Las Vegas Region April Home Sales
The median price paid for a Las Vegas-area home dipped month-to-month in April for the first time since January, while the median’s year-over-year gain was the lowest in 21 months. Home sales were the lowest for an April in six years, the result of buyers’ struggles with inventory, affordability and credit challenges, as well as a nearly four-year low in the share of homes bought by investors, a real estate information service reported.
In April, 4,075 new and resale houses and condos closed escrow in the Las Vegas-Paradise metro area (Clark County). That was up 4.5 percent from the month before and down 17.2 percent from a year earlier, according to San Diego-based DataQuick. The firm, which is now owned by Irvine-based property information company CoreLogic, tracks real estate trends nationally via public property records.
On average, sales between March and April have declined 1.1 percent since 1994, when DataQuick's complete Las Vegas-area statistics begin. Sales have fallen on a year-over-year basis for seven consecutive months.
April home sales were the lowest for that month since April 2008, when 3,266 homes sold, and they were 12.2 percent below the average number sold during all months of April since 1994. However, resales of houses and condos combined were 9.9 percent above average for the month of April, while sales of newly built homes were 62.6 percent below the April average. April condo resales were 19.5 percent higher than the April average, while resales of detached houses were 7.6 percent above average.
In recent months home sales have been constrained by higher prices and mortgage rates compared with this time last year, as well as credit challenges and a tight supply of homes for sale, especially in the lower price ranges. Some owners still can’t afford to sell their homes because they owe more than the homes are worth. Also, foreclosures are way down, further limiting the supply of homes for sale.
Las Vegas region buyers paid a median $181,500 for all new and resale houses and condos purchased in April, down 1.9 percent from $185,000 in March and up 13.4 percent from $160,000 a year earlier. March’s median was the highest since November 2008, when it was $190,000. The last time the median dropped month-to-month was in January this year, when the $177,300 median fell 1.6 percent from December’s $180,150.
The median sale price’s year-over-year gains over the past 25 consecutive months have ranged from 1.7 percent to 35.3 percent. Last month’s 13.4 percent year-over-year increase was the lowest since the median increased 12.1 percent year-over-year in July 2012. The median’s annual increases have been double-digit for the past 22 months.
April’s median was 41.8 percent below the region’s peak $312,000 median in November 2006.
The run-up in home prices over the last year varies somewhat depending on price segment. In April, the lowest-cost third of the region’s housing stock saw a 24.0 percent year-over-year gain in the median price paid per square foot for resale single-family detached houses. The annual increase was 16.9 percent for the market’s middle third and 16.0 percent for the top, most-expensive third.
DataQuick monitors real estate activity nationwide and provides information to consumers, educational institutions, public agencies, lending institutions, title companies and industry analysts.
In April, sales of homes priced below $100,000 dropped 41.4 percent compared with a year earlier, the result of both higher prices this year as well as the tight supply of lower-cost homes on the market. Sub-$200,000 transactions fell 27.0 percent year-over-year. Meanwhile, the number of homes that sold for $200,000 or more rose 2.6 percent year-over-year. April sales of homes priced from $200,000 to $500,000 – a range that would include many move-up purchases – increased 5.0 percent from a year earlier, while the number selling for $500,000 or more fell 16.1 percent.
Investors' influence on the Las Vegas housing market continued to decline last month. Absentee buyers, which include investors and some vacation-home buyers, purchased 39.9 percent of the homes sold in April, down from 40.1 percent the month before and down from 48.2 percent a year earlier. Last month the absentee buyer share of total sales was the lowest since it was 37.5 percent in June 2010. The monthly average for the absentee buyer share since January 2000 is 35.4 percent, while the peak was 51.2 percent in March 2012.
Buyers based outside of Nevada purchased 22.4 percent of all homes sold in the Las Vegas region in April, compared with 31.8 percent a year earlier. California-based buyers accounted for 10.6 percent of April sales, while Arizona-based buyers bought 2.5 percent and buyers from 43 other states collectively purchased 7.8 percent. Buyers with a foreign mailing address accounted for about 1.5 percent of all April sales. (Note: Some foreign buyers use a U.S. mailing address in public records, hence not all sales to foreign buyers can be tracked this way.)
In April, 100 Las Vegas-area buyers purchased at least two homes on the open market (excludes public foreclosure auctions on the courthouse steps). That was down from 183 multi-home buyers during April 2013, based on an analysis of buyer names in the public record. (Note: In some cases individuals and partnerships buy under different names). In April this year, buyers of two or more homes purchased a total of 400 homes in the Las Vegas area, which amounts to nearly 10 percent of all homes sold last month and represents a roughly 52 percent decline from the number of properties that multi-home buyers purchased in April last year. There were 15 buyers in April 2014 that each purchased five or more homes, but only six bought 10 or more. Combined, the six buyers who purchased 10 or more homes in April 2014 acquired 154 properties, or nearly 39 percent of all homes bought by multi-home buyers.
To view additional Las Vegas region April highlights, visit DQNews.com.
Media calls: Andrew LePage (916) 456-7157
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