Las Vegas home market endures sluggish month

Home on 8228 Mt. Nido Drive.

Las Vegas’ housing market started the year with mixed results, as prices were up from a year ago but sales totals dropped.

The median sales price of single-family homes in Southern Nevada last month was $200,000, down 2 percent from December but up 8 percent from a year ago, according to a new report from the Greater Las Vegas Association of Realtors.

Owners sold 1,794 single-family homes last month, down 19 percent from December and 13 percent from a year ago.

The GLVAR’s report is based on sales through its listing service, which largely comprises previously owned homes.

GLVAR President Keith Lynam said January is normally slow for the housing market, so the sluggish numbers were “no surprise.”

“What’s more relevant to us is how we’re doing compared to the same time a year ago,” he said in the report. “Compared to last year, home prices are still rising, just at a more gradual pace than they did in the past few years.”

After the economy crashed, Las Vegas housing prices rebounded at one of the fastest rates nationally, raising fears of another bubble as investors gobbled up low-priced homes to turn into rentals.

But with investors now backing out, price-growth has cooled considerably.

Prices soared 57 percent in two years after bottoming out, rising from a median of $118,000 in January 2012 to $185,000 in January 2014 for single-family homes, according to the GLVAR.

Meanwhile, the number of houses without offers remains high — 7,382 by the end of January, down 5 percent from December but up 13 percent from a year ago.

Listings increasingly are being ignored as investors pull back and as homeowners, emboldened by the rebound, overprice and get ignored by the shrinking number of buyers, real estate agents have said.

Real Estate

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