Las Vegas’ homebuilding market shows no signs of slowing down

Las Vegas’ homebuilding market shows no signs of hitting the brakes as buyers snap up properties and developers draw up more construction plans.

Builders notched 1,215 net sales — newly signed sales contracts minus cancellations — in Southern Nevada in April, up nearly 400 percent from 244 sales in April 2020, when the valley’s housing market slowed drastically amid sweeping business shutdowns and huge job losses sparked by the coronavirus outbreak, according to a newly released figures from Las Vegas real estate tracker Home Builders Research.

Builders also lined up a huge increase in construction plans, pulling 1,457 new-home permits in April, up 227 percent from 446 during the same month last year, Home Builders Research reported.

Home Builders Research President Andrew Smith wrote in the report that builders have landed more than 1,000 net sales for five straight months.

One must look to the frenzied mid-2000s to find another period of high sales totals, but the market was “quite a bit different back then,” as homebuilders fetched at least 1,000 net sales every month from early 2002 through summer 2007, Smith wrote.

“This is yet another good factoid to remember when we hear and read about (overbuilding) and potential ‘bubbles,’ ” he wrote.

Overall, Las Vegas’ housing market has accelerated to its fastest pace in years with rapid sales and record prices as rock-bottom mortgage rates let people lock in lower monthly payments and stretch their budgets.

On the resale side, buyers are showering properties with offers, often within days of them hitting the market, and routinely paying over the asking price.

Builders, meanwhile, have regularly raised prices, put buyers on waiting lists and taken bids for lots, multiple sources have said.

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