Nearly 14 years after the housing boom, Las Vegas home prices have finally set a new all-time high.
The trade group Las Vegas Realtors reported Friday that the median price of existing single-family homes sold in February was $316,000.
The price tops the previous record of $315,000 set in June 2006.
“We’ve been waiting for this milestone for a long time,” said 2020 LVR President Tom Blanchard, a local Realtor said in a statement. “While it’s interesting to talk about how we finally broke the record, it’s important to remember that it took us more than 13 years to get here. If you account for inflation, you could argue that home prices should actually be much higher than they are today.”
February prices of homes sold through its MLS (Multiple Listing Service) were also up 3.6 percent from January and up 6.7 percent from February 2019.
What’s behind the run-up in prices?
In the statement, Blanchard said the local housing supply continues to shrink to historically low levels. The current sales pace translates to less than a two-month supply of homes available for sale. A six-month supply is considered normal, he said.
“I think it’s now safe to say that we’re dealing with a housing shortage,” Blanchard said in the statement. “This is also true in other parts of the country, where people are staying in their homes longer and home building is simply not keeping up with demand, especially in growing areas like Southern Nevada.”
The trade group also reported that the median price of local condos and townhomes sold in February was $175,000, the same as January and up 6.1 percent from February 2019.
Some buyers are still paying in cash. In its statement, the trade group reported that 25.1 percent of all local properties sold in February were purchased with cash. That compares to 26.2 percent one year ago but well below the February 2013 peak of 59.5 percent.
