Las Vegas home values rising faster than US average, report shows

Las Vegas home values are rising faster than the national average, a new report shows, but the rate pales in comparison to recent years.

The median home value in the Las Vegas area last month was $206,800, up 7.8 percent from a year earlier, according to home-listing service Zillow.

Nationally, home values are up 5.1 percent year-over-year, to a median of $188,100.

Home values are rising faster in several cities than in Las Vegas. Among them, Portland, Oregon, is up 14.8 percent; Dallas, 12 percent; and Miami, 9 percent, Zillow reported.

A few years ago, however, Las Vegas led the pack, with home values showing roughly 30 percent annual growth. At the time, investors were buying cheap homes in bulk to turn into rentals. They revived a market that was all but wiped out by the recession and sparked talk of another bubble because prices were climbing so rapidly again.

The median home value in Las Vegas in May 2013 was $146,400, up 28 percent year-over-year, the fastest rate among large metro areas.

The median value nationally was up 5.4 percent, Zillow reported.

Eventually, the growth in home values slowed in Las Vegas, as investors, faced with higher prices they helped create, backed out in big numbers.

“Enjoy it while it lasts,” Zillow’s then-chief economist, Stan Humphries, said in mid-2013, “because the housing market will undoubtedly look very different a few years down the road from how it appears now.”

Contact Review-Journal writer Eli Segall at (702) 383-0342. On Twitter at @eli_segall.