Greater Las Vegas Home Prices Hit Record High in August

The Las Vegas Realtor Association is reporting this week that local home prices setting another all-time record despite the coronavirus pandemic, though fewer homes sold in August than during the same time last year.

LVR (formerly known as the Greater Las Vegas Association of Realtors) reported that the median price of existing single-family homes sold in Southern Nevada during August was $335,000. That's up 9.8% from $305,000 during the same month last year.

Local condos and townhomes sold for a median price of $185,000 in August. Although that's down from the previous month, prices for existing local condos and townhomes were still up 4.5% from $177,000 in August of 2019.

"The Las Vegas housing market continues to defy expectations, though we're not sure how long this momentum will last as we continue to deal with this pandemic and accompanying economic downturn," said 2020 LVR President Tom Blanchard.

LVR reported a total of 3,594 existing local homes, condos and townhomes were sold during August. Compared to the same time last year, August sales were down 8.1% for homes and down 10.8% for condos and townhomes.

Blanchard said the local housing market continues to benefit from strong demand and historically low mortgage interest rates. It also helps that the local housing market was on solid footing when Nevada declared a state of emergency in March. At the time, local home sales were running ahead of last year's pace and existing local home prices had just surpassed their longstanding record of $315,000 set back in June of 2006.

According to LVR, the median price of existing single-family homes sold in Southern Nevada hit a post-recession bottom of $118,000 in January of 2012 before rebounding steadily since then.

Blanchard said the number of local homes available for sale remains well below the six-month supply considered to be a balanced market. In fact, he said the sales pace in August equates to less than a two-month supply of homes available for sale, creating a local housing shortage.

By the end of August, LVR reported 4,639 single-family homes listed for sale without any sort of offer. That's down 40.3% from one year ago. For condos and townhomes, the 1,544 properties listed without offers in August represented a 17.0% drop from one year ago.

LVR reported that 17.5% of all local properties sold in August were purchased with cash. That compares to 22.7% one year ago. That's well below the February 2013 peak of 59.5%, suggesting that cash buyers and investors have been less active in the local housing market.

Despite the coronavirus crisis, the number of so-called distressed sales in August remained near historically low levels. The association reported that short sales and foreclosures combined accounted for just 1.2% of all existing local property sales in August. That compares to 2.1% of all sales one year ago, 2.5% two years ago and 6.1% three years ago.

Blanchard expects distressed sales to remain low as long as state and federal moratoriums remain in place to prevent most evictions and certain foreclosures.

These LVR statistics include activity through the end of August 2020. LVR distributes statistics each month based on data collected through its MLS, which does not necessarily account for newly constructed homes sold by local builders or homes for sale by owners.

Other Southern Nevada highlights include:

• The total value of local real estate transactions tracked through the MLS during August was nearly $1.2 billion for homes and nearly $136 million for condos, high-rise condos and townhomes. Compared to one year ago, total sales values in August were up 6.2% for homes, but down 6.7% for condos and townhomes.

• In August, 77.2% of all existing local homes and 73.1% of all existing local condos and townhomes sold within 60 days. That compares to one year ago, when 74.6% of all existing local homes and 71.5% of all existing local condos and townhomes sold within 60 days.