Las Vegas home prices stall to start fall

A report released Wednesday by the Greater Las Vegas Association of Realtors shows home prices in Southern Nevada stalled to start fall, with fewer homes selling so far this year compared to last year.

GLVAR reported that the median price of existing single-family homes sold in Southern Nevada through its Multiple Listing Service during October was $307,000. That’s down 1 percent from September but up 4.1 percent from $295,025 in October of 2018. Meanwhile, the median price of local condos and town homes sold in October was $171,250. That was down 1.6 percent from $174,000 in October of 2018.

“Local home prices are as stable as they’ve been in years and appreciating at a much more gradual pace, more like what was considered a normal and healthy rate of appreciation for many years,” said 2019 GLVAR President Janet Carpenter, a longtime local Realtor. “We realize that many prospective buyers still face challenges finding homes that are both available and affordable for them. But at least buyers are benefiting from more stable prices, more homes on the market than we had at this time last year and historically low mortgage interest rates.”

Before slowing down this year, local home prices had been soaring since early 2012, posting double-digit gains from year to year while climbing back toward their all-time peak. According to GLVAR, the median price of existing single-family homes sold in Southern Nevada peaked at $315,000 in June of 2006 before prices began falling during the recession. Local home prices hit a post-recession bottom of $118,000 in January of 2012.

Just as prices have been rising more gradually, Carpenter said fewer homes have been selling this year compared to the previous few years. According to GLVAR, a total of 36,665 existing local properties were sold in Southern Nevada from Jan. 1 through Oct. 31, 2019. That’s down from 38,248 total properties sold during the same 10-month period in 2018. For all of 2018, GLVAR reported a total of 42,876 local property sales. That was down from 45,388 in all of 2017.

The total number of existing local homes, condos and town homes sold during October was 3,571. Compared to one year ago, October sales were up 7.9 percent for homes and up 3.5 percent for condos and town homes.

As for inventory, by the end of October, GLVAR reported 7,210 single-family homes listed for sale without any sort of offer. That’s up 4.2 percent from one year ago. For condos and town homes, the 1,808 properties listed without offers in October represented a 15.7 percent increase from one year ago.

While the local housing supply has increased over the past year, Carpenter said it’s still well below the six-month supply that is considered to be a more balanced market. At the current sales pace, she said Southern Nevada has less than a three-month supply of homes available for sale.

GLVAR reported that 21.7 percent of all local properties sold in October were purchased with cash. That’s down from 25.6 percent one year ago. That’s also well below the February 2013 peak of 59.5 percent, indicating that cash buyers and investors are still active in the local housing market, but are playing a much smaller role than they were during and just after the recession.

Along the same lines, the number of so-called distressed sales remains near historically low levels. GLVAR reported that short sales and foreclosures combined accounted for just 2.4 percent of all existing local property sales in October. That compares to 3 percent of all sales one year ago and 5.2 percent two years ago.

These GLVAR statistics include activity through the end of October 2019. GLVAR distributes statistics each month based on data collected through its MLS, which does not necessarily account for newly constructed homes sold by local builders or homes for sale by owners. Other highlights include:

■ The total value of local real estate transactions tracked through the MLS during October was more than $1 billion for homes and more than $127 million for condos, high-rise condos and town homes. Compared to one year ago, total sales values in October were up 9.4 percent for homes and up 7.8 percent for condos and town homes.

■ Homes and condos are selling at a slower pace than last year at this time. In October, 74.4 percent of all existing local homes and 69.8 percent of all existing local condos and town homes sold within 60 days. That compares to one year ago, when 85.8 percent of all existing local homes and 87.2 percent of all existing local condos and town homes sold within 60 days.

GLVAR was founded in 1947 and provides its more than 15,000 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.