Can Raiders Arrive Fast Enough to Save Housing Market?

Those who only read  the newspaper would think the Las Vegas housing market is still on fire.  Eli Segall’s reporting of October Case-Shiller index blared,

Southern Nevada prices were up 12.8 percent year-over-year in October, compared to a 5.5 percent bump nationally, according to the S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller index released Wednesday.

Vegas was the hottest market in country two months ago, now, not so much. But home sellers are telling their realtors to check the paper for the business section headline, “Las Vegas home prices rising fastest in country, still.” Those kind of headlines have sellers listing their properties for $20,000 to $40,000 too much, realtors tell me.  

Segall provides the bad news later in his piece.  

Almost 2,300 single-family houses were sold in November, down nearly 12 percent from the same month last year, the Greater Las Vegas Association of Realtors reported.

Inventory has soared, too. Around 7,000 houses were on the market without offers at the end of November, up 54 percent from a year earlier and the highest level in two years, according to the GLVAR, which pulls data from its resale-heavy listing service.

Andrew Smith and his father, Dennis, provide the market’s change with one simple chart in their December Las Vegas Housing Market Letter. While the number of overpriced listings has jumped, the number of closings has gone the opposite direction.  Suddenly, housing’s animal spirits have been dosed with cold water in the form of higher rates, lower affordability and volatile stock markets.

Smith and son write, “Hopefully, it is a short term ‘correction’ and by mid-2019 a bull market will return.”   Yes, the housing market always softens during the holidays, it is oft repeated (except when it doesn’t). And now, in addition to the holiday excuse, the ultimate market fixer--”the Raiders are coming!”