Las Vegas homebuilders had a jump in sales activity in April, but the market overall is still far behind last year’s pace, a recent report shows.
Builders landed 830 net home sales — or newly signed sales contracts minus cancellations — in Southern Nevada in April. That was up about 20 percent month-to-month and 8.4 percent from April of last year, according to Las Vegas-based Home Builders Research.
The increased sales total “should be seen as a bright spot, given overall market conditions and sentiment,” the firm’s president, Andrew Smith, wrote in the report.
Despite higher sales activity, builders cut back on construction plans from year-ago levels, pulling 623 new-home permits in April, down 36 percent from the same month last year.
Overall, builders closed 612 home sales in April, down 28 percent year-over-year, and fetched a median closing price of $529,238, down 0.1 percent, or effectively flat, according to Home Builders Research data.
The bulk of the market comprises single-family homes, and after a buyer signs a sales contract with a builder, it can take several months before construction of the house is finished and the sale closes.
All told, Las Vegas isn’t the only place where homebuilding has slowed.
Nationally, single-family home construction tumbled across all geographic regions in the first quarter of this year “due to economic uncertainty, high material costs and elevated interest rates,” the National Association of Home Builders reported this week.
Higher building and financing costs are acting as “major headwinds” to housing production, said Robert Dietz, the association’s chief economist, in the news release.
He added that builders are still offering price cuts and other incentives, but ongoing affordability hurdles are keeping many would-be buyers “on the sidelines.”
In Southern Nevada, builders closed 2,559 home sales this year through April, down 26 percent from the same four-month stretch last year, and pulled 2,918 permits, down 24 percent, Home Builders Research found.
This follows a sharp drop in sales and construction plans last year, as well.
Collectively, in 2025, builders’ tally of closed sales in Southern Nevada dropped 20 percent from 2024, and the number of new-home permits they pulled also fell 20 percent.
Contact Eli Segall at esegall@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0342.
