You determine the right time to buy your house

Is this the right time to buy a house in Las Vegas? Are prices going to go up … or down?

Prices have been stable (or stagnant, depending on your perspective) for months. And that’s despite a lot of factors that historically have accompanying rising prices.

According to the January FastFacts report from SalesTraq, closings for both new and resale homes are up (8.4 and 9.1 percent, respectively) over last year, and prices are up from this time in 2015 —but most of that came early in the year. While the percentage of distressed property is historically high at 17 percent, that’s low compared to a few years ago.

The report notes that inventory has increased modestly to a four-month supply, but that only 9,000 homes are on the market, and certain areas of town don’t have much selection.

Also, people might just want too much for their homes. That’s understandable, given the precipitous drop in values during the recession, followed by a fairly rapid appreciation (median cost and cost per square foot has nearly doubled since 2012).

The pessimists still worry that there might be an oppressive amount of distressed property lurking out there or dog-paddling owners who can barely make their payments. Optimists point to all the expected pent-up and accelerating demand from 1) new and expected jobs, 2) boomerang buyers who were kicked out of their homes and have now repaired their credit, 3) people moving here from California after selling much more expensive homes there, and 4) millennials who just might finally move out of the basement (figuratively, I mean — no one lives in basements in Las Vegas).

But people who have held onto their homes this far after the crash aren’t likely to throw their hands up now and walk away, and banks certainly have earned some expensive wisdom about foreclosures over the past few years. So an echo crash here seems a bit far-fetched.

And although all those expected new buyers makes for a good story, they haven’t moved the numbers lately. Certainly, they have to have an effect sometimes, but it might be more of a trickle than a gush.

So the answer to the “is it a good time to buy” question probably is that you should make that call based on what’s going on in your life right now rather than what’s going on in the housing market. There are worse economic indicators than “boring.” To see the full report, go to salestraq.com.

Best cities to retire

I see so many of these “Best cities to retire in (or fill in the blank)” that I’m suspicious of both the methods and the intent (some are poorly devised and others are mere click bait). But a new one from the Gallup organization makes some sense.

Nevada ranked fairly high — fifth nationally — when it comes to being satisfied with the “availability of good, affordable housing.”

The “bad” states were all the usual suspects: Hawaii, California and New York — all hugely expensive by national (and Las Vegas) standards. No surprise there. Most of the “good” states rank low comparatively for median housing value.

But Nevada and neighboring Utah (No. 8 among the high satisfaction states) were the exception in that crowd. Arkansas, Kentucky, Mississippi, Oklahoma and West Virginia have low median housing values but didn’t crack the top 10 for satisfaction. Gallup attributed this incongruity to our relative low cost of living (and pretty good living, compared to many other places, I would add).

Send real estate ideas, questions and comments to hdekeyser@reviewjournal.com.