Las Vegas area sees rare January uptick for home prices

Sam Morris / Las Vegas Sun file

The median price of existing single-family Southern Nevada homes sold in January increased to $238,000, up 1.3 percent from December and up 8.7 percent from $219,000 in January 2016

It’s not often that local home prices rise in January, one of the slowest months of the year for the industry, but that’s what happened to kick off 2017, according to statistics provided by Greater Las Vegas Association of Realtors on Tuesday.

The median price of existing single-family homes sold in January through GLVAR’s Multiple Listing Service (MLS) increased to $238,000. That was up 1.3 percent from December and up 8.7 percent from $219,000 in January 2016.

The median price of condos and townhomes sold in January was $113,500, up slightly from December, but down 5.4 percent from January 2016.

“This is another example of the steady appreciation local homeowners have been enjoying over the past few years,” said GLVAR President David J. Tina, a longtime local Realtor who became GLVAR’s president on Jan. 1. “It’s good for our housing market and the economy when more homeowners are building equity in their homes.”

The median single-family home price in Southern Nevada two years ago was $200,000, Tina noted. “Now it’s up to $238,000. Historically, that’s a healthy rate of appreciation," he said. “Hopefully, these more gradual gains are more sustainable than the big price increases we saw right before and after the recession.”

The total number of existing local homes, condos and townhomes sold in January was 2,675, up from 2,348 in January 2016. Compared to one year ago, sales were up 14.1 percent for homes and up 13.2 percent for condos and townhomes.

According to GLVAR, a total of 41,720 such properties were sold in 2016. That was more than the 38,577 properties sold during 2015. It was also more than in 2014, but fewer than during each of the previous five years.

Tina attributed the continued rise in the number of sales to an improving Southern Nevada economy, prices that are still lower than in most parts of California and a local population that is growing by about 2 percent per year.

The tight local housing supply continues to be a concern for buyers, Tina said. There is less than a three-month supply of homes available for sale when a six-month supply is considered to be a balanced market, he said.

By the end of January, GLVAR reported 5,852 single-family homes listed for sale without an offer. That’s down 21.2 percent from one year ago. For condos and townhomes, the 811 properties listed without offers in January represented a 63.4 percent decrease from one year ago.

Real Estate

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