Forecast dim for Las Vegas housing market

Futures contracts on the housing market that trade on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange indicate that Las Vegas, which saw for several years one of the nation’s steepest housing price escalations, now is sliding toward the country’s largest price decline. Investors expect current prices to drop 5.6 percent by May, said Justin Walters, co-founder of Bespoke Investment Group LLC, a New York money management and research firm.

There isn’t currently a futures contract for housing in metro Phoenix. For the 10 cities with futures contracts, including Las Vegas, Los Angeles and San Diego, longer term contracts were just added. Now you can buy a housing futures price index contract for Las Vegas that goes 5 years out. Previously the longest contract was 1 year.

At the end of August, there were a record 27,321 resale homes â€“ a 16-month supply â€“ on the Multiple Listing Service, according to SalesTraq.

Could Phoenix be headed for a 16 month supply?

Las Vegas saw the boom about a year before Phoenix…

October 9, 2007 by Realtor John Wake

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John Wake

Born in Phoenix, trained as an economist and now a licensed Realtor, John uses hard data from the real estate market to help his clients -- buyers and sellers of residential real estate -- uncover their best choices for finding the right home or finding a buyer for their current home.

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