale that the property tax bill will go to a different address.
•In April, 179 Las Vegas-area buyers purchased two or more homes on the open market (excludes foreclosure auctions). That was up 26.1 percent from 142 multi-home buyers during April 2012, based on an analysis of buyer names in the public record. (Note: In some cases individuals and partnerships buy under different names). In April this year, multi-home buyers purchased 813 homes in the Las Vegas area, which amounts to 16.7 percent of all homes sold and represents a nearly 80 percent increase from the number of properties that multi-home buyers purchased in April 2012. There were 26 buyers in April 2013 that each purchased five or more homes, but only 10 bought 10 or more. Combined, the buyers who purchased 10 or more homes in April 2013 acquired 360 properties, or 44.3 percent of all homes bought by multi-home buyers. In April 2012, three purchasers bought 10 or more homes, acquiring a total of 81 properties.
•Cash buyers purchased 56.6 percent of the Las Vegas-area homes that sold in April -- the highest level since a record 56.7 percent of sales were to cash buyers in February 2011. Last month's figure was up from a cash-buyer share of 54.5 percent of total sales the month before and up from 53.6 percent a year earlier. Cash purchases are where there is no sign of a corresponding purchase mortgage in the public record. Cash buyers paid a median $135,000 in April -- the highest since it was $139,900 in December 2008. Last month's cash median was up 50.2 percent from a year earlier.
•In recent months the share of homes flipped has been running higher than a year earlier but it has trended downward mildly since this January. In April, 6.0 percent of all Las Vegas-area homes sold on the open market had previously changed hands in the prior six months. That was down from a flipping rate of 6.8 percent in March and up from 4.0 percent a year earlier. (The figures exclude homes that were resold after being purchased at public foreclosure auctions on the courthouse steps.)
•In April, lenders filed notices of default (“NODs”) on 2,128 single-family houses and condo units, up 3.7 percent from the prior month and up 66.3 percent from a year earlier. The notice of default is the first step in the formal foreclosure process. During the first four months of 2013 lenders filed 8,255 NODs, up 83.3 percent from the same period last year. It's likely that the recent surge in NOD filings is at least partly a reflection of lenders playing catch-up in the wake of an October 2011 Nevada law that created additional requirements for lenders trying to foreclose on properties. The number of NODs filed in Clark County plummeted for many months after that law took effect. Though up sharply from 2012, NOD filings so far this year (January through April) were 58.5 percent lower than during the same period in 2011.
•In April, lenders foreclosed on 608 single-family house and condo units in the Las Vegas area, down 11.4 percent from the month before and down 52.4 percent from a year earlier. During the first four months of 2013 lenders foreclosed on 2,808 homes, down 55.8 percent from the same period last year.

To view the April Las Vegas home sale chart, visit DQNews.com.

Media calls: Andrew LePage (916) 456-7157


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