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Can you afford to buy a home in Las Vegas right now?

Posted at 8:29 AM, Feb 07, 2019
and last updated 2019-02-07 11:54:03-05

LAS VEGAS — For the first time since September, the median home price in Las Vegas has reached 300,000 dollars. But how much do you need to make to be able to afford buying a home at that price?

With the current median home price of $300,000, Thomas Blanchard, president of the Greater Las Vegas Association of Realtors says, we are inching closer to an all time peak. Until hitting a plateau in recent months, local home prices had generally been going up since 2012.

"Sellers can sell their homes for more than what they paid for. And buyers have amounts of property to be able to purchase."

That's because we currently have a fourth month supply of homes in the market.... But if you're making as much as an average Las Vegas resident, would you be able to afford a 300,000 dollar home? Let's take a look at some numbers. We tried to make it as simple:

For that price, buyers trying to get an FHA loan would have put down at least $10,500.

According to the Las Vegas Global Economic Alliance, the average household income of a valley resident is close to $73,000. In an ideal situation, with a monthly take home income of close to $5,000 you can afford the monthly payments of over $2,100 a month for your new home -- leaving you with $2,900 to spend a month. But when you factor in your monthly expenses like utilities, groceries, travel, and other expenses, you're going to barely make ends meet.

This is a simplified explanation and does not put into consideration things like credit score which could have a huge impact on whether or not you can afford a home. Bottomline, "Regardless if you are someone who is able to buy a 200 thousand dollar home or a 500 thousand dollar home, it's just okay if you can afford it and if you can get lending for it," says Blanchard.

There are other factors that could impact your home buying capability -- if you're married, have more than one source of income, how much you're paying for childcare, school, etc.

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