Las Vegas home prices up in June but market still cooling

The median sales price of previously owned single-family homes — the bulk of the market — was $304,000 last month, up 1.3 percent from May and 4.8 percent from June of 2018, according to a new report from the Greater Las Vegas Association of Realtors.

Home prices aren’t rising nearly as fast as they were last year, and last month’s uptick came after buyers paid a median price of $300,000 for single-family homes in March, April and May.

Meanwhile, sales totals are down, and the valley’s once-shrunken inventory of available listings has shot back up.

A total of 2,903 single- family houses traded hands last month, down 11.5 percent from May and 11.1 percent from June of 2018, and 7,815 houses were on the market without offers at the end of June, down 0.5 percent from May but up 80.3 percent year-over-year, according to the GLVAR.

The trade group reports data from its resale-heavy listing service.

Overall, the pullback follows a stretch of fast-rising prices, dwindling inventory and rising mortgage rates that, collectively, sparked affordability concerns.

GLVAR President Janet Carpenter of Signature Real Estate Group said in a statement that home sales and prices normally rise this time of year, but prices “only went up slightly,” and sales totals in June were down from a year earlier.

The new report, she added, shows Las Vegas’ market is “surprisingly stable.”

“In fact, this is probably as stable as the local housing market has been in nearly two decades,” Carpenter said.

Las Vegas’ home construction market has also tapped the brakes.

Last year, builders closed the most sales in Southern Nevada in more than a decade as buyers paid record prices. But sales volume overall has tumbled this year as buyers gravitate toward less-expensive condos and townhomes, according to data from Las Vegas-based Home Builders Research.

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