LAS VEGAS (KSNV) — The greater Las Vegas real estate market unexpectedly grew stronger during the pandemic, and there’s no obvious reason anything will change as Southern Nevada emerges from restrictions that were in place over the past 14 months.

It’s so much of a seller’s market right now, you’d be hard-pressed to find an open house, commonly used by realtors to give home shoppers an opportunity to walk through a home and make an offer on the spot.

According to Tom Blanchard, a realtor and former president of Las Vegas Realtors, open houses aren’t necessary right now, not because of health guidelines, but because homes are selling too quickly to set them up.

“You put a house on the market right now, and you have it available for showing,” Blanchard said, “you already essentially have an open house because you have realtors lined up down the block to come and see it. So, what the heck, you're having an open house as soon as you put it in the MLS [multiple listing]."

While Blanchard and most other realtors don’t see the market cooling off anytime soon, economist Mike PeQueen says there will be a few things to watch through the second half of 2021 that might have an impact on home prices.

“Inflation is the topic everybody's talking about these days,” said PeQueen. “Inflation has had an impact, and will continue to have an impact on housing prices because it affects the things we use to build houses, particularly lumber and copper. Those have gone up a lot over the last year, and those are affecting the cost of building homes, and therefore it affects the cost of resale homes.”

PeQueen says inflation also puts upward pressure on interest rates, which in turn can cause mortgage rates to inch up and make homes less affordable for more families.

Another variable will be the lifting of moratoriums on foreclosures and evictions.

“Will this raise turnover in the rental housing market, and will that then cause some turmoil in the sales market? Will more properties come on the market? Once people can be evicted, we just don't know those answers yet, but that's absolutely the biggest thing to watch for the second half of 2021,” PeQueen said.

Still, he doesn’t believe the overall impact of evictions will be enough to stifle the upward trajectory in home prices.

“Even if there is some disruption from the eviction and foreclosure moratoriums coming to an end, it doesn't seem likely that they're going to be dumping houses on the market. I don't think that's going to happen. I don't think we're going to see that have a tremendously negative impact on the housing market because the market is so tight going into this whole thing.”

Tom Blanchard also cites other reasons for record low inventory that should keep home prices climbing.

“We've had 10 years of a lack of building to take care of the people coming in. And so therefore, we don't have enough homes,” Blanchard said. “That's the situation we're going to be in and until something changes, and all of a sudden somebody snaps their finger and puts 20 or 30,000 homes in Las Vegas for people to be able to move into.”

Blanchard says he doesn’t see that circle of supply and demand ending in the foreseeable future.

Until the record low inventory of available homes turns more in favor of homebuyers, sellers like Arnaud Berthoux will be reap the rewards, and the profits.

“I’ve sold two properties in the past week,” he said.

Berthoux said he had three offers on the first home in the first day it went on the market. After a bidding war between two buyers, Berthoux says it sold above asking price with no appraisal because it was a cash deal.

His second home sold to a California buyer who paid cash, sight unseen.

“They did not see the house and still made an offer on it. We’re signing the papers, and still above listed price as well with no appraisal and cash. All cash offers from a buyer in California.”

Source - https://news3lv.com/news/local/las-vegas-housing-market-looks-solid-as-it-emerges-from-pandemic