New home sales remain steady January-February

Homebuilding in the southwest and northwest valley has picked up so far in 2025 while Henderson has seen a slight slowdown as overall sales have remained steady from January to February, according to Las Vegas-based Home Builders Research.

The firm released its February sales numbers that showed 962 net sales last month, down 8 percent from the 1,042 in February 2024. The February number, however, is only 12 net sales fewer than January, the firm noted.

“While it is not the historical norm to report fewer net sales in February than January, we did see the same behavior in 2024 (1,063 versus 1,042),” said Home Builders Research President Andrew Smith.

The overall net sales total for 2025 sits at 1,936 after two months. The cancellation rate remained at 12 percent for the third straight month, Smith said.

Despite sales being down from the first two months of 2024, they are running ahead of the first two months of 2023 when there were 165 sales a week in January, and 219 a week in February. So far this year, there were 196 sales a week in January and 238 in February.

Even though headlines aren’t rosy for the housing market given concerns about the economy and elevated mortgage rates, Smith said weekly traffic per project at 14.6 in February is close to the averages over the past decade. The one sale per week average is also higher than the 0.8 average over the past decade, he said.

“We still expect an increase in higher density and attached products this year, which will help sales in the current market climate, Smith said.

Smith called it impressive that 16 new for-sale products — led by Lennar with 10 — opened in February and brought nearly 950 lots into the market.

Four of the 10 new Lennar communities were part of a portfolio the builder purchased from Harmony Homes. They’re named Arcadia, Heritage Square, Presley Place and Quail Crossings.

“Lennar did not purchase Harmony Homes as a company, but did acquire all of their remaining active communities,” Smith said. “These projects bolster Lennar’s portfolio of relatively lower-priced offerings as each of the four former Harmony projects currently have an average closing price between $320,000 and $410,000.”

Base asking prices continue to slowly shift higher, but Smith said there’s a slight increase in market share for the $300,000 range. That signifies an increase in the number of smaller, more affordable attached and detached products.

The median closing price for single-family homes in February was $560,000, a 9.8 percent year-over-year increase. Attached products at a $384,995 median price saw a 2.1 percent increase.

KB Home, Pinnacle Homes, Shawood, Summit Homes and Toll Brothers also debuted new communities in February, all but one of which are traditional single-family products, Smith said. Sekisui House Global, which owns Richmond American Homes and Woodside Homes, has unveiled its Shawood brand.

D.R, Horton was February’s top-selling builder with 151 net sales with Tribute Trails, a townhome community in the Skye Hills area of the northwest valley as its top seller.

The No. 1 selling community in February with 25 was Trilogy Sunstone in the northwest valley from Shea Homes. The nearly 1,000-lot, age-restricted, resort-style community has averaged more than 10 net sales per month since opening in October 2021 and is Shea Homes’ only active community in Southern Nevada, Smith said.

The northwest valley had 27 percent of the sales so far this year, up from 25 percent in 2024. The southwest valley had 28 percent of sales, up from 24 percent a year ago. Their increase came at the expense of Henderson, who saw sales go from 28 percent of the marketplace a year ago to 22 percent this year.

As forecast by the Southern Nevada Home Builders Association, building permits are down for the year. Permits fell 19% in February compared to February 2024. The 2025 total of 1,885 is a 14 percent year-to-year decrease from 2024 through February.

Citing Clark County data, Smith said 17.1 percent of new home closings in February were cash transactions, 3% higher than in January. Of those that were financed, the average loan amount was $455,738, down slightly month-to-month. The largest loan for a new home closing in February was $2.29 million by Midfirst Bank for a home in the Crestline community from Toll Brothers at Ascension in Summerlin, Smith said.