Housing Doom Housing Bubble Blog

This has to be the quote of the day from Daniel Gross of Newsweek:

Having utterly failed to predict the trouble they encountered in the summer, bank CEOs are nonetheless assuring shareholders that the worst is over, and that the trends that hurt them this quarter—problems in subprime, concerns about consumer credit, and uncertainties about debt extended for corporate buyouts—won’t affect business unduly in the next quarter. "We expect to return to a normal earnings environment in the fourth quarter," as Citigroup’s Prince put it.

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Down remains the operative word in Las Vegas as it hits two new records. One is that with only 990 single family homes sold, this is the first time in many years that sales have fallen below the 1000 mark.  The 43% drop in sales year-over-year is the largest year-over-year decline since the Las Vegas housing market started it’s decline: [Data from GLVAR: Former baseline for this graph was at 1200- I had to adjust it.]

The other record broken was for the largest year-over-year price drop seen since real estate started its decline in Las Vegas.  The median price dropped from $310,000 in September 2006 to $285,750 in September 2007 for an 8% decline.  This is not adjusted for inflation, and does not reflect many significant incentives offered by sellers, the actual drop should be lower.  In addition, different areas of the Las Vegas metro are faring better than others- while some neighborhoods are faring better, many newer neighborhoods farther from the city center are faring much worse.

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