Sales of Las Vegas Homes Finish Strong in 2009

Las Vegas Review Journal, Jan. 12, 2010 –
The year 2009 ended with a decline in inventory and an increase in sales of Las Vegas homes, according to the
Greater Las Vegas Association of Realtors. The Real estate market had its ups
and downs but compared to last year, there is a 36.9% increase from December
2008. Sales of Las Vegas condos were
up 70.5% from the same month a year ago.

In an interview with Mark Stark,
owner-broker of Prudential Americana in Las Vegas, he said that last year, they
made 9,000 transactions, which was far greater than the 6,000 they made in
2008.

“First of all, the tax
credits are huge,” Stark said of the $8,000 rebate for first-time home
buyers. “They’re certainly creating a lot of buzz, so we’ll see if that
gets extended. The other aspect is if you look at the segment where the
business is coming from, a majority is in the low end. Look at how many of
those 46,000 sales were under $100,000, and it’s a big number.” (Quoted
from: www.lvrj.com)

According to Mark Stark, he doesn’t expect a lot of changes
for the next year, but he expects Las Vegas short sales to increase dramatically. Sales
statistics came from
the Greater Las Vegas Association of Realtors and was based from Multiple
Listing Service.