With supply still exceeding demand in December, Las Vegas-area home prices fell again to a new low during the current recession.
That’s according to debt-rating agency Standard & Poor’s, which on Tuesday issued its monthly S&P/Case-Shiller home price report covering 20 major U.S. markets.
Las Vegas prices in December fell 0.8 percent from November. And compared to December 2010, Las Vegas prices were down 8.8 percent, Standard & Poor’s said.
Of the 20 U.S. cities tracked by Standard & Poor’s, the average monthly decline in December was 1.1 percent while the average year-over-year decline was 4 percent.
Only Atlanta, with an annual decline of 12.8 percent, performed worse than Las Vegas in the year-over-year price change measurement.
Standard & Poor’s data show Las Vegas prices are now at January 1997 levels, a deterioration from November when they fell to February 1997 levels.
With unemployment locally running at 12.7 percent percent and Las Vegas No. 5 on the national foreclosure list,December represented the 11th consecutive month of home price declines in the Las Vegas area, and analysts are unsure when prices will rise on a sustained basis.
Standard & Poor’s bases its report on index levels as opposed to dollar amounts.
The most recent report covering actual dollar amounts from the Greater Las Vegas Association of Realtors found the median price of existing homes locally in January was $118,000, down 5.6 percent from January 2011.
The low prices have led to booming sales locally for real estate agents, with sales of homes, condominiums and townhomes in January totaling 3,591, up from 3,214 a year earlier.
Nationwide, Standard & Poor’s noted in Tuesday’s home price report, prices in December hit their lowest levels since the housing crisis began in mid-2006.
''In terms of prices, the housing market ended 2011 on a very disappointing note," David Blitzer, chairman of the Index Committee at S&P Indices, said in a statement. "While we thought we saw some signs of stabilization in the middle of 2011, it appears that neither the economy nor consumer confidence was strong enough to move the market in a positive direction as the year ended.''