Condos & Townhomes Continue Increase 

Existing local home sales are rebounding from 2023, their slowest year since 2008 . According to the Las Vegas Sun, the median sale price of condos and townhomes in Southern Nevada reached an all-time high of $295,000 in May — up more than 7% from the same time last year and toppling the previous record of $290,000, which was set in April. The increase in prices makes the return on investment significantly worse than before as rents are not keeping up with the pace. New investors who purchase condos are not likely to see returns exceeding 1%. Most lose money.

Home prices are stagnating. The Median Home Price increased to $473,000 in May, 7% higher than in May 2023. However, almost 3,900 single-family homes were listed for sale without any sort of offer by the end of May, for an increase of more than 6% and over 43% from May 2023, respectively.

Over 3,000 existing local homes, condos and townhomes sold last month, up 3.7% and almost 1%, respectively, from May 2023. The volume is up but it’s attributed mostly to condos and luxury homes.

Las Vegas Rental Market 

Apartment List’s national rent report showed modest increases for June, but predicted that rent growth over the rest of the year will remain small. The trends for rents have seen seasonal declines that are greater than usual since 2022, and they have been in negative territory since the summer of 2023. You can read the full report by clicking here.

Is it too early for a look into 2026? In an interview with CNBC, Real estate billionaire Barry Sternlicht thinks the policies of the Federal Reserve under the leadership of Jerome Powell will impact rents going forward making housing in the rental market less affordable. He believes that increased interest rates are destroying the development of multifamily units. According to Sternlicht, “…I will guarantee you rents will go up in ’26 unless there’s a massive recession.” However, Sternlicht does not foresee an impact on rents in the Sunbelt region as the past couple of years have seen an uptick in the housing supply. Watch the full interview here.

Overall, the Las Vegas rental market continues to move lower from its high in May. Usually, there is a gradual softening from the May-June highs in July and greater drops beginning in August. This year, the median price drop was significant, going from $2,095 to $2,050. The median rent in North Las Vegas has remained steady, avoiding the dip in May we experienced last year. The median rent increased slightly year over year from $2,095 in June 2023 to $2,100 today. Henderson rents have remained strong in the second quarter with median rents staying around the $2,300 market. If interested, here is the link to the report.

Class Warfare Shaping November Elections

According to LAS VEGAS FOX 5. Nevada Senator Jacky Rosen is proposing new legislation to attack corporate investors who own about 15% of the entry level homes in Las Vegas.  It is called the HOME Act.

Rosen’s HOME Act would direct the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development to investigate price manipulation by investors and make it illegal for anyone to rent or sell a unit during a housing crisis at an unreasonable level. Any fines collected from institutional investors for engaging in price gouging would be deposited into a fund for affordable housing for low-income families. What is unreasonable? 

This makes no sense of course but it could gain traction. If more democrats take office in Nevada, we can expect further attacks on investors ranging from rent controls to more difficulty in tossing naughty tenants. 

System Improvements Scheduled

We normally don’t tackle processes until the winter when it gets slow but there are two components that need immediate attention. 

Maintenance – We are going to incorporate some new features provided by Appfolio that offer front end customer service 24×7. Their call center offers multilingual operators who can diagnose simple problems with tenants before assigning vendors to the problem. This will take a huge load off of Billy in maintenance and allow him to follow up jobs that are in progress and answer frequent questions by owners. 

Tenant Screening – There is a flood of scam artists applying for properties with fake documents and identification. It’s harder to spot these tenants because software tools are making it easier for unqualified tenants to manufacture backgrounds. We recently got taken for a ride by a couple who had stolen someone’s identity. It wasn’t until we evicted them we discovered what happened. We are bringing on another 3rd party that adds another filter for verification. They get deeper into employment and income history. More importantly they are constantly learning new tricks by naughty tenants. The cost for this extra filter is only $15 per applicant but our application fees are still lower than the majority of our competitors. This additional filter will help us to guarantee our tenant placements.