Median Las Vegas home price ends 2015 at $217,000

The Las Vegas housing market ended 2015 on a solid note, with stable appreciation and a healthy gain in home sales, according to a new report.

The median price of a single-family resale home rose 6.4 percent year over year in December, capping the year at $217,000, the Greater Las Vegas Association of Realtors said Wednesday.

Also, local home sales jumped 7.7 percent in the year, totaling 38,578 closings.

Association representatives called 2015 the steadiest year for local housing in at least 10 years.

"I think 2015 will be remembered as the year the local housing market stabilized after the roller-coaster ride we had been on during the past decade or so," GLVAR president Scott Beaudry said. "I think most people prefer the more steady and more predictable housing market we had last year."

Beaudry said he expects "more of the same" appreciation in prices and sales in 2016, but "hopefully with an increase in our inventory" of homes for sale. The local market had a three-month supply of homes for sale at the end of 2015. A six-month supply is considered a balanced market.

Distressed sales continued to slump. Short sales, in which a bank allows a homeowner to sell for less than what's owed on the mortgage, fell to 6.8 percent of the market in December, down from 10 percent a year earlier. Another 6.9 percent of sales were bank-owned, down from 8 percent a year ago.

— Contact Jennifer Robison at jrobison@reviewjournal.com. Follow her on Twitter: @_JRobison