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Southern Nevada Home Prices Rebound in May

Local home prices rebounded in Southern Nevada in May despite slight decreases from March to April, according to statistics [1] released by the Greater Las Vegas Association of Realtors [2] (GLVAR). The GLVAR reported that the median price of existing single-family homes in the area was up 1.6 percent from April to $195,000.

May's median home price was up 14.7 percent from the $170,000 figure posted in May 2013. Existing-home prices are still well below their June 2006 peak of $315,000, and bottomed out at a median price of $118,000 in January 2012 before rising for a record 19 months to September 2013, after which prices began moderating.

"It's good to see this kind of appreciation in our local home prices. Going forward, I think we'll see prices continue to stabilize. Expect to see smaller percentages when we look at how much prices have increased year over year," said GLVAR president Heidi Kasama. "We'd still like to see more inventory in our housing market, but at least we sold more homes in May than we did the previous month."

Despite the increase, Kasama noted that local home sales so far in 2014 are roughly 14 percent behind last year's pace. Inventory also remains a problem, with less than a three-month supply of homes available. However, the market is improving—albeit slowly. Compared to one year ago, Southern Nevada has more than twice as many available homes for sale without pending or contingent offers.

The group noted that short sales also were down for the month. "In May, 7.9 percent of all existing local home sales were short sales, down substantially from 12.4 in April. Another 9.1 percent of all May sales were bank-owned properties, down from 11.4 in April," GLVAR said.

REO properties in May also experienced an increase in price, jumping to $165,000 in May from $159,000 in April. Short sales, however, declined slightly to $160,000 for the month, a $5,000 decrease from April's price.