Is Las Vegas real estate really recovering? We keep hearing about better sales rates and higher prices but when you look at how prices today compare to prices of a year ago or during the peak of the housing rush in Vegas you have to ask has there really been a recovery?

Look at the latest numbers from the Greater Las Vegas Association of Realtors. These were sent to me last week:

*Existing home prices in Southern Nevada are now nearly 31 percent higher than they were one year ago.

*But median home prices are just over half-way back to the $315,000 peak hit in 2006

*The median price of single-family homes sold in April was $167,000, up 3.7 percent from $161,000 in March and up 30.6 percent from $127,900 one year ago.

*The median price of condominiums and townhomes sold in April was $85,000, up 6.1 percent from $80,150 in March and up 41.9 percent from $59,900 one year ago.

*A danger sign that shows the true frailty of the market is that in April, 32.5 percent of all existing local home sales were short sales.

*The GLVAR said the total number of existing local homes, condominiums and townhomes sold in April was 3,789 and down from 3,924 total sales in April 2012.

*GLVAR reported 3,161 single-family homes listed without any sort of offer. That’s down 24.1 percent from one year ago. For condos and townhomes, the 1,261 properties listed without offers in April represented an 8.6 percent increase from one year ago.

So how do you view the market now? The economy is still fragile. The casino business is still fragile, and manufacturing still is weak nationwide.