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What’s Causing The S. Nevada Real Estate Market Rally?

Las Vegas suburbs
By Daniel Ramirez from Honolulu, USA (Las Vegas Suburbs) [CC BY 2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

The Las Vegas housing market is improving

Las Vegas-area home prices are up double digits compared with a year ago.

The Greater Las Vegas Association of Realtors says the average home price in June was $220,000.

That’s up more than 10 percent from last June.

So, what’s causing the Southern Nevada real estate market rally? And, is this rally sustainable or just irrational exuberance?

"Buyers who have suffered the tragedies of foreclosures and short sales are starting to get back in," Keith Lyman of the Greater Las Vegas Association of Realtors told KNPR's State of Nevada. 

He said people are coming back into the market but they are more prepared with more money and more sense. 

Lyman also said that many people are realizing they're paying more in rent than what they would pay to buy a home so they're getting into the market.

Add to that mix, buyers who became fatigued after losing out to cash buyers, which have substantially decreased, returning to look again.

 "It's a fairly stable market," Lyman said.

Despite the good news, Lyman believes there are a few storm clouds on the horizon that need to be addressed. 

"We need to get that Mortgage Debt Relief Act passed and that will help," he said "But then we've got to have banks and financial institutions doing the responsible thing and we got to start getting some of those houses on the market."

"Those houses" he is referring to are vacant or foreclosed houses. He said banks need to speed up dealing with the estimated 40,000 homes that are either abandoned or under foreclosure.

"When I hear about new homes being built, I get a little bit concerned," Lyman said. "Because we've got a lot of inventory, a lot of vacant, abandoned homes we've got to get through first."

But, he is confident in the stability in the market and said even if all 40,000 homes were to be immediately put onto the housing market it would only tip the scales slightly to the buyers side of the equation.

"We're back into the stability side of things," he said.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Keith Lyman, president, Greater Las Vegas Association of Realtors

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