Home-price gains slow to more normal levels in Southern Nevada

Annual local home-price gains slowed to more traditional levels as the Las Vegas Valley’s home values held steady in April.

The median price of a single-family resale home in the month was $220,600, continuing a months-long streak of staying at roughly $220,000, according to the Greater Las Vegas Association of Realtors.

The year-to-year gain was 3.8 percent, or about half of the annual appreciation increases the market averaged in late 2015 and early 2016.

The median price of condominiums and townhomes rose 4.3 percent, to $119,900.

It’s an unusual stable stretch for a housing economy that’s used to dramatic upswings and downturns, said Scott Beaudry, the association’s president.

“I can’t remember a time when our housing market was so stable for so long,” Beaudry said. “As local home prices stay so consistent month after month, we’re now seeing smaller gains when compared to the same time last year. At the same time, our local housing supply is still very tight, but at least it didn’t get any tighter.”

The association’s Multiple Listing Service featured 13,799 homes in April, up 0.4 percent from April 2015.

At April’s sales pace of 3,518 closings, the market has less than three months of for-sale inventory. A balanced market has six months’ worth of listings.

Distressed sales continued to tumble in April.

Short sales, in which a bank lets a homeowner sell for less than he owes on the mortgage, made up 4.5 percent of local closings, down from 7.2 percent in the same period a year earlier. Another 7.1 percent of sales were bank-owned homes, compared with 8.3 percent in April 2015.

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