Las Vegas home values ‘still posting big increases’

Realtor Helen Riley and Fafie Moore, a Realty Executives owner/broker, leave a home being offered for sale in Henderson on Monday, April 8, 2013.

Las Vegas home prices kept rising last month even though the valley’s inventory shortage, a key reason for the market’s turnaround, showed signs of easing.

The median price of a previously owned single-family home sold in Southern Nevada in June was $175,000, up 33 percent from almost $132,000 a year earlier, according to a report out Tuesday from the Greater Las Vegas Association of Realtors.

Overall, inventory remains relatively tight. A total of 13,750 single-family homes were up for sale on the GLVAR’s listing service at the end of June, down 19 percent from a year earlier. However, more homes were available for sale without any kind of offer attached to them.

By the end of June, 3,828 single-family houses were listed without an offer, up 4 percent from a year earlier. There were 1,464 such condos and townhomes, up 35 percent from a year ago.

“When you compare existing local home prices to one year ago, we’re still posting big increases, at least for now,” GLVAR President Dave Tina said in the report. “I think local home prices could continue to appreciate in the coming months, but I think we’re going to see the rate of appreciation slow down at some point. It was also good to see a nice bump in the number of homes available for sale. We still need more homes on the market to meet the strong demand.”

Sales prices are climbing as investors gobble up cheap homes in bulk to use as rentals, shrinking the inventory of homes for sale. Practically every home listed for sale gets multiple offers.

As a result, Las Vegas home values are rising faster than any other major metro area.

The valley’s median home value in May was $146,400, up 28 percent from a year earlier, according to a recent report from Seattle-based Zillow. That was the highest year-to-year percentage jump among the 30 largest regions covered in the report.

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