Pahrump home prices down 8.3% but ‘sky is not falling’

Pahrump home sales and prices slid slightly in the last two months of 2022, according to data released Friday by Las Vegas Realtors, which showed 64 homes sold here in December at a median price of $288,750.

That compares to 63 homes that were sold here in November at a median price of $290,000, according to LVR data.

“Besides entering what is usually the slowest time of year for the housing market, rising mortgage interest rates are causing a contraction,” said 2023 LVR President Lee Barrett, an area realtor who took over as head of the association in January.

December 2022 was a “bust” compared to the “bang” that was December 2021 when 133 homes sold in Pahrump at a median price of $315,000. While home prices have seen an 8.3 percent decline in Pahrump since then, they’re still about triple what they were during their post-recession bottom in January of 2012, when the median single-family home price in Southern Nevada was $118,000.

“People should know that these things are cyclical and that the sky is not falling,” Barrett said. “With prices leveling off and more homes available for sale, we’re seeing a more balanced market that makes things easier for buyers. It’s also a supply issue. We have more listings and fewer buyers.”

Barrett said 2022 ended on a much different note from 2021 – which was a record year for existing home sales in all of Southern Nevada, with 50,010 homes, condos, townhomes and other residential properties selling. That was the first time LVR reported more than 50,000 local properties changing hands in a year, and it topped the previous record set in 2011 by nearly 2,000 sales. By comparison, LVR reported 41,155 total sales during 2020.

During December, LVR found that 22.2 percent of all property sales in the region were purchased with cash. That’s down from 27.9 percent one year ago, and is well below the March 2013 cash buyer peak of 59.5 percent.

The number of so-called distressed sales remains near historically low levels. LVR reported that short sales and foreclosures combined accounted for 0.7 percent of all existing local property sales in December. That compares to 0.4 percent of all sales one year ago.

The real estate market in northern Nye County has not seen the same dramatic climbs as Pahrump and areas south of here have experienced. Only two homes have sold in the Tonopah area during the past 13 months, according to LVR data. They both sold in December 2021. The median price was $95,314.

A new homeowner assistance program aims to encourage residents to buy homes in Nye County.

As proposed, the Buy in Nye program will support the financing of single-family units, townhomes, condos and manufactured homes converted to real property, as well as two- and four-unit properties so long as the applicant will use one of the units as their primary residence.

Contact Editor Brent Schanding @bschanding@pvtimes.com