An already tight Las Vegas-area housing market became even more condensed last month, according to a report released today.
Continuing a trend seen during the pandemic, the number of existing homes — excluding condos and townhomes — in the Las Vegas Valley dropped 11% from November, according to the Las Vegas Realtors trade organization.
At the end of December, just under 7,500 existing homes were listed for sale, a drop of 16% from the same month in 2019.
The median price for an existing home last month didn't change from November's all-time high of $345,000, which represents a bump of more than 10% from December 2019.
At the end of last month, 3,240 homes were listed for sale without any type of offer. That's a 42% drop from December 2019, according to the report.
About 3,300 homes were sold in December, a rise of 27% from December 2019.
"December is usually a slow month, but not this year," said Aldo Martinez, president of Las Vegas Realtors and a longtime area agent. "I think we surprised a lot of people with how the local housing market not only held up, but set records during an otherwise rough year for our local economy."
While the December median price for an existing home didn't set a new record — as it had for the previous six months — it continued to show a lack of any type of housing crash like what was witnessed here during the Great Recession.
In 2012, the Las Vegas housing market bottomed out as the median price for an existing home dropped to $118,000.
"I don't see much changing in the early part of 2021," Martinez said. "Demand for housing remains high. Our housing supply and mortgage interest rates are still very low. As long as these trends continue, it's a good bet that local home prices will keep rising."
Local condos and townhomes sold last month for a median price of $186,000, down 7% from November but up about 5% from December 2019.
Typically, the industry views a six-month supply of homes for sale as the point where a market becomes balanced. Martinez said Las Vegas now has just a one-month supply of homes on the market.
Founded in 1947 and previously known as the Greater Las Vegas Association of Realtors, the LVR group comprises about 15,000 area agents.
