Whoa! February’s median sales price jumped an astounding 5.9 percent over January’s median to establish a new post-bubble high. February’s median sales price clocked in at $320,000 — surpassing the previous post-bubble high of $318,000 set in July last year. Year-over-year February’s median sales price is up 10.3 percent over February 2016’s median of $290,000.
With this new high, home prices in Reno and Sparks, Nevada are now off only 12.3 percent from the housing bubble high of $365,000 set in January 2006.
Interestingly, despite the big jump in median price, February’s median sold price per square foot (ppsf) receded slightly to $174.32/sq.ft. — a 0.3 percent decrease from January’s $174.83/sq.ft. Year-over-year, February’s median sold ppsf is up 7.1 percent.
The number of houses sold in February was 374 units. That total represents a 3.3 percent increase over the 362 houses sold in January. February’s sales were also up year-over-year — coming in at 1.6 percent above February 2016’s sales.
February’s median days on market (DOM) climbed to 90 days — two days more than January’s median DOM of 88 days. As our market enters the spring home buying season, we should observe that DOM number begin to decrease.
Available inventory continues to drop. Currently there are only 857 houses listed available for sale. That number represents a decrease of 1.7 percent from the 872 houses available for sale this time last month. That being said, February 2017’s inventory is markedly higher year-over-year — coming in at 12.0 percent above February 2016’s inventory.
Pending home sales continue to rise. Currently, there are 896 houses pending sale. Compare that number to January’s 810 pending sales this time last month and we see that pending sales are up 10.6 percent. With the sharp rise in February pendings, expect March sales to mover higher as well.
February sales by type break out as follows:
- REO sales: 5% – up from January’s 3%
- Short sales: 2% – up from January’s 1%
- Equity sales: 92% – down from January’s 95%
February sales by price band break out as follows in the table below…
| sales price ($000’s) | units sold | cumulative % of sales |
| 0 – 99 | 0 | 0% |
| 100 – 199 | 24 | 6.4% |
| 200 – 299 | 138 | 43.3% |
| 300 – 399 | 110 | 72.7 |
| 400 – 499 | 45 | 84.8% |
| 500 – 599 | 23 | 90.9% |
| 600 – 699 | 14 | 94.7% |
| 700 – 799 | 9 | 97.1% |
| 800 – 899 | 7 | 98.9% |
| 900 – 999 | 1 | 99.2% |
| 1M+ | 3 | 100% |
| total | 374 |
February’s median sold price for houses and condos combined was $298,942 — a 4.5 percent increase from January’s median sold price of $286,000 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 |
| Feb 2017 | 374 | $320,000 | $174.32 | 90 | 857 | 896 |
| Jan 2017 | 362 | $302,250 | $174.83 | 88 | 872 | 810 |
| Dec 2016 | 527 | $300,000 | $174.30 | 83 | 1,032 | 675 |
| Nov 2016 | 537 | $310,000 | $173.93 | 76 | 1,211 | 845 |
| Oct 2016 | 514 | $310,000 | $175.57 | 73 | 1,306 | 956 |
| Sep 2016 | 632 | $310,000 | $175.02 | 74 | 1,451 | 928 |
| Aug 2016 | 596 | $310,000 | $172.45 | 67 | 1,440 | 1,031 |
| Jul 2016 | 600 | $318,000 | $173.38 | 65 | 1,434 | 1,036 |
| Jun 2016 | 660 | $312,650 | $175.49 | 61 | 1,299 | 1,072 |
| May 2016 | 600 | $310,000 | $172.09 | 58 | 1,156 | 1,228 |
| Apr 2016 | 571 | $295,000 | $167.86 | 58 | 840 | 1,142 |
| Mar 2016 | 578 | $295,000 | $165.09 | 64 | 833 | 1,037 |
| Feb 2016 | 368 | $290,000 | $162.83 | 86 | 765 | 1,010 |
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 – March 5, 2017. Note: This information is deemed reliable, but not guaranteed.
Related post: January median sales price and other market metrics
Click here for historical data back to 1998.
James
Guy,
How does one price a home with views when all the comparables have do not have one?
It looks to be a very strong spring and summer selling season but i suspect the complete lack of inventory will prevent a lot of move up or move down buyers. Instead opting to stay put.
Guy Johnson
Hello James. Thank you for your question, and thank you for reading the blog.
Regarding your question, if no current or recent comparables exist, then we can take a look at historical sales to determine at what premium view lots were selling over non-view lots at the time, and then apply that premium to today’s comparables.
Cain Ndhlovu Property Consultant
Have read various articles about the house market bubble there in the USA, are there concrete reasons why this is happening?
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