The Healing Las Vegas Housing Market
The economy has had a lot of up’s and down’s, but the Las Vegas housing market is moving in the right direction.
Is the Las Vegas housing market getting better? This is a question that is asked of real estate professionals all the time, especially from prospective buyers and sellers. While there are some good signs pointing to a healing market, it is important to realize that it is a slow process that will take time. Healing a housing market that was in such dire straights as Las Vegas’ was means that there are ups and downs. The good news is that the market seems to be stabilizing.
Las Vegas Housing Market Snapshot
The median sales price of a single-family home in Las Vegas is $220,000 and that price has not changed since the summer. This is a 10% increase over the median price at this time last year and this is not the only trend that has moved upward. October’s sales were up almost 5% over a year ago and this means that there is less distress in the housing market, which is a good thing.
There are still those who are underwater in their mortgage, however. One out of four Las Vegas homeowners have negative equity in their home. In 2012, this number was 70% of Las Vegas homeowners, so it has made big strides.
What is Selling?
While you would think that short sales and foreclosures would be making up the largest portion of sales, this is not true anymore. For October, these two segments only made up 16% of the existing home sales. This means that homeowners are finally taking back their portion of the sales from homes that were being sold to cash buyers getting them for pennies on the dollar.
As far as the supply of homes, there was a slight decline in the number of Las Vegas homes available for sale and the number without offers on them. There is just a 3-month supply of available homes to sale in the area, while a 6-month supply is a much healthier level for the market.
While there is much to celebrate in the Las Vegas real estate market, it is still important to remember that it is still not at the level that it was at the height of the housing boom. In fact, the prices are only about halfway back to the level in 2006 when they peaked at $315,000. It is much better than the lowest level that we saw in 2012, however, when they were at $118,000.
Whether buying or selling, Las Vegas’ housing market is coming back. The key is to remember that it may still take some time to get to a healthy, balanced level that will make everyone more comfortable.