Las Vegas' Real Estate Roller-Coast Ride Slows in August

According to the Greater Las Vegas Association of Realtors, the region's real estate roller-coaster ride slowed down in August 2019.

GLVAR reported that the median price for existing single-family homes sold in Southern Nevada through its Multiple Listing Service (MLS) during August was $305,000. That's up 3.4% from $295,000 in August of 2018.

Meanwhile, the median price of local condos and townhomes sold in August was $177,000. That was up 4.1% from $169,950 in August of 2018.

"If you look at a graph of our local home prices over the past 15 years or so, it looks like a roller coaster, soaring through the mid-2000s and then falling during the Great Recession before ramping back up from 2012 until now. If you look at it that way, I guess you can say we're coasting along right now," said 2019 GLVAR President Janet Carpenter. "Local home prices are still appreciating compared to last year at this time, but at a rate more in line with historic averages."

Before slowing down this year, local home prices had generally been soaring since early 2012, 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 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 this year, Carpenter said fewer homes have been selling this year compared to the previous few years. GLVAR reported a total of 42,876 local property sales in 2018, down from 45,388 in all of 2017. She said 2019 has been trailing last year's sales pace.

The total number of existing local homes, condos and townhomes sold during August was 3,935. Compared to one year ago, August sales were up 3.1% for homes, but down 5.1% for condos and townhomes.

By the end of August, GLVAR reported 7,766 single-family homes listed for sale without any sort of offer. That's up 33.5% from one year ago. For condos and townhomes, the 1,860 properties listed without offers in August represented a 57.1% increase from one year ago.

While the local housing supply is up from one year ago, Carpenter said it's still below what would normally be considered a balanced market. At the current sales pace, she said Southern Nevada has about a 2.5-month supply of homes available for sale.

GLVAR reported that 22.7% of all local properties sold in August were purchased with cash. That's down from 24.8% one year ago. That's also well below the February 2013 peak of 59.5%, suggesting that cash buyers and investors are still fairly active in the local housing market, but have been 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 2.1% of all existing local property sales in August. That compares to 2.5% of all sales one year ago and 6.1% two years ago.

These GLVAR statistics include activity through the end of August 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 August was more than $1.1 billion for homes and more than $145 million for condos, high-rise condos and townhomes. Compared to one year ago, total sales values in August were up 4.5% for homes, but down 0.8% for condos and townhomes.

Homes and condos are selling at a slower pace than last year at this time. In August, 74.6% of all existing local homes and 71.5% of all existing local condos and townhomes sold within 60 days. That compares to one year ago, when 87.5% of all existing local homes and 90.2% of all existing local condos and townhomes sold within 60 days.