- After setting a record high of $389,000 in July, the Reno-Sparks median home price pulled back dramatically in August — falling to $370,000, or a nearly a 5 percent one-month decrease. Did home prices gain anything back in September? Let’s take look…
September’s median sales price came in at $373,500; for a gain of 0.9 percent over August’s median sales price. Year-over-year, September’s median sales price is up 10.9 percent.
Despite the slight increase in median sales price, September’s median sold price per square foot (PPSF) fell slightly to $210.74/sq.ft., down 0.4 percent from August’s median sold PPSF of $211.67/sq.ft. September’s median PPSF is up 8.3 percent year-over-year.
Lack of available for-sale inventory continues to take its toll on the number of homes sold in the Reno and Sparks markets. Units sales in September totaled 438 homes sold for the month — down a staggering 22.3 percent from the 564 homes sold in August.
Now, to be fair, there is some seasonality at work here (i.e. homes sales are cyclical — typically peaking in June/July and bottoming in December/January [ See Chart] ). However, consider that last year 613 homes were sold during the month of September 2017. This means that this year’s September sales were down a whopping 28.5 percent year-over-year.
And, as another comparison, last year’s August-to-September’s drop in sales was 14.9 percent — compare that to the aforementioned 22.3 percent this year, and you’ll see this year’s drop in sales from August to September is nearly 50 percent greater than last year’s.
Many factors are contributing to the low number of sales: lack of inventory (especially affordable inventory); rising interest rates; homebuyer uncertainty; and, again, a bit of seasonality.
The good news is currently available inventory continues to increase. Presently 1,332 homes are available for purchase in the Reno-Sparks market. Given the current rate of home sales, available inventory equates to just over three months supply — inching us closer to a “balanced”, rather then “buyers”, market.
Currently available inventory is up 10.3 percent over the 1,208 homes for sales this time last month. Year-over-year, the current number of available homes for purchase is up a whopping 44 percent.
Despite the gains in the number of homes available for purchase, less than one-third (31.4 percent) are priced at, or below, the current median sales price.
The persistent issue of lack of affordable homes for sale in Reno and Sparks continues to weigh on pending sales, as well. Presently 725 homes are pending sale in the Reno-Sparks market. That number is down 8.2 percent from the 790 homes pending sale this time last month. Again, there is some seasonality to take into account, but consider this: year-over-year, current pending sales are down 18.4 percent from September 2017.
September’s median days on market (DOM) came in at 60 days — an increase of three days over August’s DOM. September’s DOM is in line with last year’s 59 days.
September sales by type, break out as follows:
- REO sales: <1% – unchanged from August’s <1%
- Short sales: <1% – unchanged from August’s <1%
- Subject to Court Approval sales: <1% – unchanged from August’s <1%
- Relocation sales: <1% – unchanged from August’s <1%
- Equity sales: 97% – down from August’s 98%
September sales by price band, break out as follows in the table below…
| sales price ($000’s) | units sold | cumulative % of sales |
| 0 – 99 | 0 | 0.0% |
| 100 – 199 | 3 | 0.7% |
| 200 – 299 | 93 | 21.9% |
| 300 – 399 | 168 | 60.3% |
| 400 – 499 | 80 | 78.5% |
| 500 – 599 | 34 | 86.3% |
| 600 – 699 | 28 | 92.7% |
| 700 – 799 | 12 | 95.4% |
| 800 – 899 | 1 | 95.6% |
| 900 – 999 | 4 | 96.6% |
| 1M+ | 15 | 100% |
| total | 438 |
15 homes sold for over $1,000,000 in September. Last year a total of 143 homes sold for over $1,000,000 — for an average of 12 per month. Thus far, year-to-date, 172 $1M+ homes sales have occurred. If this pace continues, 2018 will see well-over 200 sales of $1M+ homes. [ See related post: Reno, Nevada Luxury Home Prices Gain Momentum in First Half of 2018.]
September’s median sold price for houses and condos combined was $351,000 — unchanged from August’s median sold price for combined sales of houses and condos.
