Click image for enlargement. Graphic by Mike Johnson.

A major real estate trade group has once again ranked Las Vegas among the nation's best markets for housing appreciation, but local housing analysts say the city's blistering price increases have slowed this year and won't match appreciation rates in 2004.

Statistics released Thursday by the National Association of Realtors showed that the median home price in the Las Vegas Valley rose to $291,000 in the first quarter, an increase of 29.4 percent when compared with a median price of $266,400 in the same quarter a year ago. That performance garnered the valley the No. 6 spot on the association's 136-city list of appreciation rates.

"What's driving appreciation is the growth of the city," said Lee Barrett, past president of the Greater Las Vegas Association of Realtors and broker-owner of Century 21 Barrett & Co. "Las Vegas doubles in size every 10 years, and the market's performance is a combination of that population growth and the fact that we became an area where investors saw good opportunities in our community."

Nationally, the median home price was $188,800 at the first quarter's end, the Realtors' association said.

Four Florida cities and California's Riverside-San Bernardino market all posted bigger appreciation gains than Las Vegas. Las Vegas' rank is lower than in recent quarters; the city ranked No. 2 in appreciation, with a median price increase of 31.3 percent, in the first quarter of 2004. In the third quarter, Las Vegas placed No. 1 in the nation, with an appreciation rate of 53.7 percent.

The latest rankings also show that the big appreciation increases Las Vegans are accustomed to have spread to other markets. A record 66 cities experienced double-digit increases in housing prices in the first quarter.

Dennis Smith, president of local consulting company Home Builders Research, attributed the nationwide price increases to foreign investors, who took advantage of the weakening dollar and low interest rates to scoop up relatively affordable American properties in large numbers. Especially popular with such buyers are properties in states with substantial coastlines, such as Florida and California, Smith said.

Smith said a different kind of investor is already reshaping the Las Vegas market.

Investors from California and other regional areas are placing local properties on the market at a brisk pace, and Smith said that's bringing appreciation rates "back to normal levels."

The Greater Las Vegas Association of Realtors had 14,830 single-family homes listed in April, up 71.4 percent from April 2004. The association also had 2,676 condominium and townhouse units listed last month, up 53.2 percent from the same month a year ago.

As a result of that supply glut, Smith said, existing homes "have seen very little price increase" since the beginning of the year. New-home prices have risen between 4 percent and 6 percent since January, he added.

Smith said he expected appreciation rates to bounce back to around 8 percent to 10 percent a year once resale inventory drops.

Barrett said he expected inventory to remain high for the foreseeable future.

"We saw listings increase around June, and we've pretty well maintained that," Barrett said. "We have a lot of people who are interested in getting the most value from their house and moving up to something nicer."

Rita Trujillo, a broker-saleswoman with Coldwell Banker Premier Realty in Las Vegas, agreed the market has stabilized, but said business remains strong.

"It is taking a little bit longer to sell some of our product, but at the same time, I think the market is just trying to get back to normal," Trujillo said. "I don't find it an issue, but I do need to counsel my clients and tell them we're returning to the number of days on the market that we had before the market soared."

Numbers from the local Realtors' association show that 45.1 percent of resales sold in April had been on the market for less than a month. In April 2004, 77.3 percent of existing homes sold had been on the market for less than a month.

Smith isn't sorry to see that next year's National Association of Realtors statistics will show a tamer appreciation rate in Las Vegas.

"If people in this town want the housing market to last a long time, then they should want to see the market return to normal," he said. "If they want a short-lived market, then they'll want to see artificially high ceilings. Those artificial highs are only spikes, they're not overall trends. The good thing is, our market isn't going down. We should be happy with what we have."