Las Vegas home prices inched lower as buyers face affordability hurdles

U.S. home prices inched up in October from a year earlier as markets settled into a “much slower gear,” including in Las Vegas, a new report shows.

Southern Nevada home prices in October slipped 0.67 percent from a year earlier, while prices nationally rose 1.36 percent during that time, according to the S&P Cotality Case-Shiller index.

Overall, the figures show the housing market “settling into a much slower gear,” as the nationwide price gain was among the “weakest performances” since mid-2023, according to Nicholas Godec, head of fixed income tradables and commodities at S&P Dow Jones Indices.

Godec said in the report that market headwinds “appear more entrenched.”

He cited elevated mortgage rates and inflation that keeps outpacing home-price gains, adding these factors have “intensified affordability pressures.”

In Southern Nevada, home sales have been tumbling as high prices and borrowing costs make it difficult for many would-be buyers to afford a purchase.

Personal-finance site Bankrate recently found that most homes on the market in Las Vegas were out of reach to the typical buyer, and UNLV’s Lied Center for Real Estate reported in September that Las Vegas’ housing market was “largely unaffordable for much of the local population.”

Buyers picked up 1,538 previously owned single-family homes in Southern Nevada in November, down 6.6 percent from the same month a year earlier, according to trade association Las Vegas Realtors.

The median sales price in November was an all-time high of $488,995, up nearly 2 percent year-over-year, the group reported.

On the construction side, builders closed 716 home sales locally in November, down 31 percent from the same month the prior year, according to Las Vegas-based Home Builders Research.

The median sales price, $533,832, was up 3.3 percent year-over-year.

Overall, builders closed around 9,100 home sales last year through November, down 20 percent from the same 11-month stretch the prior year, the firm reported.

Asad Khan, senior economist with listing site Redfin, said in a recent report that housing nationally was “likely to remain in buyer’s market territory for the foreseeable future, with sellers cutting prices or offering concessions to lure buyers.”

Listing site Zillow recently predicted that home values nationally would rise 1.7 percent in 2026 “amid soft demand and accumulating inventory.”

Las Vegas Realtors President George Kypreos said in a news release last month that sales totals were down, that more homes were available for purchase, and that mortgage rates recently dipped.

“All of this benefits people who are prepared and can afford to buy,” he said.

Contact Eli Segall at esegall@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0342.