Las Vegas Considered to Be Lucky in Home Values
Zillow has rated Las Vegas as one of the luckiest cities in the nation for home price gains. The four-year value jump of nearly 75 percent has made this one of the healthiest real estate markets as far as home prices. Unfortunately, however, not everyone who owns a home in Las Vegas feels fortunate, simply because their home equity is still underwater when compared to their mortgage.
Why Do Some Not Feel as Fortunate?
While some homeowners are seeing gains in their home prices, others are still dealing with being upside down in their equity. Home equity is something that many are still not seeing. “We’re all feeling lucky that things have improved so much after all we’ve been through, but we need to be careful not to forget that there are still a lot of struggling homeowners in this community,” says Bryan Kyle from First Serve Realty. “They’re not feeling lucky at all. They’re feeling like they might be better off down at the casino than being in real estate.”
Which Homeowners Are Fairing Best?
If you have purchased a home in 2012 or later, you most likely will see the benefits of the gain in home prices. From 2012 and 2013, there was between a 20 and 30 percent increase, while in 2014 there was a 10 percent jump and an almost 10 percent jump in 2015. Some homeowners who purchased in January 2012 are seeing a jump of almost 75 percent. This was the largest jump in the country.
When you consider the reason for the jump, however, you can see that it is largely due to the fact that home values plummeted by as much as two-thirds. Coming from this low value means that some homeowners are seeing a high percentage increase, but there are not very many locals who bought at that low price. Rather, it was investors who were largely purchasing during this time period.
While there are some people who are not seeing the benefits from the home price gains, it is important to note that the negative equity numbers are down from more than 70 percent in early 2012.
For 2016, Zillow forecasts that there will be a home price gain of 5 percent average. This is double the national prediction, but is down almost 9 percent locally when compared to January 2015. Hopefully, values will continue to go up in the future.