Single-family median home price in Las Vegas steady at $220,000

Prices and sales of local existing homes continued their steady upward march in August.

The median price of a single-family resale was $220,000 in the month, unchanged from July but up 10 percent year over year, the Greater Las Vegas Association of Realtors reported Tuesday.

Single-family resales jumped 11.2 percent year to year, with 2,855 closings in the month.

Association President Keith Lynam said closings are "well ahead" of 2014's pace.

"It remains a fairly balanced real estate market, which is solid news for both buyers and sellers," Lynam said.

Condo and townhome prices reached a median of $110,000, up 4.8 percent compared with August 2014. Closings of attached homes rose 8.3 percent, to 599.

For-sale inventory also tightened a bit. The association's Multiple Listing Service counted 13,608 single-family homes for sale, down 1 percent year over year. That's about a four-month supply — a little less than the six months of a typical, balanced market.

The number of attached units on the market slipped 4.5 percent, to 3,459.

The market's share of cash buyers — a proxy for investment activity — was 28.2 percent, down from 32.1 percent a year ago. Cash buys peaked at 59.5 percent of the market in February 2013.

Distressed sales also fell substantially. Short sales, in which a bank lets a homeowner sell a house for less than what's owed on the mortgage, made up 6.2 percent of local sales in August. That was nearly half of the 11.5 percent share in August 2014.

Seven percent of sales were bank-owned homes, down from 8.9 percent a year earlier.

Contact Jennifer Robison at jrobison@reviewjournal.com. Find @_JRobison on Twitter.