Homes sales volume falls slightly but prices rise

Home sales in the valley slowed slightly in volume in last month, but rose in the average price a single-family residential unit was sold for compared to last year.

April saw 31 single-family homes sold in Pahrump, which was almost a 14-percent decrease from April 2015’s 36 units sold. The average price a home was sold for saw a considerable increase this year though, jumping from $164,166 last April to $204,546 this year, representing a 25-percent increase.

According to Karen Spalding, real estate agent at Nevada Realty, the majority of buyers continues to be a mix of Las Vegans migrating and snowbirds looking to make a permanent stay in town.

“There are visitors that are coming through here, snowbirds that are coming through here that are starting to look at locating here,” Spalding said. “I just recently spoke with two that have been coming here for years and now’s the time that they are going to purchase.

“Some live in Vegas and they are tired of the business of the area so they are moving here for the quality of life. They get more land for their money.”

With that additional land and the surrounding desert areas, Spalding said Las Vegans want to be closer to areas that they can use their off-road vehicles in their leisure time.

“One thing I’m seeing are that people from Vegas have their toys, their ATV’s and the side-by-sides and when they’re in Vegas they have to travel to go and play and here you can play in your backyard,” she said. “There’s just too many things here that are drawing people.”

The ability to modify one’s home to provide additional space for their extra vehicles is also a draw, according to Spalding, as for the most part, there aren’t the homeowners’ association rules here that the majority of Las Vegas communities have in place.

Spalding also attributed people migrating from over the hump to more affordable gas prices, as the 60-plus mile trek each way doesn’t seem so bad anymore for those who still want to travel to Las Vegas for employment.

Despite the lower amount of homes sold in April over 2015, this year is on pace to outdo last year’s home sales totals, which saw 408 single-family residential units sold. This year Pahrump has seen a 10-percent increase in homes sales, as 131 single-amily units sold were sold through April this year, up from 119 sold through the first four months of 2015.

Spalding attributes this year outpacing last year to a multitude of occurrences, mainly surrounding those finally recovering from the economic downturn of 2007.

“Prices are great, the interest rate is great. Some people have had enough time that had foreclosures that now that are back in the market,” she said.

If the numbers hold up throughout the year, it will be the second straight year there was an increase in home sales in the valley as 2015 outsold 2014, which had 344 homes sold, representing an 18.6 percent increase.

“I think this year will be a really great year,” Spalding said.

Contact reporter Mick Akers at makers@pvtimes.com. Follow @mickakers on Twitter.