The table below contains the past 13 months of data[1]…
| Month Year | # Sold | Median Sold Price | Sold Price per Sq Ft | Median DOM | # of Actives | # of Pendings |
| Sep 2018 | 438 | $373,500 | $210.74 | 60 | 1,333 | 725 |
| Aug 2018 | 564 | $370,000 | $211.67 | 57 | 1,208 | 790 |
| Jul 2018 | 565 | $389,000 | $216.37 | 53 | 1,154 | 838 |
| Jun 2018 | 601 | $381,900 | $215.98 | 49 | 923 | 906 |
| May 2018 | 574 | $375,000 | $209.04 | 49 | 725 | 920 |
| Apr 2018 | 491 | $374,000 | $205.34 | 51 | 638 | 891 |
| Mar 2018 | 548 | $375,000 | $200.88 | 50 | 529 | 814 |
| Feb 2018 | 444 | $370,000 | $193.90 | 61 | 528 | 796 |
| Jan 2018 | 406 | $359,950 | $191.74 | 68 | 514 | 782 |
| Dec 2017 | 493 | $345,000 | $194.35 | 69 | 605 | 578 |
| Nov 2017 | 534 | $353,500 | $197.03 | 62 | 767 | 713 |
| Oct 2017 | 555 | $345,000 | $191.48 | 64 | 851 | 843 |
| Sep 2017 | 613 | $336,900 | $194.62 | 59 | 925 | 889 |
Thank you for taking the time to read this market report. As always, your comments and questions are welcomed.
1. 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 – October 3, 2018. For historical home sale data back to 1998 click here. Note: This information is deemed reliable, but not guaranteed.
BigDave
Now the slow down is picking up steam. Cali market is slowing too, so hence Nevada
Tim
Slow down picking up steam? Seems more like normal seasonal pattern combined with some backing and filling of the huge run-up we’ve seen over the last few years. After all, the median did slightly go up this month, even if psft did not.
Cristy Silverman
Hi Guy,
This is great information! I was shocked to read that almost 70% of the inventory is priced above the median sales price. How does this compare to this time last year?
Guy Johnson
Big Dave, Tim, and Cristy, thank you for your comments.
Cristy, yours is a great question, albeit a bit of a challenge to answer precisely, as I do not have a way to take a snapshot of the current available inventory this time last year. That being said, I can come pretty close by looking at the price distribution of listings that came on the market during the August/ September time frame last year. In doing so, I see that roughly 48 percent of new listings were priced at, or below, the then median sales price of $336,900. Compare that to the current 31 percent reported above, and you’ll see that today’s available inventory that is priced at, or below, the current median sales price has decreased about 35 percent year-over-year.
So, conversely, and to address your original question, 52 percent of listings a year ago were priced above the median sales price, compared to 70 percent today.
Again, excellent question.
The Bear
“Lack of available for-sale inventory continues to take its toll on the number of homes sold in the Reno and Sparks markets. Units sales in September totaled 438 homes sold for the month — down a staggering 22.3 percent from the 564 home sold in August.”
“The good news is currently available inventory continues to increase. Presently 1,332 homes are available for purchase in the Reno-Sparks market.”
“Despite the gains in the number of homes available for purchase, less than one-third (31.4 percent) are priced at, or below, the current median sales price.
The persistent issue of lack of affordable homes for sale in Reno and Sparks continues to weigh on pending sales, as well.”
In just 6 months time, available inventory for sale has increased a staggering 152%! That is an absolute avalanche of inventory which has come online. There never was a shortage of housing in Reno/Sparks, only a massive speculative bubble which took it all offline temporarily. Nobody wants to sell when prices are rapidly rising, they want to bank all of those delicious gains. Once the worm turns they all rush for the exits, and that’s what’s happening right now.
There is a staggering number of houses which will be coming to market. This doesn’t even take into account the shadow inventory from the past bust which was never addressed, many of which sit vacant and slowly falling into disrepair and decay.
The local talking heads and government lackeys have zero understanding of what’s going on, or at best are willfully ignorant. They talk about housing shortages as if there are some fundamental problems with producing shelter. There are none, only another massive speculative housing bubble that caused prices to run away from incomes, and it just busted. Having just experienced this same thing less than a decade ago, you would have thought these chowderheads had learned something. Nope.
Guy Johnson
Hello Bear! It’s good to hear from you.
rlr scpo
The Reno, Sparks and Carson City housing market and demand will continue to be strong and homes will continue to appreciate with some homes appreciating more or less than others. The area is going through a major transformation, rebuilding, business development and job creation phase which is creating a significant population and visitation increase. There may be a softening or a correction at some point in the housing market in the area but it will not last for long. An influx of baby boomer and Gen X’er retirees and pensioners are moving into the area as well as younger adults and the job market will continue to be strong which will sustain growth and demand for housing.
Guy Johnson
Thank you for your comment, rlr scpo.