Home listings in June were up ever so slightly after a big jump in May — a move driven by more pre-owned homes coming onto the market. Median prices rose.
According to the Regional Multiple Service Listing Service report, 876 listings were on the market last month, up 1.4 percent, or 12 homes, compared with the previous month.
In May, the number of listings had climbed nearly 40 percent from April.
As more available homes come on the market, a higher percentage of them are pre-owned homes, according to data collected from the real estate group Wollam & Associates.
“That bump in activity from pre-owned homes coming on the market is something that I didn’t necessarily expect at this time,” said Terry Wollam, a managing broker at Wollam & Associates. “As interest rates improve and then with more time, I would assume that we see more pre-owned homes become available.”
There was an increase in buying activity in June, with pending sales up 6.3 percent from May. The average time homes are on the market has continued to decrease — total market time was 33 days in June.
“It goes back to a decent segment of buyers that have been waiting with the thought that prices are going to reduce and the realization that that isn’t going to take place,” Wollam said.
Another factor of the increase in pending sales is that buyers have more homes to choose from after historic lows in inventory, he said.
Despite the recent increase in listings, new listings are still down significantly from last year — a trend that Clark County is familiar with. Listings in June were down 25 percent from year-ago levels.
Regulations and a lack of available land have both contributed to lower levels of new construction compared to previous years, Wollam said.
“I do not see in the next three years an increase in housing that’s going to be provided through new construction,” he said. “And so that means that pre-owned is going to have to meet that demand.”
Oftentimes, people selling pre-owned homes intend to purchase another house, putting more pressure on a market with limited inventory.
“New construction really helps to meet that increase in demand, and it helps provide more inventory, which also provides more stability in prices,” he said. “The concern is that it just puts a lot of pressure on our prices to increase in this region because of that.”
The median sale price for homes in June was $521,600, up 1.3 percent from May. Wollam expects prices to continue to increase.
