Las Vegas Market Update May 2022

The Las Vegas real estate market continues strong. The median price in April was $390,000, up $11,000 from March and up $70,000 from April 2021. The number of sales dropped slightly; 6271 in April versus 6879 in March, but are down significantly from the 7096 homes that sold in April 2021. The number of active listings remain fairly constant between March and April 2022 as well as from April 2021. In short, inventory remains tight and demand high as is evidenced by the fact that the median price has shown a fairly steady upward trending since mid-2020 and shows no sign of slowing down in the immediate future. This despite the fact that interest rates are increasing along with prices. However, a good portion of home buyers in the Las Vegas area are cash buyers for whom interest rates don’t matter.

On the subject of interest rates; it is indeed true that as interest rates increase, borrowers find themselves qualifying for less money with which to buy a home. This is one reason that folks seriously contemplating home buying might want to lock in their interest rate now rather than wait and take a very real chance of rates increasing even further. However, if we look at mortgage rates over the past few decades rather than the past few years, current rates are still a bargain… as long as one doesn’t wait TOO long and they increase further.

It’s the same logic with home prices. They are currently not showing signs of going down, and waiting in hopes of the growth slowing down can translate into being able to afford even less home later on.