Although home prices and sales are up from the same time last year, they are down from the month of December, according to the Greater Las Vegas Realtors Association.
GLVAR reports that the median price of existing single-family homes sold in Southern Nevada through its Multiple Listing Service (MLS) during January 2020 was $305,000. That was down 2.6% from December, but up 1.7% from January of 2019. Meanwhile, the median price of local condos and townhomes sold in January was $175,000. That was down 1.7% from December, but up 2.9% from January of 2019.
GLVAR President Tom Blanchard says that January is usually one of the slowest months for home sales and prices.
The median local home price came within a few thousand dollars of its all-time peak in December 2019. Blanchard says that he expects that price record to be broken in 2020.
The Las Vegas housing market was hit particularly hard during the recession. Most markets around the country have already surpassed their pre-recession records.
Before slowing down in the last year or so, local home prices had been soaring since early 2012, posting double-digit gains from year to year while climbing back from their post-recession low point. According to GLVAR, the median price of existing single-family homes sold in Southern Nevada peaked at $315,000 in June of 2006 before falling during the recession. Local home prices hit a post-recession bottom of $118,000 in January of 2012.
The total number of existing local homes, condos and townhomes sold during January was 2,875. Sales were down from December. But compared to the same time last year, January sales were up 25.2% for homes and up 22.8% for condos and townhomes.
There is currently a two-month supply of homes available for sale, with the supply shrinking from the previous month and year.
By the end of January, GLVAR reported 4,906 single-family homes listed for sale without any sort of offer. That’s down 32.4% from one year ago. For condos and townhomes, the 1,418 properties listed without offers in January represented a 16.7% drop from one year ago.
GLVAR reported that 24.3% of all local properties sold in January were purchased with cash. That compares to 24.9% one year ago. That’s well below the February 2013 peak of 59.5%, indicating that cash buyers and investors are still active in the local housing market, but are playing a much smaller role than they were during and just after the recession.
Meanwhile, the number of so-called distressed sales remains near historically low levels. GLVAR reported that short sales and foreclosures combined accounted for 2.7% of all existing local property sales in January. That compares to 2.8% of all sales one year ago, 4.3% two years ago and 11% three years ago.
