LAS VEGAS, NV – When it comes to the Las Vegas real estate scene, one thing remains true – demand is far outpacing the available inventory when it comes to the number of housing options available within this very hotly-contested marketplace. Since the area’s recovery from the burst of the real estate bubble in the mid-2000’s, Southern Nevada’s housing market has been on the rise like few others in the United States, resulting in numerous positives – growing economy, a robust property seller’s market, and an influx of jobs and new residents to the region – but also a significant negative, namely steadily climbing housing prices exacerbated by a severe lack of options for those looking for a place to live in Las Vegas and its surrounding areas, as any available house or rental unit is often snapped up as quickly as they hit the market.
However, recent news indicates that this problem may see a bit of relief soon, as a number of developers are putting home construction plans into high-gear; with more housing options hitting the market, demand should be satisfied and, in turn, prices – currently reaching record levels with your average family dwelling going for well above the region average – should begin to lower in response. For instance, in August of 2017 alone, building companies filed 839 new home permits, bringing the year’s total up to 5,843; this represents an increase of 5 percent over the same period in 2016.
Sales of single -family homes – the primary type of housing in the area, and the kind most sorely in demand – rose once again in August 2017 along with the news of increasing inventory in the region, but despite that fact – overall availability of housing options are still currently lower than those of 2016. 3,284 homes were sold in Southern Nevada throughout August, an increase of 4.5 percent over July and 5.9 percent from the corresponding point in time last year; the median sales price of single-family homes was $260,000, a leap of 10.6 percent from August of 2016.
An example is the Miami-based Lennar Corporation, of the largest home builders in the United States currently, who recently spent $10.8 million on a 22-acre stretch of land at Lake Las Vegas in order to construct a housing tract, closing the deal on August 31. The number of single-family home plots purchased by Lennar comes in at 90, and according to reports they are fast-tracking the project and anticipate making model homes available for viewing to prospective buyers in early 2018.
In addition, the hotbed of real estate activity in Vegas also represents an attractive location for house flipping; in fact, approximately 8.9 percent of the homes sold in Southern Nevada in the months leading into summer of 2017 consisted of properties that were later renovated and flipped for a profit, according to reports, which makes the region the fourth most popular in the country for people who specialize in buying and flipping houses. A flip is, by definition, the act of buying a home and selling it off within the span of one year.
Either way, the real estate market in Las Vegas continues its juggernaut-like course upwards while basking in the post-recession glow of recovery, but relief from the correspondingly-rising prices is hopefully on the horizon as builders continue to sink resources into expanding the cutthroat housing market and, in the process, reaping the rewards of sales that are sure to follow.
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