Las Vegas-area home sales surge, prices unmoved in March

This February 2016 photo shows a house for sale in the Las Vegas Valley.

Las Vegas used-house prices were largely flat in March, continuing a months-long stretch of mostly unchanged prices, amid a big jump in sales volume.

The median sales price of previously owned single-family homes in Southern Nevada last month was $220,000, down 0.2 percent from February but up 7.3 percent from a year earlier, according to a new report from the Greater Las Vegas Association of Realtors.

Buyers picked up 2,783 single-family homes in March, up 31.8 percent from February and 2.8 percent from March 2015, said the GLVAR, which reports data from its resale-heavy listing service.

Previously owned single-family homes comprise the bulk of Las Vegas’ market, and the median sales price of such properties has hovered around $220,000 since June, GLVAR data show.

Among other things, stalled prices can prevent homeowners from escaping upside-down status.

Some 21 percent of Las Vegas-area homeowners with mortgages are underwater, meaning their debt outweighs their home’s value. That’s down from a peak of 71 percent in early 2012 but still highest among large metro areas, according to listing service Zillow, reflecting how high values soared during the bubble, how badly they crashed and how far they remain from peak levels.

But after years of price swings and other volatility, industry pros say, the flat prices reflect a more normal and more stable market.

“The local housing market continues to be as stable as it has been in many years,” GLVAR President Scott Beaudry, owner of Universal Realty, said in a news release.

Real Estate

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