Housing market looks a lot like the summer weather

Local supply of homes stays desert dry

The latest housing market report released by the Greater Las Vegas Association of Realtors looks a lot like the summer weather in Southern Nevada, with local home prices continuing to heat up from last year at this time while the housing supply staying desert dry.

GLVAR reported the median price for existing single-family homes sold in Southern Nevada through its Multiple Listing Service during June was $290,000. That is down 1.7 percent from the previous month but up 12.7 percent from $257,373 in June 2017. The median price of local condos and town homes sold in June jumped to $167,000, up 30.5 percent from the same time last year.

Local home prices have been approaching record levels. According to GLVAR, the median price of existing single-family homes sold in Southern Nevada peaked at $315,000 in June 2006. Prices hit a post-recession bottom of $118,000 in January of 2012.

“Despite a slight dip in June, our home prices have been on a steady climb since 2012. If this trend continues, by later this year, we could hit the all-time median price that we hit in 2006,” said GLVAR President Chris Bishop, a longtime local Realtor. “Affordability is becoming a bigger issue, especially for firsttime buyers. Then again, if you’re coming from a more expensive market like California, then our prices still seem like a bargain by comparison.”

Because the local housing market usually heats up in the summer and because the local economy and population are growing, Bishop said increasing demand could put more pressure on the already short supply of available homes. Southern Nevada has less than a month-and-a-half supply of existing homes available for sale when a six-month supply is considered a balanced market.

By the end of June, GLVAR reported 4,335 single-family homes listed for sale without any sort of offer. That is down 16.2 percent from one year ago.

For condos and town homes, the 822 properties listed without offers in June represented a 28.6 percent increase from one year ago.

“Hopefully, we can keep up with that demand,” Bishop said. “But for at least the rest of 2018, I think we’ll be playing catch-up.”

He said the tight supply also seems to be dragging down local home sales, which might be hardpressed to match last year’s total after increasing each year for the past few years. The total number of existing local homes, condos and town homes sold during June was 4,087. Compared with a year ago, June sales were down 8.9 percent for homes but up 4.8 percent for condos and town homes.

GLVAR reported that 22.9 percent of all local properties sold in June were purchased with cash. That compares with 27.2 percent one year ago.

That is 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 have been playing a much smaller role than they did five years ago.

The number of distressed sales continues to decline. GLVAR reported that short sales and foreclosures combined accounted for 2.6 percent of all existing local home sales in June, down from 6.3 percent of all sales one year ago.

The GLVAR statistics include activity through the end of June. 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 following:

■ The total value of local real estate transactions tracked through the MLS during June was more than $1.1 billion for homes and nearly $147 million for condos, high-rise condos and town homes. Compared with a year ago, total sales volumes in June were up 4.3 percent for homes and up 30.5 percent for condos and town homes.

■ Homes and condos continued to sell faster than last year at this time. In June, 89.1 percent of all existing local homes and 91.2 percent of all existing local condos and town homes sold within 60 days. That compares with a year ago, when 83.3 percent of all existing local homes and 87.2 percent of all existing local condos and town homes sold within 60 days.

Chris Bishop