Las Vegas home prices rising at more than double US rate

Las Vegas home prices continue to outpace other big cities as resales tumble.

Prices in Southern Nevada were up 12 percent year-over-year in November, more than double the national rate of 5.2 percent, according to the S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller index released Tuesday.

Las Vegas’ price growth was fastest among the 20 markets listed in the report for the sixth consecutive month, and it was the only metro area with double-digit year-over-year price gains in November.

Nationally, price growth has been “dampened by declining sales of existing homes and weaker affordability,” but inflation is stable, job rolls are growing and wages are rising, said David Blitzer, managing director and chairman of the index committee at S&P Dow Jones Indices.

Locally, prices have accelerated amid an expanding population and improved economy, but sales totals have fallen amid affordability concerns.

In December, for instance, 2,142 single-family houses traded hands, down 18 percent from the same month in 2017, according to the Greater Las Vegas Association of Realtors, which pulls data from its resale-heavy listing service.

At the same time, the median sales price of single-family homes was $295,250 last month, up 10 percent year-over-year, the trade group reported.

All told, the U.S. housing market “appears to be running on fumes,” Cheryl Young, senior economist with listing site Trulia, said in a statement Tuesday.

Prices are still rising, but “signs of a slowdown are officially here,” she said.

Contact Eli Segall at esegall@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0342. Follow @eli_segall on Twitter.