The report said Reno had 165 sales of existing single-family homes, an increase of 42 percent from last year and a 2-percent decrease from September 2008. Sparks saw 116 sales of existing single-family homes, an increase of 61 percent from October 2007 and a 17-percent increase from the previous month. All sales numbers are for existing “stick built single family dwellings” only and do not include condominium, townhome, manufactured, modular or new home sales.
The report on October 2008 home sales in the Washoe County resale home market also includes median sales prices. The report listed the median sales price for an existing single-family residence at $229,950, a 23-percent drop from October 2007 and a 4-percent decrease from the previous month. In Reno, the month’s median sales price for an existing single-family residence was $274,000, a decrease of 22 percent from last year and a 7-percent decrease from September. The Sparks’ median sales price in October was $214,950, a 22-percent drop from October 2007 and a 3-percent decrease from September.
Sales in Sparks have been driven by the foreclosure market, according to Dan Rider, a broker with the Dickson Realty office on Vista Boulevard. He said that 70 percent of final sales for his office have been either foreclosures or short sales, in which the seller and the bank agree on a sales price lower than the loan amount. He said a lot of first-time home buyers are able to get back into the market because of depressed prices.
“It’s all about liquidity,” Rider said. “If you go back three years ago and look at lenders’ terms they used to prequalify buyers were very liberal and now the pendulum has swung the opposite direction and guidelines are very strict.”
Rider is talking about buyers who were able to purchase homes for no money down on interest-only loans. Lenders were not verifying income, he said, so buyers could state their income without providing proof. Now, he says, lenders are requiring documentation and looking for 20-percent down payments.
On the flip side, Rider said that sellers who can’t afford to sell their homes are often resorting to short sales but he said only about half of such sales are getting approval from banks. In addition, Rider said he is advising all sellers doing a short sale to seek legal advice to make sure the bank can’t later come after the seller for any difference between the amount owed and the sales price.
“We are remaining cautiously optimistic with an increase of sales,” said Wayne Capurro, broker/co-owner of Capurro and Reid Real Estate and 2008 president of RSAR. “Although increased sales are a good sign, we need keep in mind how poor the market conditions were a year ago and that we are still experiencing a high level of foreclosures in the current inventory causing a decline in median prices. The benefit of lower median sales price is that it creates an affordable market that is getting potential buyers off the sidelines and where they have been for months and making purchases. However, we still need to keep an eye on the high level of foreclosures as this is still a concern because of the effect they have had on the continuing decline in median price.”
In October 2008, the number of existing condominium/townhomes also saw an increase in the number of sales from the previous year. In Washoe County, there was 50 sales of existing condominium/townhomes, an increase of 47 percent from last year. Reno experienced 34 sales of existing condominium/townhomes, an increase of 36 percent from October 2007, and Sparks had 11 sales of existing condominium/townhomes, an increase of 57 percent from last year.
The median sales price of existing condominium/townhomes in Washoe County was $120,000, down 39 percent from October 2007. The existing condominium/townhome median sales price for October 2008 in Reno was $107,000, down 47 percent from last year, and in Sparks it was $116,000, down 33 percent from October 2007.
The Reno/Sparks Association of Realtors obtains its information from the Multiple Listing Service (MLS) and includes sales of bank-owned properties.
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