Nevada’s housing market continued to show signs of stabilization in January. One of the major signs of that stability is that big institutional investor buying has slowed down to just 6.5% of sales. This is down from 10.7% a year ago. Short sales also slowed down to 13.4% from 22.9% a year ago.
Closer to home in the Las Vegas Valley, big institutional investor buys fell to 7.2% which is down from 10.1% last year. Experts say that the large investment groups have cooled on Southern Nevada because the median price of local single family homes has risen up 24% in 2013 to $185,000. At the same time more rentals have become available and this leads to lower lease rates.
Investors were important to the area back in 2012 when they made up about 80% of sales as locals were hesitant to purchase. It is now just as important to see things going the other way as locals are now purchasing homes for themselves. This promotes a more steady market with locals buying to live in their own communities.
Locally short sales dropped to 14.9%, down from 25.7% last year. Bank owned homes rose to 25.6% up from 22.8% a year ago.