HOME PRICE BUBBLE UNLIKELY IN LAS VEGAS
Las Vegas, NV (September 27, 2005) _ Housing market conditions in the Las Vegas area are positive,
meaning home price appreciation is expected to continue at a healthy rate, according to the Greater Las
Vegas Association of REALTORS®. A bubble in local housing prices is not likely, although the rate of price
growth should slow if local job market conditions unexpectedly weaken.
The median price of an existing home in Las Vegas has risen 88 percent over the last 3 years. There have
been 176,000 new jobs created in the past 5 years, compared with construction of 140,000 new single-
family homes.
These market fundamentals, combined with inventories of existing homes available for sale in Las Vegas,
mean there is solid demand from buyers in comparison with the supply of homes on the market.
Myrna Kingham , president of the Greater Las Vegas Association of REALTORS®, said the local housing
market fundamentals support future price gains.
Though home prices have risen faster than income in recent years, a more relevant measure is the
mortgage servicing cost relative to income, which has been well within historic norms. This implies no
widespread financial overstretching to purchase a home in the region.
In other words, the local housing market is on solid footing, Kingham said.
David Lereah, chief economist of the National Association of REALTORS® , recently said that the strongest
rates of home price growth tend to move geographically around the country. _In examining the hottest
markets for home price appreciation, we see a rolling boom moving from one metro area to another over
time, as well as a spillover effect into nearby areas with lower home prices,_ he said.
_That is spreading the wealth of housing returns, with a natural easing of appreciation in areas following a
period of extraordinary price growth. Even after slowing in a given area, prices typically have continued to
rise faster than historic norms,_ Lereah said.
Over the last four-and-a-half years of record home sales, no area of the United States that has experienced
a sustained period of double-digit price growth has later seen a price decline.