Las Vegas home prices keep rising while fewer homes are selling

A report released Wednesday by Las Vegas Realtors shows local home prices are still climbing, even as sales are down from the same time last year.

LVR reported the median price of existing single-family homes sold in Southern Nevada through its Multiple Listing Service during March was $460,000. That breaks the record set the previous month. The median home price is up 26.7 percent from $363,000 one year ago.

The median price of local condos and town homes sold in March increased to $270,000. That also breaks the all-time record set the previous month and is up 39.2 percent from $194,000 in March 2021.

LVR President Brandon Roberts, a longtime local Realtor, said existing local home prices have nearly quadrupled since hitting their post-recession bottom in January of 2012, when the median single-family home price in Southern Nevada was $118,000.

“We keep expecting prices to slow down at some point, but it’s not happening, yet,” Roberts said. “With mortgage interest rates rising recently and the inventory of homes available for sale as low as it has ever been, it’s no surprise that we’re starting to see fewer homes being sold.”

By the end of March, LVR reported 2,005 single-family homes listed for sale without any sort of offer. That’s up 13.1 percent from the same time last year. However, the 394 condos and town homes listed without offers in March represent a 34 percent decrease from one year earlier.

LVR reported a total of 4,205 existing local homes, condos and town homes sold in March. While sales increased from February, March sales were down 12.2 percent for homes and down 6.5 percent for condos and town homes, compared to one year earlier.

Similar to the past few months, Roberts said the sales pace during March equates to less than a one-month supply of properties available for sale and represents “an extremely tight housing supply.”

So far this year, existing local home sales are down from the same time in 2021. According to LVR, 2021 was a record year for existing home sales in Southern Nevada, with 50,010 local homes, condos, town homes and other residential properties selling. That was the first time the association reported more than 50,000 local properties changing hands in a year and topped the previous record set in 2011 by nearly 2,000 sales. By comparison, LVR reported 41,155 total sales during 2020.

During March, LVR found that 31.7 percent of all local property sales were purchased with cash. That’s up from 24.1 percent one year ago. While that percentage has been increasing, it’s still below the March 2013 cash buyer peak of 59.5 percent.

Aided by restrictions on evictions and foreclosures during the pandemic, the number of so-called distressed sales remains near historically low levels. LVR reported that short sales and foreclosures combined accounted for just 0.2 percent of all existing local property sales in March. That compares to 0.6 percent of all sales one year ago, 2 percent of all sales two years ago, 2.5 percent of all sales three years ago, 2.9 percent four years ago, and 9.8 percent five years ago.

These LVR statistics include activity through the end of March 2022. LVR distributes statistics each month based on data collected through its MLS, which does not account for all newly constructed homes sold by local builders or homes for sale by owners. Other highlights include:

■ The total value of local real estate transactions tracked through the MLS during March was more than $1.8 billion for homes and more than $263 million for condos, high-rise condos and town homes. Compared to one year ago, total sales values in March were up 8 percent for homes and up 21.2 percent for condos and town homes.

■ Homes have been selling faster this year than previous years. In March, 89.9 percent of all existing local homes and 94.5 percent of all existing local condos and town homes sold within 60 days. That compares to one year ago, when 84 percent of all existing local homes and 80.9 percent of all existing local condos and town homes sold within 60 days.

Las Vegas Realtors (formerly known as GLVAR) was founded in 1947 and provides its more than 17,000 local members with education, training and political representation. The local representative of the National Association of Realtors, LVR is the largest professional organization in Southern Nevada. Each member receives the highest level of professional training and must abide by a strict code of ethics. For more information, visit LasVegasRealtor.com.