LAS VEGAS (KLAS) – The Wells family moved to Skye Canyon last year and the growing community had everything they wanted, but now they need to sell their home so they can be closer to family in Mississippi, which means they are hoping the Las Vegas real estate market will deliver a buyer.
It’s the same hope of many Southern Nevada homeowners when they plant a “for sale” sign into their xeriscape yard and now data is showing they are facing a more optimistic market with interest rates projected to fall.
“With interest rates going down now they can afford homes,” said Merri Perry Las Vegas Realtors President. “They are out there knocking on realtors’ doors, and they are ready to buy.”
Perry touted the newly released Las Vegas Realtors report which indicated that the tight housing supply during 2023 slowed sales but helped to prop up home prices. The market seeing the median price for existing single-family homes sold increasing by 5.9% from $425,000 to $449,000, a good sign and thankfully not as scary as fall of 2023.
“When interest rates skyrocketed everyone was afraid, so a lot of sellers just stayed put because they had nowhere to go,” Perry said. “A lot of buyers were just forced out of the market.”
The optimism goes only so far, with interest rates falling that means that there’s more pressure on supply. The same report cites that although more homes are on the market, many national experts are predicting at least some increase in the housing supply going into 2024.
“We feel really optimistic about going into the market the reason why is because there is just so many people able to afford with even rates going down one or two percent.” said homeowner Jamie Wells. “We are really grateful for the realtor we have here.”
Jennifer Graff, realtor with Virtue Real Estate, is helping the Wells family ready their home for market in the new neighborhood.
“This is a resale home which is what’s kind of unique about it,” Graff said. “What’s really neat is you are getting all the benefits of a brand new home, which people love, but you are getting a lot of those after-market upgrades that you are going to miss out on when you are buying brand new construction.”
Graff described to 8 News Now why homeowners should be encouraged by the signs of the times as compared to this time last year.
“We definitely slowed down, we had a lot of interest rate shock.” She said. “We had a lot of issues coming up with affordability, we have seen the highest rates in 2023 in what we have seen in 25 years touching just about 8% in October of 2023.”
As signs continued to trend better for sellers Wells expressed positivity about their chances in the Las Vegas market, but it also might be encouraged by the fact that this isn’t just about a home to her, it’s about the family in it.
“With two young children we are kind of excited to get closer to grandma and grandpa,” she said.
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