Las Vegas a leader in homes held by out-of-state investors, report shows

Las Vegas, once a magnet for bargain-hunting investors, has one of the biggest tallies of investment homes held by out-of-state owners, a new report shows.

An estimated 73,629, or 48 percent, of investor-owned, single-family homes in Clark County are held by people outside Nevada, according to a report out Monday by national housing tracker Attom Data Solutions.

That’s the second-highest tally in the country. Maricopa County, Arizona, which includes Phoenix, is No. 1 at 88,947.

Clark County’s share of out-of-state investors, meanwhile, is three times the national average of 16 percent.

The bulk of Nevada’s outside investors come from neighboring California. According to Attom, 91,659 single-family homes in Nevada are held by out-of-state investors, and Californians own 54,823 of those properties, or 60 percent.

After the real estate bubble burst last decade, and Las Vegas home values plunged, investors swooped in to buy cheap houses across the valley. They ended up pushing up prices at one of the fastest rates in the country, raising fears of another bubble.

Price growth, however, has cooled substantially the past few years amid an investor pullback.

Reflecting investors’ diminished appetite, buyers paid cash for about 25 percent of homes that sold in September in Southern Nevada, down from a peak of almost 60 percent in February 2013, according to the Greater Las Vegas Association of Realtors.