Clark County home sales up in December

Foreclosures sink to levels not seen since housing bust

Clark County’s housing market showed resilience in the historically slow sales month of December, with the most closed sales for a December since 2005, the RMLS real estate listing service said in its December market report. The report’s indicators suggest growing demand for a shrinking supply of homes for sale, which could be a precursor of a solid increase in housing prices this year.

RMLS reported 521 completed sales in December, beating the December 2013 count of 475 closed sales. The December sales also tracked well ahead of the November tally of 492 completed sales. Pending sales, although slightly down from November, were 41 percent higher than in December 2013.

With the increased demand came a reduction in housing supply. RMLS reported a 17 percent one-year drop in new listings. The inventory of homes for sale in December was 3.4 months, meaning that it would take that long to sell all the homes currently on the market.

That’s the second-lowest inventory of 2014, and is significantly lower than the 4.5 month inventory of homes available in December 2013. The average time on the market for a home sold in December was 98 days, compared to 94 days in December 2013.

There were 482 pending sales in December, down by 1.6 percent for the month. The median sales price of $245,600 was up by 8.5 percent for the year, although the median dropped for the month from $255,000 in November.