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January 2021 Las Vegas Real Estate Market Update

What’s Happening in the Las Vegas Real Estate Market?

The 2020 housing market finished extremely strong. Total residential resales kept pace with 2019 and the median sales for single-family homes rose 10.2%.

Read or watch for the full January 2021 Las Vegas Real Estate Market Update. All data from LVR December 2020.

Median Home Prices

The median sales price of single-family homes was $345,000. This is the same as the previous month, and up 10.2% from 2019.

The median sales price for condos and townhomes has been fluctuating up and down $10,000 for the past few months, and closed out 2020 at $186,000. This was down 6.9% from the previous month, but up 4.5% from the same time last year.

What to expect in 2021? Continued, but hopefully more stable, appreciation. Double-digit appreciation is exciting if you’re a homeowner looking to sell in the next few years, but it isn’t sustainable or healthy.

Units Sold

Sales usually slow down during the winter months, but we are seeing consistent demand. In fact, December sales were busy enough to catch the resale market up to 2019’s total sales.

There were 3,305 single-family homes sold in December. This was up 8.9% from the previous month and up a whopping 26.7% from the same time last year!

792 townhomes and condos closed last month. This was up 9.1% from the previous month and up 30.9% from the same time last year.

Overall, the luxury market stood out among the rest. There were over 200 more sales over 1 million in Las Vegas in 2020 than in 2019. This was bolstered in large part by an influx of residents from out of state, particularly California. Many of these buyers are purchasing in MacDonald Highlands, Lake Las Vegas, and The Ridges in Summerlin.

The high-rise market has been the worst hit by the pandemic. Total 2019 sales were the lowest in over 10 years.

In 2021, we expect demand to remain high. The pandemic has encouraged many people to rethink their living situations. In addition, many people are now able to work from home full-time or are relocating their businesses. Nevada is seeing a huge influx of residents from California and other states, and we expect this trend to continue throughout 2021.

Inventory

We’re seeing inventory continue to shrink every single month as new listings aren’t keeping up with demand. There were 3,240 single-family homes available for sale last month. This is down 13.7% from the previous month and down 41.5% from last year!

Similarly, there were 1,153 condos and townhomes available for sale. This is down 10.5% from last month and down 25.9% from the same time last year.

New listings were up from 2019, but still not enough to keep up with demand.

Our hope for 2021 is that as homeowners are vaccinated, they feel more comfortable listing their homes, resulting in more inventory.

Overall, the single-family resale market finished 2019 with 1 month of inventory. Condos and townhomes had 1.5 months. Both these markets heavily favor the seller. A balanced market is seen as having 6 months of inventory.

Final Thoughts on the State of the Real Estate Market

Those waiting for the next real estate crash might be waiting a while. Many economists think 2019’s short-lived recession may have served as the housing market’s standard 7-10 year adjustment. This means we are likely to be headed towards a few years of steady growth.

Unlike in the early 2000s, buyers are extremely well qualified. This point cannot be emphasized enough. Prior to the 2008 crash, buyers were given loans they never would have been able to pay. Lenders have tightened up standards since then and tightened them up even more since COVID.

In fact, distressed sales (short-sales and bank-owned) only made up 0.9% of last month’s sales…an extremely low figure. While no one quite knows what will happen when mortgage forbearance ends, we believe that the high demand will easily absorb these homes without strain on the market. It’s important to note as well that we don’t know how many homeowners in forbearance have done so out of necessity or simply out of an abundance of caution. Time will tell.

One last important thing to note is low-interest rates. Experts across the board predict interest rates to remain at or below 3% for the majority of 2021. These low-interest rates strongly encourage buyers. Their increased buying power has a large impact on home price appreciation.

Thanks for reading! Thinking of buying, selling, or just have questions? Click SCHEDULE YOUR FREE CONSULTATION in the upper right-hand corner of your screen.

All data is December 2020 numbers, supplied by the Las Vegas Realtors. Deemed reliable but not guaranteed.

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