Las Vegas Home Sales Up in November

The following commentary comes from an independent investor or market observer as part of TheStreet's guest contributor program, which is separate from the company's news coverage.

LA JOLLA, Calif. (DQNews) -- The number of homes sold in the Las Vegas area rose year over year for the fifth consecutive month in November as a surge in sub-$200,000 transactions made up for a decline in activity above that threshold.

Prices appeared flat, with the region's overall median sale price stuck at $115,000 for the third consecutive month, a real estate information service reported.

In November, 4,460 new and resale houses and condos closed escrow in the Las Vegas-Paradise metro area (Clark County). That was down 3.1% from October but up 11.2% from November 2010, according to San Diego-based DataQuick. The firm tracks real estate trends nationally via public property records.

A dip in sales between October and November is normal. On average, sales have fallen 3.9% between those two months since 1994, when DataQuick's complete Las Vegas region statistics begin.

Last month the number of homes that resold rose 11.3% on a year-over-year basis, marking the eleventh consecutive month in which resales have posted an annual gain. It was the highest number of resales for a November since 2009, and the second-highest since 2005. November sales of newly-built homes also rose from a year earlier, by 9.8%, but were still the second-lowest on record for a November. New-home sales have risen year-over-year for the past five consecutive months.

Once again, sales were strongest in the lower price ranges. The number of November transactions below $100,000 climbed 32.8% from a year earlier and made up 41.6% of all deals, compared with 34.9% of all sales in November 2010. The number of sales below $200,000 last month rose 16.5% year-over-year, while the number above $200,000 fell 8.8% from a year earlier.

Robust Las Vegas home sales below $200,000, and especially below $100,000, have put 2011 on track to have the highest total home sales in five years and the highest resale activity in six years. The number of new and resale houses and condos that sold between January and November this year totaled 50,586, up 6.9% from the same period last year and the highest since 2006, when 74,608 homes sold during that 11-month period.