For the fourth month in a row average sale prices for homes in the Las Vegas area stayed the same at right under $120,000. This is approximately 7% lower than what it was in December 2010 and also marks almost a year and a half in which the average price has fallen. On the bright side, however, home sales in the area have been continually on the rise for the last half year for homes priced below $200,000.

Almost 5000 homes closed escrow in the area in the month of December. This was an increase of a little over 8% from the previous month and an increase of 3% from December of 2010. In 2011, the number of homes that were resold increased each month, with that increase being almost 2% in the month of December. Also on the rise was sales of newly built properties, which increased by almost 16% from the previous year. Despite this increase, the number of sales was still one of the lowest on record.
Overall, the number of homes sold in December was almost 10% lower than in December of 1994, but homes that were resold was 33% above average for the month of December.

Following a trend that has been occurring for months now, where homes in lower price ranges have stronger sales, homes priced below $100,000 increased by 18% from the previous year and comprised almost half of all real estate transactions. For homes prices below $200,000, there was an increase of 5% while homes priced above $200,000 fell 5% from the previous year and homes priced above $300,000 fell 14% from the previous December.

Once again, foreclosures and short sales (a bank agreeing to sell a home for less than what they are owed) made up a majority of the Las Vegas resale market.
Foreclosures made up over half of all the real estate transactions for December, which was the same as November. This number is about 4% less than what it was for the previous year.
Short sale transactions comprised about 14% of all real estate transactions in December, which is a slight decrease from November and an almost 5% decrease from a year ago.