Las Vegas home price growth slows, still ahead of other cities

Southern Nevada prices in February were up 9.7 percent from a year earlier, more than double the national rate of 4 percent, according to the S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller index released Tuesday by S&P Dow Jones Indices.

Las Vegas’ prices grew fastest among the 20 markets in the report for the ninth straight month, but this was the first time since September 2017 that its year-over-year growth rate was in single-digits, according to S&P Dow Jones spokesman Ray McConville.

The downshift came amid tumbling resales last year, a soaring tally of ignored listings and increased affordability concerns – all in a market that likes to tout its relatively cheap prices, especially compared to neighboring California.

The rate of acceleration has slowed around the country as well. In June, for instance, prices were up 6.2 percent nationwide, S&P Dow Jones previously reported.

Nationally, home prices “continued to tap on the brakes in February, moderating their earlier breakneck speeds, particularly in pricey West Coast markets,” Matthew Speakman, economic analyst at listing site Zillow, said in a statement Tuesday.

He added that buyers “might be lured by falling mortgage rates” heading into the busy spring selling season, but rates “have been low for so long that they no longer spur the kind of intense demand that drives up prices.”

Ralph McLaughlin, deputy chief economist at housing tracker CoreLogic, said in a statement that slower price growth “has primarily been driven by affordability constraints in a few of our largest, most expensive housing markets.”

It isn’t a buyer’s market yet, but “several Pacific Coast markets are on the cusp of seeing the first annual declines in home prices since 2012,” he said, pointing to cities like San Diego, San Francisco and Los Angeles.

Contact Eli Segall at esegall@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0342. Follow @eli_segall on Twitter.