Las Vegas Sun

March 28, 2024

Report: Median new house price in Las Vegas headed to $250,000

Las Vegas Housing

Steve Marcus

Roofers work on new homes at a residential construction site in the west side of the Las Vegas Valley in Las Vegas, April 5, 2013.

Updated Wednesday, June 19, 2013 | 3:42 p.m.

Dennis Smith

Dennis Smith

Las Vegas builders continue to sell homes at a faster clip than last year as they pull more permits and buy land at higher prices.

A total of 651 new houses were sold in the region last month, almost double the number sold in April 2012, according to a new report from Las Vegas-based Home Builders Research.

The median sales price last month was $238,820, up 19 percent from a year earlier. Given the valley’s rising land prices, “it would be foolish” to think the median sales price of new houses won’t reach $250,000 by year’s end, research firm President Dennis Smith said in the report.

The price per acre of raw land in prime locations has more than doubled in the past six months to the $350,000 to $400,000 range, according to Smith, who reported in March that land prices were rising at an unsustainable and “downright scary” pace.

Meanwhile, local builders pulled 661 permits last month, bringing this year’s total to 2,457, up 55 percent from the same period last year.

Despite the jump, Smith pointed out that permits averaged 950 a month in 1990 and 1,701 per month in 2000.

“You can see that this housing recovery has a LONG way to reach levels that were considered the ‘norm’ not too long ago,” he wrote.

CORRECTION: Due to incorrect information provided to the Las Vegas Sun, the article incorrectly said that the year-to-year increase in permits had more than doubled. In fact, it increased 55 percent. | (June 19, 2013)

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