The median price for an existing home in Southern Nevada is as close to $400,000 as it’s ever been, according to a report released Tuesday.
Reaching a new all-time high, the median price shot to $385,000 in May, according to the report from the Las Vegas Realtors trade group.
That tops the previous high, which was $375,000 in April. As recently as February, the median price for a home in the Las Vegas Valley was $355,000, according to the trade group.
“It remains to be seen how much higher these prices can go in the coming months,” said Aldo Martinez, president of the trade group, in a release. “We’re reaching a point where more first-time and entry-level buyers are being priced out of the market.”
The May figure is up 22% from the same month in 2020, although the market was stunted at that time because of the coronavirus pandemic.
The median price for a local condominium or townhome was $205,000 in May, up 11% from the same month last year.
In what remains one of the tightest housing markets the area has ever seen, homes have continued to sell quickly.
Last month, 93% of all local single-family homes and 90% of all condos and townhomes sold within 60 days of being listed. That’s an 8% increase from May 2020 for homes and a 5% increase for condos and townhomes.
There remains, according to Las Vegas Realtors, less than a one-month supply of homes on the market. A balanced market is generally seen as being in the six-month range.
It all adds up to what Martinez continues to refer as a rare opportunity for sellers and a challenging environment for buyers.
Despite those challenges, Martinez called for would-be buyers to be patient. He noted that an increasing percentage of homes with multiple offers — something that is much more common now than in recent years — end up going back on the market to be awarded to the next bidder in line.
The Las Vegas housing market bottomed in 2012 after the Great Recession, when the median price for a home dipped to $118,000, less than one-third of what homes are selling for today.
The Las Vegas Realtors group, formerly known as the Greater Las Vegas Association of Realtors, was founded in 1947.