Las Vegas homebuilders are selling more houses and drawing up more construction plans compared to last year, but in some ways, sales volume has downshifted, a new report shows.
Builders closed 668 new-home sales in Clark County last month. That brought the year’s tally to 1,533, up 9.3 percent from the same three-month period in 2015, according to Home Builders Research.
Sales prices, however, are flat. The median closing price in March was $312,509, up $305, or less than 1 percent, year-over-year.
Builders also pulled 791 new-home permits last month, bringing the year’s sum to 2,049, up 10.8 percent from the first quarter of 2015.
Home Builders Research founder Dennis Smith said in the report that the rise in permits was “very good news” for the homebuilding industry. But, he noted, net sales per subdivision has slowed.
According to Smith, builders typically sold 0.7 to 0.8 homes per subdivision weekly in the first quarter, compared to an average of 0.8 to 0.9 in the same period last year.
Builders reported data for about 230 subdivisions in the first quarter this year, up from about 180 to 185 a year earlier.
Weekly sales totals have “not yet caught up” with the number of available new homes, Smith wrote.
“Hopefully this changes before the end of the spring selling season,” he said.
He also said new-home prices may have “reached a point of more consumer resistance” amid the market’s shift to pricier houses.
Last year, 33 percent of new homes sold in the $300,000 range, up from 22 percent in 2013; 13 percent sold in the $400,000 range, up from 8 percent in 2013; and 10 percent sold in the $500,000 to $750,000 range, up from 4 percent two years earlier.
At the same time, 39 percent of new homes sold in the $200,000 range last year, down from 47 percent in 2013, and 2 percent sold for less than $200,000, down from 18 percent in 2013.
All told, builders sold about 6,800 new homes in Clark County last year. That was up from 6,000 in 2014 but down from 7,300 in 2013, according to Home Builders Research.
Affordability, according to Smith, is becoming “the primary issue keeping sales from reaching the next level.”