Wednesday, Aug. 18, 2004 | 8:30 a.m.
Editor's note: In August the Where I Stand column is turned over to guest writers. Today's columnist is Lee K. Barrett. He is broker/president of Century 21 Barrett & Co. and also is president of the Greater Las Vegas Association of Realtors. AS READERS of the Las Vegas Sun, you follow the news more closely than most people and probably know that Las Vegas has seen an unprecedented housing boom this year.
This is generally good news for those of us who own homes, work in the real estate industry and enjoy sharing stories with our friends and neighbors about how fast our homes are appreciating in value.
But as the great housing boom of the past year begins to come back to earth a bit, we are now seeing more concern about the flip side of this rapid rise in housing prices. Of course, there's a downside to all this appreciation. These impacts include a corresponding increase in property tax bills and, perhaps more important, legitimate concerns about affordable housing in Southern Nevada.
As a native Las Vegan who serves as president of the Greater Las Vegas Association of Realtors, and as someone who has worked in the real estate profession here for 26 years, I share this concern. I know firsthand how the rapid rise in local home prices have impacted people in Las Vegas.
For years, Las Vegas attracted newcomers who moved here knowing that if they worked hard, even in blue-collar jobs in our service-oriented economy, they could greatly improve their odds of owning their own home. In the past year or so, this has started to change. Today, more local families are finding it difficult to realize the dream of owning a home of their own.
Consider last week's news from the National Association of Realtors, which reported that local housing prices shot up an amazing 52 percent in the second quarter of 2004, compared to the same period in 2003. Las Vegas led the nation in appreciation. Not only that, but the association also said this appreciation rate was an all-time record for any metropolitan area in any quarter since it began tracking such things back in 1982.
For more proof, consider the monthly housing statistics we track at the Greater Las Vegas Association of Realtors. In July, according to statistics we gathered from the Multiple Listing Service, the median price of an existing single-family home sold in this market was $282,000. That's up only 0.7 percent from June, which indicates that housing prices are finally leveling off a bit. Still, July's median sales price is up nearly 54 percent from July 2003.
Compared to the peak of our housing boom earlier this year, we're also seeing homes staying on the market longer. Although 79 percent of all single-family homes in July sold in less than 30 days, that's actually down from June, when nearly 84 percent of all single-family homes sold within a month. These statistics tell us that the local housing market is still strong, but showing signs of cooling off.
Unfortunately, research also shows that local wages aren't keeping pace with area housing prices. This obviously makes homes harder for many of us to afford.
Earlier this year, when our local housing market was starting to make national news, the Greater Las Vegas Association of Realtors commissioned a survey of 400 Las Vegans. The survey showed that 55 percent of those polled were either somewhat or very concerned about the cost of housing in our community. This falls short of the 67 percent of all Americans who express the same concern, but it shows that affordable housing is a growing concern here.
Perhaps the most distressing part of this study showed that the younger you are, the more concerned you are about being able to afford a home here. Some of the most concerned groups included local service workers, 71 percent of whom feared that homes are too expensive (compared to 62 percent of service workers nationally). Las Vegans were also more worried than their counterparts nationwide when expressing concerns that their children may not be able to afford to live here and that their family may be forced to live in "less desirable" areas.
The Greater Las Vegas Association of Realtors is working hard to keep housing as available and affordable as possible in Southern Nevada. For starters, we're forming a task force to examine and help guide public policy as local officials consider limits on property tax rates.
Next month the association is launching its Quality of Life program to take a leadership role in promoting affordable housing. This will include research and recommendations on key local issues, from water conservation and air quality to transportation and land use.
And since the demand for housing in Las Vegas continues to outpace the supply of suitable land, the more than 11,000 members of our association will continue to do all we can to accelerate the process of making more federally owned land in Southern Nevada available for development.
As Realtors, we also promote available and affordable rental housing. We support efforts to keep rental prices as low as possible and to narrow the widening gap between the cost to own or rent a home.
Since people need more choices, we support several local trends that can offer more options and make housing more affordable for all of us. These include converting apartments to condominiums and building more high-rise housing developments, which reduce the impact on our roads, water, air quality and other resources.
As the largest professional trade association in Nevada, I believe the Greater Las Vegas Association of Realtors' members have a responsibility to do all we can to help our neighbors and make this a better place to live.
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