Las Vegas homebuilders landing record prices again

Las Vegas house hunters paid record highs for new homes last month as developers keep raising prices and cheap money keeps fueling the market.

The median closing price of newly built homes in Southern Nevada was $419,951 in July, up 13.1 percent from a year earlier, according to a new report from Las Vegas-based Home Builders Research.

Within that, single-family houses sold for a median of $440,106 last month, up 10.3 percent year-over-year, and condos and townhomes traded for a median of almost $320,000, up 20.5 percent.

All three price levels surpassed their previous all-time highs, set in June.

Local homebuilders also reversed a three-month slide in sales activity with 1,128 net sales, or newly signed purchase contracts minus cancellations, up almost 21 percent from June, according to Home Builders Research data.

Southern Nevada’s housing market has seen record-high prices and rapid sales for months, thanks largely to low borrowing costs as well as more out-of-state buyers than usual. On the resale side, buyers have showered homes with offers and routinely paid over the asking price, while builders have put buyers on waiting lists, taken bids for lots, and regularly raised prices amid fierce demand, supply shortages and higher costs of their own.

Across Southern Nevada, builders’ average base asking price has climbed 12 percent since October, while the average size of those homes has shrunk by 5 percent, Home Builders Research President Andrew Smith wrote in the report.

Single-family houses comprise the bulk of builders’ sales in the Las Vegas area, and after a buyer signs a sales contract, it can take several months before the home is completed and the purchase can close.

Overall, homebuilders closed around 6,750 sales this year through July, up 17 percent from the same stretch in 2020, Smith reported.

Nationally, the pace of builders’ house sales inched up 1 percent last month from June but remained roughly 27 percent below year-ago levels, federal officials reported Tuesday.

It was the first monthly gain since March.

U.S. homebuilders “continue to face significant challenges finding and affording” materials, land, and labor, though home sales still “crept up” last month, Matthew Speakman, economist with listing site Zillow, said in a statement.

Demand for new homes remains strong, he said, adding mortgage rates are still near “all-time lows,” helping buyers who can afford a downpayment and qualify for a loan.

All told, if builders “can find a way to build new homes, consumers will still come for them,” he said.

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