Home prices rising, housing supply shrinking

A recent Las Vegas Realtors report showed the local housing supply continuing to shrink, while fewer homes are selling and prices are higher than the same time last year.

LVR reported the median price of existing single-family homes sold in Southern Nevada through its Multiple Listing Service during November was $450,000. That’s up 4.4 percent from $430,990 in November of 2022. Local home prices are still below the record of $482,000 set in May 2022.

Meanwhile, the median price of local condos and town homes sold in November was $275,000, up 5.8 percent from $260,000 in November 2022. That’s still down from the all-time high of $287,000 set in August.

LVR President Lee Barrett, a longtime local Realtor, said a tight housing supply and increased mortgage interest rates have been altering seasonal trends this year.

“Interest rates are higher now than in past years and our housing supply is about as low as it gets,” Barrett said. “These factors seem to be propping up home prices and slowing down home sales.”

By the end of November, LVR reported 4,353 single-family homes listed for sale without any offer. That’s down 40.7 percent from the same time last year. Likewise, the 1,261 condos and town homes listed without offers in November represent a 22.8 percent decline from one year earlier.

LVR reported a total of 1,894 existing local homes, condos and town homes sold in November. Compared to November 2022, sales were down 5.7 percent for homes and down 0.6 percent for condos and town homes.

The sales pace in November equates to just under a three-month supply of properties available for sale. Last year at this time, Southern Nevada had more than a four-month housing supply.

Fewer homes have been selling this year than during 2022, when LVR reported 35,584 total sales. That followed a record year for existing local home sales in 2021, when LVR reported 50,010 homes, condos, town homes and other residential properties were sold. That was the first time LVR reported more than 50,000 local properties selling in a year. It topped the previous record set in 2011 by nearly 2,000 sales.

During November, LVR found that 29.8 percent of all local property sales were cash transactions. That’s up from 28.8 percent one year ago. That’s still well below the May 2013 cash buyer peak of 59.5 percent, suggesting that investors have been less active in the local housing market.

The number of so-called distressed sales remains near historically low levels. LVR reported that short sales and foreclosures combined accounted for 1.1 percent of all existing local property sales in November. That compares to 0.5 percent one year ago, 0.6 percent two years ago, 0.8 percent three years ago, 2 percent four years ago and 2.6 percent five years ago.

These LVR statistics include activity through the end of November 2023. LVR distributes statistics each month based on data collected through its MLS, which does not account for all newly constructed homes sold by local builders or homes for sale by owners. Other highlights include:

■ The total value of local real estate transactions tracked through the MLS during November was more than $835 million for homes and more than $133 million for condos, high-rise condos and town homes. Compared to one year earlier, total sales values in November were up 3.8 percent for homes and up 6 percent for condos and town homes.

■ In November, 83 percent of all existing local homes and 88.2 percent of all existing local condos and town homes sold within 60 days. That compares to one year earlier, when 73.6 percent of all homes and 76.4 percent of all condos and town homes sold within 60 days.

Las Vegas Realtors (formerly known as Greater Las Vegas Association of Realtors) was founded in 1947 and provides its nearly 17,000 local members with education, training and political representation. The local representative of the National Association of Realtors, LVR is the largest professional organization in Southern Nevada. For more information, visit LasVegasRealtor.com.