GLVAR president thankful for 2017 housing market highlights

As we approach Thanksgiving and then the holiday season, leaders of Greater Las Vegas Association of Realtors are thankful to be working in an improved housing market.

GLVAR President David J. Tina, a longtime local Realtor, enlisted the help of Jeremy Aguero, partner in the local research firm of Applied Analysis, to provide an overview of Southern Nevada’s economy and housing market as 2017 comes to a close.

“Jeremy did a great job pointing out all the progress our community and our local housing market have made this year,” Tina said.

Tina thanked Aguero for presenting these and other economic and housing highlights to hundreds of local Realtors who attended GLVAR’s general membership meeting in October:

■ Nevada’s population grew by 1.95 percent in the past year to about 2.9 million people, trailing only Utah as the fastest-growing state in the country.

■ Las Vegas grew even faster than the rest of the state, with its 2.2 percent population growth ranking third in the country among all U.S. metropolitan areas.

■ Clark County added about 21,250 new households over the past year, which Tina said “is obviously good news for our economy and for local Realtors.”

■ Nevada is now leading the nation in job growth, and its economy and population are becoming more diverse.

■ McCarran International Airport is now the eighth-busiest in the nation but ranks second only to LAX in Los Angeles for the number of passengers getting on or off a plane.

■ Southern Nevada’s economic future looks bright heading into 2018, with at least $14.9 billion in new development in the works, from the famed Strip to the suburbs.

■ While Southern Nevada’s housing supply remains very tight, Aguero expects more than 49,000 existing homes and nearly 8,500 new homes will be sold in Southern Nevada in 2017, making this one of the best years for home sales in several years.

■ Only 4.1 percent of all homes in Clark County were categorized as vacant, down from a peak of 12.2 percent in 2011.

■ As for distressed properties and mortgage defaults, Tina agreed with the point Aguero made during his presentation that they have become such a small share of the local housing market that they have really become a non-issue.

■ According to GLVAR and statistics cited by Aguero, distressed sales (including foreclosures and short sales) only make up about 9 percent of the local housing market. Going back to 2011, nearly 73 percent of all existing local home sales were distressed properties.

“Now, that’s what I call positive change,” Tina said. “I’m glad to see the local economy and housing market continuing to make such steady progress during my year as president of GLVAR.”

GLVAR was founded in 1947 and provides its more than 14,000 local members with education, training and political representation. The local representative of the National Association of Realtors, GLVAR is the largest professional organization in Southern Nevada. Each GLVAR member receives the highest level of professional training and must abide by a strict code of ethics. For more information, visit LasVegasRealtor.com. E-mail your real estate questions to ask@glvar.org.