A sluggish year for Las Vegas homebuilders isn’t expected to pick up anytime soon, a new report says.
Local builders sold 605 new homes last month, bringing the year’s total to 4,338, down 23 percent from the same period last year, according to Las Vegas-based Home Builders Research.
The median sales price last month was $299,601, up 11 percent from a year earlier.
Builders also pulled 527 permits in September, putting the year’s tally at 5,233, down 5.6 percent from the same period in 2013.
Home Builders Research President Dennis Smith attributed the slide to processing delays, saying it now takes 10 to 12 months to process subdivision plans with Clark County, up from the usual six months.
The delays have led to about 500 permits being pushed back to 2015, according to Smith.
In his report, Smith said much of the data he tracks “still indicate a decent level of consumer demand,” but there are also many lingering problems that suggest the market will be flat at best.
As Smith sees it, it’s almost guaranteed that “sales activity for the next six to eight months will not be too exciting.”
New-home sales, after coming back to life in 2013 and 2012 from the depths of the recession, have plunged this year as would-be buyers, saddled with credit woes, flat wages and sticker shock, can’t pay higher listing prices.
According to Smith, prices are likely to climb even higher, as most new subdivisions have bigger, more expensive homes. Builders say they would build more-affordable houses if more land were available and if it cost less for them to buy, Smith wrote.
This problem, however, is compounded by an issue that doesn’t get talked about much — that Las Vegas’ median household income remains 25 percent below the peak of the housing boom, Smith wrote, citing federal data.
“Therefore, it’s not only a supply issue, but also an affordability issue,” he wrote. “This ‘monster’ is getting larger each month.”