Southern Nevada home prices fall again, signals cooling market

Southern Nevada house prices resumed their downward slide last month, as buyers locally and nationally pull back amid higher borrowing costs.

The median sales price of previously owned single-family homes — the bulk of the market — was $440,000 in October, down 2.2 percent from September but up 7.3 percent from a year earlier, trade association Las Vegas Realtors reported.

Single-family homes sold for a median price of $450,000 in both September and August, after falling for three consecutive months.

House prices have now dropped by more than $40,000 from the record-high of $482,000 in May.

Further underscoring the market’s dramatic change from last year’s buying spree, sales totals have plunged from 2021 levels and available inventory has skyrocketed.

A total of 1,724 houses traded hands last month, down 15.1 percent from September and 44 percent from October 2021.

Also, 7,906 houses were on the market without offers at the end of October, down 2.6 percent from September but up 140.5 percent year-over-year, according to Las Vegas Realtors, which reports data from its resale-heavy listing service.

Homebuyers in the Las Vegas Valley and across the U.S. have been largely pumping the brakes for months, as a sharp jump in mortgage rates wiped out the cheap money that fueled America’s unexpected housing boom after the pandemic hit.

The average rate on a 30-year home loan was 6.95 percent last week, down from 7.08 percent the week before but up from 3.09 percent a year ago, mortgage buyer Freddie Mac reported. Late last month, rates eclipsed 7 percent for the first time since spring 2002.

Higher mortgage rates have “shrunk the buyer pool,” which has led to increased inventory and, ultimately, lower sales prices, Las Vegas Realtors President Brandon Roberts told the Review-Journal late last month.

During the pandemic’s sales frenzy, buyers often had to “settle for whatever they could get,” he noted. But the market changed quickly this year as interest rates marched higher.

“It was almost overnight,” he said.

Las Vegas is far from alone. Across the U.S., the pace of resales fell for the eighth consecutive month in September, the National Association of Realtors reported.

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