Las Vegas real estate finally returning to pre-pandemic normal: LVR president

When Las Vegas Realtors President Lee Barrett looks at the housing stats for June of this year, he finds himself going back a few years. Looking at the latest numbers concerning real estate in the Southern Nevada region, sales and listings now look a lot like 2018 and 2019.

“If you look at pre-pandemic levels, this is where we are now getting back to,” Barrett said. “And this is a return to normal I think we all welcome.”

Barrett admits last year and 2021’s numbers in particular — the end of a wild swing in real estate brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic — have skewed data, however, he is optimistic this is now the start of a “market stabilization” period. For example, the median price of a single-family home sold during June in Southern Nevada was $440,900, which is a 0.3 percent drop from May, but down 8.1 percent from June of last year.

Prices for homes in the Southern Nevada area have increased incrementally in the past few months, but are still below the all-time record high set in May 2022 ($482,000).

The year-over-year drop extends to listings as well, as 3,680 single-family homes were listed in the month of June, a number that is essentially unchanged from May, but a 36 percent drop from this time last year.

What this all adds up to is fewer homes being sold, as LVR reported a total of 2,939 existing homes, condos and townhomes sold this past month, which for homes means a 14.1 percent drop from June 2022.

Barrett added this is all promising as it seems the U.S. housing market appears to be getting off the roller coaster ride that started with the pandemic — when there was a massive splurge in buying because of cheap money brought on by economic shock.

Currently, there is less than a two months supply of houses on the market in Southern Nevada, and this time last year there was well over a two month supply. This pressure has impacted prices, Barrett said, coupled with high interest rates that have cooled the market substantially.

He said he would like to see more affordable housing before he can call the real estate market back to normal.

“To me that would be a balanced market,” Barrett said. “Nobody really wants all of these spikes up and down at all.”

Another peak seems to have been reached, he added, as it appears the price surge has come and gone.

“After increasing gradually for a couple of months, it looks like local home prices have hit a plateau, at least for now. The number of homes being sold and available for sale were also remarkably similar from the previous month. Builders are doing what they can to bring more new homes to market, but we still need more homes available for sale.”

On a macro scale, the federal government has raised interest rates in a bid to cool runaway inflation, and mortgage rates have spiked from historically low levels during the onset of the pandemic. According to the S&P/Case-Shiller U.S. National Home Price Index as of July 6, the rate for a 30-year fixed rate mortgage sits at 7.2 percent.

Barrett said a number he would feel much more comfortable and confident with, in regards to a more balanced real estate market, would be a few percentage points down.

“I think a lot of people would be comfortable if interest rates were around five or 5.5 percent,” he said.

Contact Patrick Blennerhassett at pblennerhassett@reviewjournal.com.