By HUBBLE SMITH LAS VEGAS REVIEW-JOURNAL

New home sales in Las Vegas are projected to increase to about 5,400 in 2010 and the median price should be close to $220,000 by the end of the year, a slight bump from December’s median of $216,000, housing analyst Dennis Smith said Thursday.

The president of Las Vegas-based Home Builders Research reported his year-end data and 2010 projections in his first housing webinar, which replaces his annual housing outlook previously held at various locations around the city.

New home prices fell 13.2 percent in 2009 and are down from a high of $330,900 in 2006.

“I think we’re going to see a slight increase,” Smith said. “I’m not saying we’ll see a huge jump, but by the end of the year, I think we’ll be looking at closer to $220,000 than $210,000. The only thing that could change this is a flood of (foreclosure) inventory, the ’silent inventory’ everybody talks about.”

Las Vegas has the fifth-highest foreclosure rate in the nation with one out of 119 households in some stage of foreclosure filing, according to Irvine, Calif.-based RealtyTrac.com.

Smith is projecting about 45,000 resales this year, nearly identical to the 44,885 recorded resales he counted in 2009. The median price for resales will edge up 3.3 percent to $127,000 in 2010 and climb another 3.4 percent in 2011 to $134,000, based on a stable inventory of 8,500 homes on the market.