Vegas Home Prices Inching Up Again

LAS VEGAS-According to statistics released this week by the Greater Las Vegas Association of REALTORS (GLVAR), local home prices bounced back from a one-month lull to increase by 2.8% from September to October.

GLVAR reported that the median price of an existing single-family home sold in Southern Nevada during October was $185,000. That was up 2.8% from $180,000 in September, a month that ended a 19-month run of rising local home prices dating back to February 2012. October's median home price was 32.1% higher than October 2012, when the median price was $140,000.

Meanwhile, the median price of existing condominiums and townhomes sold in October was $100,000, up 5.3% from $95,000 in September and up 38.9% from $72,000 one year ago.

GLVAR president Dave Tina, a longtime local REALTOR, said he would not be surprised to see local home prices dip again heading into the holidays since “home prices and sales usually cool off along with the weather.” In any case, he said, “These statistics show that we're seeing a more stable housing market than we had in the past two years or so.”

Tina said existing local home prices bottomed out at a median price of $118,000 in January 2012 before appreciating for a record 19 straight months. Still, he said local home prices are just now back to where they were five years ago and well below their June 2006 peak of $315,000.

GLVAR continued to report fewer foreclosures and short sales. In October, 21% of all existing home sales were short sales, down from 23% in September. Another 6 percent of all October sales were bank-owned properties, down from 7.4% in September. The remaining 73% of all sales were the traditional type, up from 69.6% in September. It has been several years since the local housing market has seen so few sales involving distressed homeowners, Tina said.

As in previous months, the number of local homes listed for sale increased in October, which Tina said is welcome news for would-be buyers who have been struggling to find homes to buy.

The total number of properties listed for sale on GLVAR's Multiple Listing Service increased in October, with 15,011 single-family homes listed for sale at the end of the month. That's up 6.2% from 14,659 single-family homes listed for sale at the end of September, but down 10.5% from one year ago.

GLVAR also reported more available homes listed for sale without any sort of pending or contingent offer. By the end of October, GLVAR reported 7,072 single-family homes listed without any sort of offer. That's up 11.7 percent from 6,330 such homes listed in September and up 73.4% from one year ago. For condos and townhomes, the 2,247 properties listed without offers in October represented a 14.2% increase from 1,968 such properties listed in September and a 67.6% crease from one year ago.

In October, GLVAR reported that 44.9% of all existing local homes sold were purchased with cash. That's down from 47.2% in September and from a peak of 59.5% set in February 2013.