A housing report from the Las Vegas Sun. "Prompted by falling home prices, the Clark County assessor's office has reduced the assessed value of some homes by more than 10 percent. The reductions give dramatic evidence that a cycle of rapid appreciation has ended in the Las Vegas Valley."

"Of the 590,000 residential parcels in Clark County, the assessor's office said the property values of about 85,000 - 14 percent - have decreased. Of those, about 60,000 were reduced by an average of 5 percent and 25,000 were reduced by an average of 10 percent, county officials said. There were a few reductions as high as 30 percent, based on the recorded sale prices of homes."

"The lowering of the values by Clark County is the most tangible evidence to date that more homeowners are cutting prices to make a sale. Assessed valuations are used by appraisers in determining values of homes on the market, and the reductions may mean banks won't be willing to finance homes for what some buyers are seeking, said Richard Lee, VP of First American Title."

"The reduction in assessments has occurred throughout the Las Vegas Valley, including entire neighborhoods - such as one in Anthem in Henderson, where the assessed values of 176 homes were each slashed by $30,000."

The Review Journal. "Las Vegas median home prices dropped to $306,100 in December, down 2 percent from the same month a year ago, and the inventory of homes for sale shrank for the second straight month to 17,834, the Greater Las Vegas Association of Realtors reported Monday. It's still up by a third from last year."

"Realtors sold 1,644 single-family homes during the month, a 32.5 percent decline from a year ago."

"Devin Reiss, new president of the Realtors association, said this year is going to be about 'balance in the market.' 'Prices have decreased so slightly that it's hard to believe that we can expect anything other than the status quo for this market through 2007,' Reiss said."

"The median price of a condo or townhouse is off 4.4 percent at $195,000 and the number of units for sale is up 86.2 percent to 4,833. There were 372 condo sales in December, down 36.6 percent."

"The GLVAR statistics are based on data collected through the Multiple Listing Service and do not necessarily account for newly constructed homes sold by local builders, sales by owner and other transactions not involving a Realtor."

"Community bankers are being more closely scrutinized for their commercial real estate lending activity, which could hurt the nation's economy if banks unnecessarily pull back from sound lending practices, an executive for the Independent Community Bankers of America believes."

"'In this marketplace, the last couple of years, the FDIC got worried. They saw all these cranes in the air,' said Nevada Bankers Association President Bill Uffelman. 'To my knowledge, no bank has been dinged for being overinvested in CRE. That doesn't mean they don't come in and look at it.'"

"Ann Grochala, lending and accounting policy director for ICBA, said regulators might ask community banks to increase their capitalization, depending on the institution and what they have on their balance sheets. 'What we're waiting to see is how these guidelines will be implemented. That's where the rubber meets the road,' she said."

"The Bureau of Land Management is selling 12 parcels of federal land totaling 56 acres at public auction March 7."

"The land is being sold under the Southern Nevada Public Land Management Act of 1998, which directs the BLM to provide for the orderly disposal of some 27,000 acres in Clark County based on recommendations made by local governments and the public, BLM sales supervisor Ann Wharton said. The disposal boundary was expanded to about 45,000 acres."

"Bidding starts at the federal government's appraised fair market value of each parcel. Most of the parcels are 2.5 acres and appraised at $900,000, BLM spokeswoman Hillerie Patton said. At the most recent auction in August, the BLM sold 27.5 acres for $11 million, or about $400,000 an acre. Since November 1999, the BLM has sold 13,000 acres for nearly $2.8 billion at 13 auctions."

"'I think the BLM is looking at the overall market and trying to maximize their profits on the land, and if they don't see the opportunity, they're not going to do it. Right now, demand for residential land, especially low density, is not what it was a year ago,' Nevada Title Co. land specialist Travis Nelson said."