Las Vegas home sales last month ticked up from year-ago levels amid a dip in prices, a new report shows, as high borrowing costs continue to crimp sales nationally.
Buyers picked up 2,046 previously owned single-family homes in Southern Nevada in July, up 1.2 percent from the same month last year, according to trade association Las Vegas Realtors.
The median sales price of such homes was $480,000 last month, down 1 percent from a year earlier.
Single-family homes comprise the vast majority of the resale market in Southern Nevada, a suburban-heavy region blanketed with tract housing.
LVR President George Kypreos said in a news release that demand for homes “has stayed strong even though mortgage rates have remained elevated.”
Southern Nevada’s housing market has a long track record of big fluctuations that have been more extreme than in metro areas across the country. But as seen in the new report, July was a fairly tame month in Las Vegas amid a series of headwinds nationwide.
Slower-moving market
Locally, not only did sales rise and prices fall by only 1 percent each, but the number of newly listed single-family homes increased just 3.3 percent from a year earlier.
Plus, the tally of available houses on the market at month’s end rose only 4.1 percent year-over-year.
The relatively slow pace of things in the historically volatile housing market comes as mortgage rates and prices both remain high, making it difficult for many would-be buyers to afford a purchase.
At the same time, personal finances locally and nationally have also been squeezed this year by higher gas prices and increased inflation.
In Southern Nevada, the median sales price of a single-family house was an all-time high of $490,000 in both May and June — and the overall pace of sales this year has been similar to what was seen in 2025, when the region had the lowest annual sales total since 2007, LVR reported.
As seen in federal data, mortgage rates have largely pushed higher this year and remain elevated compared to what buyers have faced over the past 15 years or so.
‘Significant headwind’
Last month, the National Association of Realtors reported that home sales in June slid 2.4 percent month-to-month but rose 2.8 percent year-over-year.
NAR Chief Economist Lawrence Yun said in the report that the back-and-forth “shows how sensitive home buyers are to affordability conditions.”
He also said that the median home price had reached an all-time high but that affordability is better than it was a year ago because wage growth is outpacing home-price growth.
Nonetheless, listing site Redfin reported late last month that pending home sales nationwide fell to their lowest level since April, saying buyer demand is declining in part because mortgage rates are rising.
All told, affordability remains a “significant headwind for the housing market,” said Rebecca Kaufman, associate director of commodities at S&P Dow Jones Indices, in a recent report.
As she described it, housing demand “remains constrained” and elevated borrowing costs “continue to discourage” potential buyers.
Contact Eli Segall at esegall@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0342.
