For homebuyers, mortgage lending slowed more in Las Vegas than it did nationally in the final months of 2015 compared to a year earlier.
But for homeowners looking to refinance, borrowing picked up faster locally than it did nationwide.
A total of 6,298 home-purchase loans were doled out in the Las Vegas area in the fourth quarter last year, down 4 percent from the same period in 2014, according to RealtyTrac.
Nationally, roughly 601,600 home-purchase loans were issued in the fourth quarter, down 1 percent year-over-year.
At the same time, 5,618 refinancing loans were issued locally in the fourth quarter, up 5 percent. About 663,600 were issued nationally, up 2 percent.
Easy credit fueled the doomed housing bubble last decade, with some 26,000 home-purchase loans issued locally and more than 1.3 million nationally in just the third quarter of 2005, according to RealtyTrac data.
Such lending has recouped more of its post-bubble losses nationwide than it has in Las Vegas, whose once-pummeled housing market has improved from the depths of the recession but still grapples with high rates of underwater homeowners, foreclosures, vacant houses and shabby personal finances.
U.S. home-purchase loan totals are 54.5 percent below their 2005 peak, but in Las Vegas, lending volume is 76 percent below its peak.