LAS VEGAS, NV (KXNT) - Existing local home prices finally broke their all-time record, while the housingsupply keeps shrinking. So says a report released Friday by Las Vegas REALTORS®.
LVR (formerly known as the Greater Las Vegas Association of REALTORS®) reported that the median price of existing single-family homes sold in Southern Nevada through its Multiple Listing Service (MLS) during February 2020 was $316,000. That was up 3.6% from January and up 6.7% from February of 2019, passing the previous record of $315,000 set in June of 2006.
“We’ve been waiting for this milestone for a long time,” said 2020 LVR President Tom Blanchard, a longtime local REALTOR®. “While it’s interesting to talk about how we finally broke the record, it’s important to remember that it took us more than 13 years to get here. If you account for inflation, you could argue that home prices should actually be much higher than they are today.”
Meanwhile, LVR reported that the median price of local condos and townhomes sold in February as $175,000, the same as January and up 6.1% from February of 2019.
After seeing the median local home price in December 2019 come within a few thousand dollars of its all-time peak, Blanchard said he expected that price record to fall in 2020.
Before slowing down last year, local home prices had been soaring since early 2012, posting double-digit gains from year to year while climbing back from their post-recession low point. According to LVR, the median price of existing single-family homes sold in Southern Nevada peaked at $315,000 in June of 2006 before fallingduring the recession. Local home prices hit a post-recession bottom of $118,000 in January of 2012.
Blanchard said he’s also encouraged to see home sales increasing to start 2020. The total number of existing local homes, condos and townhomes sold during February was 3,089.
Compared to the same time last year, February sales were up 25.7% for homes and up 14.0% for condos and townhomes.
That year-over-year sales increase reverses last year’s trend. According to LVR, the total number of existing local homes, condos and townhomes sold in Southern Nevada during 2019 was 41,269. That was down from 42,876 total sales in 2018 and from 45,388 in 2017.
As for headwinds in the housing market, Blanchard said the local housing supply continues to shrink to historically low levels. The current sales pace equates to less than a two-month supply of homes available for sale. A six-month supply is considered a more balanced market, he said.