The Las Vegas housing market continues to ride a wave of stability as the median price for an existing single-family home in Southern Nevada last month was just under $313,000.
That represents a 6% jump from December 2018 and a rise from about $307,000 in November of last year.
The all-time high for Las Vegas was $315,000 in June 2006, just before the recession that eventually led to area home prices bottoming out at $112,000 in 2012.
“As we begin a new year and a new decade, I think you can sum up the state of the local housing market with two words — stable and sustainable,” said Tom Blanchard, president of the Greater Las Vegas Association of Realtors. “We ended last year with a fairly strong month of December, which is usually one of our slowest months.”
The median price for a condo or townhome sold in Southern Nevada last month was $178,000, which was up almost 9% from December 2018.
While home values have been holding steady or increasing, fewer units have been selling.
For all of 2019, just under 41,300 local properties sold, which represented a decrease of about 9% from 2017. In 2018, just under 42,900 units sold.
“We sold fewer homes in 2019 than we did in past years,” Blanchard said. “I think the tight local housing supply we’ve been dealing with had something to do with that. No, it wasn’t a stellar year, but we’ve had much worse.”
The local housing inventory, according to the association, finished the year with “well-below” the six-month supply generally considered to represent a balanced market.
At the end of December, the association reported that about 5,500 single-family homes were listed for sale without any type of offer. That was down 16% from the same month in 2018.
While Blanchard said he’s certainly keeping an eye on what’s happening as far as political unrest in the Middle East and possible changes during a presidential election year, he sees calm waters ahead for the Las Vegas market.
“Those types of things would affect the stock market more, but that could carry over into the housing market,” Blanchard said. “While anything is possible, I just don’t see it happening. For those worrying about a possible downturn in the market, it’s just not there right now.”
Founded in 1947, the association serves more than 14,000 area real estate agents.