Las Vegas Homes
From 2003 to 2005, the Las Vegas housing market experienced an unprecedented escalation in single-family home prices spurred on by very attractive interest rates which sparked an invasion of speculators from other states, particularly California who began a frenzy of buying low and selling high, which is otherwise known as "flipping." Many of these homes were often bought and sold within days at vastly inflated prices. The result of all of this activity was to drive the price of an average pre-owned home above the reach of many prospective home owners.
The onset of 2006 saw the beginnings of what has now become a so-called housing market price "correction" or normalization of home prices which began with the Fed's upward pressure on interest rates to curb a feared economic inflationary trend. As a result, real estate sales of new and pre-owned dipped quickly, and as inventories of available properties began to grow the housing market soon changed from a strong buyers market to an equally strong sellers market, where it, for the most part, remains today.
Forecasting the southern Nevada housing market for 2007 is difficult at this early stage in the new year. Opinions range from predictions that the market in Southern Nevada will continue to cool for the rest of the year, or at least until the last quarter, depending of course, on housing trends as the market continues to adjust.
According to information gathered by the Greater Las Vegas Association of Realtors (GLVAR), there was a 36.6 percent decline in sales for December, 2006, as compared to the same time the previous year. The Median sales price for a pre-owned single-family home at the close of 2006, was $195,000, a $4,950 decline from the previous month, (November).
It is expected that the current market adjustment and oversupply of new and pre-owned housing that existed in the latter part of 2006 will continue through much of the current year, predicts Keith Schwer, Director of the University Center for Business and Economic Development. In order for the Las Vegas housing market to stabilize, he said, existing inventories of single family homes must be reduced.
However, many remain optimistic that the continuous flow of new arrivals into Southern Nevada will create a new and greater demand for housing that will outpace the existing supply. Once surplus inventories evaporate sellers of new and existing homes will once again be in a position to capitalize on a changing marketplace.
When one looks at the Las Vegas housing market another fact need to be considered. New developments are springing up in outlying areas that can arguably be considered part of the Las Vegas market. Furthermore, high-rise, mid-rise and loft projects still under construction and scheduled for completion at the end of 2007, or early 2008 have already been 90 percent sold, but these sales figures will not be officially recorded until the buildings are completed.
Las Vegas remains a strategic location in the Southwestern U.S., and with land values at record highs and the availability of raw land evaporating developers will no doubt look for maximum density per site and thusly continue the growth that has made Las Vegas one of the world's most dynamic cities.
