March’s median sales price pulled back from the nearly 7-percent jump that we saw in February. March’s median dropped to $227,000, and represented a 3.4 percent one-month decrease from February’s median of $235,000. Year-over-year, March’s median sales price is up 16.4 percent.
The Spring home buying season is upon us — Solds and pending sales are both up. 465 houses sold in March 2014, representing a whopping 20.2 percent increase from the 387 houses sold in February. That being said, we’re still not seeing the number of sales we saw this time last year. Year-over-year unit sales are down 5.3 percent.
Pending sales are up 6.8 percent over February, and continues its upward trend; so expect the number of homes sold to increase as we move along into Summer.
March’s median sold price per square foot (ppsf) came in at $129.22/sq.ft. — and represents an unexpected increase over February’s median sold ppsf of $126.43 given that March’s median sales price fell. In other words, although March’s median sales price dropped 3.4 percent, it’s median sold price per square foot increased 2.2 percent.
Days on market (DOM) saw a huge drop in March. March’s median DOM plummeted to 65 days — taking nearly four weeks off of the 91 DOM that we saw in February. I am looking into an explanation for this large decrease.
Inventory dropped in March. Currently, 837 houses are available for sale — a 3.1 percent decrease from the 864 houses available for sale this time last month. Year-over-year, March’s inventory is up 66.7 percent. The Reno-Sparks housing market’s inventory currently possesses less than two months supply.
March sales by type break out as follows:
- REO sales: 7% – unchanged from February’s 7%
- Short sales: 14% – up from February’s 13%
- Equity sales: 77% – down from February’s 79%
March sales by price band break out as follows in the table below…
| sales price ($000’s) | units sold | cumulative % |
| 0 – 99 | 10 | 2.2% |
| 100 – 199 | 157 | 35.9% |
| 200 – 299 | 177 | 74.0% |
| 300 – 399 | 82 | 91.6% |
| 400 – 499 | 17 | 95.7% |
| 500 – 599 | 9 | 97.2% |
| 600 – 699 | 5 | 98.3% |
| 700 – 799 | 1 | 98.5% |
| 800 – 899 | 2 | 98.9% |
| 900 – 999 | 0 | 98.9% |
| 1M+ | 5 | 100% |
| total | 465 |
Five $1M+ homes sold in March. It appears 2014 is continuing 2013’s increasing trend of million-dollar home sales – See Million dollar (and above) home sales double in 2013
March’s median sold price for houses and condos combined was $215,000 –- essentially unchanged from February’s median sold price of $214,900 for combined sales of houses and condos.
The table below contains the past 13 months of data…
| Month Year | # Sold | Median Sold Price | Sold Price per Sq Ft | Median DOM | # of Actives | # of Pendings |
| Mar 2014 | 465 | $227,000 | $129.22 | 65 | 837 | 1,249 |
| Feb 2014 | 387 | $235,000 | $126.43 | 91 | 864 | 1,169 |
| Jan 2014 | 353 | $220,000 | $125.32 | 87 | 817 | 1,084 |
| Dec 2013 | 492 | $231,000 | $120.80 | 76 | 828 | 953 |
| Nov 2013 | 475 | $224,900 | $126.51 | 71 | 974 | 1,171 |
| Oct 2013 | 537 | $214,750 | $125.45 | 63 | 1,052 | 1,224 |
| Sep 2013 | 513 | $224,900 | $126.53 | 70 | 1,019 | 1,305 |
| Aug 2013 | 638 | $220,000 | $124.56 | 62 | 1,028 | 1,361 |
| Jul 2013 | 593 | $215,000 | $123.25 | 64 | 920 | 1,455 |
| Jun 2013 | 532 | $224,950 | $123.60 | 59 | 859 | 1,527 |
| May 2013 | 538 | $218,500 | $119.14 | 64 | 756 | 1,563 |
| Apr 2013 | 481 | $205,000 | $112.53 | 79 | 579 | 1,519 |
| Mar 2013 | 491 | $195,000 | $108.79 | 92 | 502 | 1,479 |
Note: The medians table above is updated on a monthly basis. The median home price data reported covers the cities of Reno, Nevada and Sparks, Nevada [NNRMLS Area #100]. Residential data includes Site/Stick Built properties only. Data excludes Condo/Townhouse, Manufactured/Modular and Shared Ownership properties. Data courtesy of the Northern Nevada Regional MLS – April 2014. Note: This information is deemed reliable, but not guaranteed.
Click here for historical data back to 1998.
Related post: February median sales price, units sold, DOM and inventory
Douglas Ogilvy
Guy,
Thanks for continuing to publish clear and meaningful data on the Reno RE market. Now that the market is recovering nicely, the comments (both doom and gloom and upbeat) have all but disappeared. However, I am sure that this excellent blog still has many followers. Having moved out of state and become a landlord, I continue to find your posts very helpful. Keep up the great work.
Free Falling.
Guy Johnson
Douglas,
Thank you for you kind words. I am happy to hear you find the blog helpful.
– Guy
Walter
The reason for the total lack of commentary now is that there is nothing left to say. Ten years of Reno real estate history can be succinctly summarized as follows:
Starting in 2004, there was an enormous bubble in Reno housing, in fact, one of the largest bubbles in all of the United States. In 2006, the bubble burst, prices collapsed, and did not bottom out until 2012, with the median more than 60% off the bubble high. Because the bubble was so enormous, prices overcorrected at the bottom. Since 2012, there has been some modest recovery, but the median price of a house in Reno today is still 40% lower than it was 8 years ago.
If the Reno housing median price increases at 5% a year from today, it will take about 8 more years to get back to where it was at the bubble high. In other words, maybe, by 2022, the median price of a house in Reno will be where it was in early 2006. And that, of course, is only in nominal terms. Adjusting for inflation, it will takes decades for the Reno housing market to equal the median price of 2006.
I suppose the conclusion that “the market is recovering nicely” is a personal sort of opinion.
Thurston
The median price of a house in Reno today is where it was in November of 2003. What cost $227,000 in 2003 would cost $287,000 today. So if you bought a median priced house in Reno in 2003, in real terms, you have lost 21%.
You would have to go back to March of 2000, when the median price was $162,000, to break even today on an inflation adjusted basis. Yes, 14 years and you even
Recall the old saw about how you can never lose money buying a house? About how the value of houses always beats inflation?
What a total crock.
Twister
Fear and greed…greed and fear. They make for tops and bottoms. Fear the greed but not the fear.