Sales of new homes dropped in September as the effects of a soon-to-expire tax credit for first-time owners started to wane.

The Commerce Department reported today that sales fell 3.6 percent to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 402,000 from a downwardly revised 417,000 in August.

It was the first decline since March. Sales in September were down 7.8 percent from a year ago.

The median sales price of $204,800 was off 9.1 percent from $225,200 a year earlier, but up 2.5 percent from August’s level of $199,900.

The drop in sales was driven by a nearly 11 percent decline in the West and a 10 percent drop in the South. Sales rose 35 percent in the Midwest and were unchanged in the Northeast.

The data reflect contracts to buy homes, not completed sales. Many new homes are sold while they are still under construction, and buyers may be worried that they won’t be able to complete the deal before the Nov. 30 deadline to take advantage of a tax credit of up to $8,000 for first-time buyers.

Congress is considering extending the tax credit through March 31 and gradually phasing it out over the rest of next year.

Even builders of more upscale homes have felt the impact of the looming deadline. That’s because those move-up buyers will have trouble selling their homes without the incentive of the credit.

There were 251,000 new homes for sale at the end of September, down 3.8 percent from August and the lowest inventory in nearly 17 years. At the current sales pace, that represents 7.5 months of supply.

Las Vegas ranked number three nationally in unemployment of the 49 metropolitan areas reported with a of 1 million or more.

At 13.9 percent, Las Vegas followed Detroit-Warren-Livonia, Mich., which had the highest unemployment rate in September, 17.3 percent and Riverside-San Bernardino-Ontario, Calif., 14.2 percent.

Sixteen additional large areas posted rates of 10.0 percent or more. The large areas with the lowest jobless rates in September were Oklahoma City, Okla., 5.9 percent; Washington-Arlington-Alexandria, D.C.-Va.-Md.-W.Va., 6.2 percent; and Virginia Beach-Norfolk-Newport News, Va.-N.C., 6.7 percent.

All 49 large areas registered over-the-year unemployment rate increases of at least 1.6 percentage points. Detroit-Warren-Livonia, Mich., had the largest jobless rate increase from a year earlier (+8.4 percentage points). The next largest rate increase occurred in Las Vegas-Paradise, Nev. (+6.2 percentage points).

U.S. home prices in August rose for the fourth straight month, surpassing forecasts and providing the latest sign that the hard-hit housing market is stabilizing after a three-year slump, according to a report issued today.

The Standard & Poor’s/Case-Shiller composite index of home prices in 20 metropolitan areas rose 1.2 percent in August from July, above the estimate of a 0.7 percent rise found in a Reuters poll. The increase, however, was less than the 1.6 percent seen in July, S&P said.

The composite index of prices in 10 metropolitan areas gained 1.3 percent in August after a 1.7 percent rise the previous month.

The monthly price increases helped the annual rates, with the yearly pace of declines in home prices slowing to a 10.6 percent drop in the 10-city index and a 11.3 percent decrease in the 20-city index.

NV Energy, Inc. (NYSE: NVE) today announced consolidated net income of $182.6 million, or 78 cents per share, for the quarter ended Sept. 30, 2009, compared with consolidated net income of $150.8 million, or 64 cents per share, for the same period in 2008. Click here for the full news release.

The National Association of Realtors reported today that existing-home sales,including single-family, townhomes, condominiums and co-ops wer up 9.4 percent to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 5.57 million units in September from a level of 5.10 million in August, and are 9.2 percent higher than the 5.10 million-unit pace in September 2008. Sales activity is at the highest level in over two years, since it hit 5.73 million in July 2007.

The NAR said that early information from a large annual consumer study to be released November 13, the 2009 National Association of Realtors Profile of Home Buyers and Sellers, shows that first-time home buyers accounted for more than 45 percent of home sales during the past year. A separate practitioner survey shows that distressed homes accounted for 29 percent of transactions in September.

Total housing inventory at the end of September fell 7.5 percent to 3.63 million existing homes available for sale, which represents an 7.8-month supply at the current sales pace, down from an 9.3-month supply in August. Unsold inventory totals are 15.0 percent below a year ago. Read the rest of this entry »