by Calculated Risk on 5/21/2006 04:23:00 PM

From the Las Vegas Sun: Home sellers beware


Click on graph for larger image.

... a number of home-sale indicators show how the Las Vegas Valley is now experiencing a buyer's market.

A record number of resale houses - 18,467 in April - are on the market, along with another 4,000 new homes.

Resale houses are taking longer to sell - up to three or four months, compared to two weeks or less when the market was hot - and some sellers are accepting lowball offers.

Builders are offering purchase incentives, including free lawn maintenance, swimming pools, washers and dryers and even the cost of packing and moving customers into their new residences. Some incentive packages have been valued by builders at up to $100,000.

Builders are offering higher commissions to real estate agents - up to 6 percent in some cases.

With contract cancellations reaching 38 percent in some new subdivisions, builders are cutting staff and prices on new homes by tens of thousands of dollars.

This same story - a buyers market with rising inventories - is being repeated in many housing markets. See this site for other markets: Bubble Markets Inventory Tracking