Amid slumping confidence nationally, Las Vegas has moved up a list measuring faith in the housing industry, as more renters plan to buy in the next year and more owners feel that a decade from now, local homes will be worth more.
The valley ranked No. 9 in the Zillow Housing Confidence Index as of July, compared to No. 13 in January, according to a report out Wednesday by Seattle-based Zillow. Twenty of the largest metro areas were included in the listing service’s index.
San Jose, Calif., the heart of Silicon Valley — whose housing market has been booming alongside the Bay Area’s tech industry — was No. 1 both months. St. Louis ranked last both months, as well.
Some 12 percent of Las Vegas renters surveyed say they plan to buy a home in the next year, compared to 9 percent in January, and 66 percent of homeowners believe local properties will have climbed in value a decade from now, up from 59 percent in January, Zillow said.
Meanwhile, 64 percent of respondents said it’s a good time to buy, down from 66 percent earlier this year, and 57 percent said it’s a good time to sell, up from 46 percent.
The findings come amid slower price growth and as Las Vegas — ground zero for the boom and bust last decade — grapples with housing woes that, while still among the worst in the nation, have eased the past few years.
Zillow said 10,000 renters and homeowners nationally were surveyed for the report.
Across the country, a smaller share of renters plan to buy in the next year — 11.4 percent compared to 12.1 percent earlier this year — and 59 percent of respondents said new homeowners will be better off in 10 years, down from 61 percent, the company said.
“The housing market is slowing down, and Americans’ confidence in the future of the market is understandably fading a bit, too,” Zillow chief economist Svenja Gudell said in the report.
People still are “quite confident overall,” Gudell said, but “stronger-than-normal” price growth in places like San Francisco and Seattle “might remind them of the last housing bubble.”
Still, “the good news is things are leveling off with no crash in sight,” she said. “If incomes rise to keep up with home values — and that’s a big if — people can count on homeownership in their future, even in hot markets.”
In Southern Nevada, the median sales price of single-family homes last month was $220,000, up 10 percent from August 2014, according to the Greater Las Vegas Association of Realtors.
Prices soared much faster a few years ago, thanks to investors’ voracious appetite for cheap homes after the bubble burst. In August 2013, the median sales price of single-family homes was $182,000, up 32 percent year-over-year, according to the GLVAR, which mostly tracks previously owned homes.
Meanwhile, 25 percent of Southern Nevada homeowners are underwater, meaning their mortgage debt outweighs their home value. That’s far below Las Vegas’ peak of 71 percent in early 2012 but still highest among the 35 largest U.S. metro areas, according to Zillow.