Asking prices for Las Vegas homes rise 13.7 percent

Asking prices for Las Vegas homes increased 13.7 percent in November from a year ago, while average rents fell by 0.7 percent, online listing service Trulia.com reported Tuesday.

Laggards in the housing recovery such as Atlanta and inland California cities are now rebounding, said Jed Kolko, chief economist for Discovery Bay, Calif.-based Trulia.com.

Riverside-San Bernardino, Calif., and Sacramento, Calif., saw quarter-over-quarter price gains of 5.5 percent and 5.3 percent, respectively, among the top 10 nationally.

Those metropolitan areas, all hard-hit during the housing crisis, were slower than other hard-hit metropolitan areas such as Phoenix, Las Vegas and Miami to benefit from a price rebound.

"That's a big turnaround for those markets from earlier this year." Kolko said.

Asking prices for the 100 largest U.S. metropolitan areas rose 0.8 percent in November and 2.2 percent quarter-over-quarter. It's the largest quarterly and yearly gain since the housing crisis began, and the second-largest monthly gain, Kolko said. October was slightly higher.

Nationally, price gains are strengthening, but fewer metropolitan areas have rising prices. In November, 70 cities showed quarterly price gains, compared with 79 in August. Las Vegas was up 2.1 percent for the quarter.

Prices are rising most in the very largest of those 100 metropolitan areas, but wavering in many of the others, Kolko said.

Rents are up 5.6 percent from a year ago. However, home prices are rising faster than rents in most of the largest rental markets.

"The era of increasing homeownership affordability in big cities is ending," Kolko said.

Trulia's asking price monitor is a forward-looking indicator, he said. Sales price indexes such as Case-Shiller and CoreLogic won't report November's closing prices until January.

"Homes listed in November, which we included in our monitor, will most likely sell around January, so there's no sales price index that is yet reflecting the trends we're picking up," he said.

Las Vegas-based SalesTraq reported a median existing-home closing price of $124,000 in October, up 18.1 percent from a year ago. Prices have risen for nine straight months, climbing 24 percent from $100,000 in January.

The inventory of homes available for sale in Las Vegas continues to be constrained.

A report from National Title Co. showed 3,878 single-family homes available on the Multiple Listing Service at the end of November, roughly a 10-day supply. Of those, 2,666 homes are listed for less than $300,000, with a median list price of $214,900.

There were 10,125 listings for short sales, or homes offered at less than the principal mortgage balance, and 11,934 homes are under contract at a median price of $132,500.

Contact reporter Hubble Smith at hsmith@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0491.