January home sales drop to its lowest level in a decade
The median home price in Reno-Sparks, Nevada fell to $362,000 in January — marking three consecutive months of declines. The median sales price of $362,000 is off 6.0 percent from its high of $385,000 set in October last year. It is also nearly back to where it was a year ago when the median was $359,950 in January 2018.
- Month-over-month, January’s median sales price is down 0.8%.
- Year-over-year, January’s median sales price is up 0.7%.
Despite the decline in the median sales price, January’s median sold price per square foot (PPSF) increased to $210.44/sq.ft — a slight gain of 0.3 percent over December’s. Year-over-year, January’s median sold PPSF is up 9.8 percent.
The bigger story with the housing market is the substantial drop in the number of homes sold for the month. Units sales in January totaled a paltry 321 homes — down 16.4 percent from December’s 384 units sold, and down a whopping 20.9 percent year-over-year.
Longtime followers of the housing market will know that January is historically known for weak sales, but 320 units sold is abnormally low. In fact, one would have to go back to 2009 in order to find a month with lower sales.
Regarding inventory, presently 961 homes are available for purchase in the Reno-Sparks market. Given the current rate of home sales, available inventory equates to about a 3-month supply (MSI) — a Seller’s market. Currently, available inventory is down 10.9 percent from the 1,079 homes for sales this time last month. Year-over-year, the current number of available homes for purchase is up a whopping 87.0 percent from this time last year.
However, despite the number of homes available for purchase only 44.8 percent are priced at, or below, the current median sales price.
On a brighter note, pending sales rose in January. Presently, 655 homes are pending sale in the Reno-Sparks market. That number is up 21.1 percent over the 541 homes pending sale this time last month. Look for unit sales to increase in February as the market begins to enter the spring home buying season. Year-over-year, current pending sales are down 16.2 percent from January 2018.
January’s median days on market (DOM) came in at 86 days — an increase of nine days over December’s DOM. January’s DOM is up a significant 26.4 percent year-over-year indicating a relatively slower market than this time last year.
January sales by type, break out as follows:
- REO sales: 1.6% – down from December’s 2.2%
- Short sales: 0.6% – up from December’s 0%
- Subject to Court Approval sales: 1.9% – up from December’s 0.6%
- Relocation sales: 0.3% – down from December’s 0.6%
- Equity sales: 95.6% – down from December’s 96.7%
January 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 | 6 | 1.9% |
| 200 – 299 | 76 | 25.5% |
| 300 – 399 | 115 | 61.4% |
| 400 – 499 | 67 | 82.2% |
| 500 – 599 | 16 | 87.2% |
| 600 – 699 | 14 | 91.6% |
| 700 – 799 | 8 | 94.1% |
| 800 – 899 | 6 | 96.0% |
| 900 – 999 | 4 | 97.2% |
| 1M+ | 9 | 100% |
| total | 321 |
January’s median sold price for houses and condos combined was $340,000 — essentially unchanged from December’s median sold price of $339,900 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 |
| Jan 2019 | 321 | $362,000 | $210.44 | 86 | 961 | 655 |
| Dec 2018 | 384 | $364,750 | $209.76 | 77 | 1,079 | 541 |
| Nov 2018 | 469 | $377,500 | $211.75 | 71 | 1,237 | 634 |
| Oct 2018 | 469 | $385,000 | $213.62 | 65 | 1,300 | 717 |
| Sep 2018 | 460 | $372,527 | $210.74 | 60 | 1,333 | 725 |
| Aug 2018 | 572 | $370,725 | $211.79 | 57 | 1,208 | 790 |
| Jul 2018 | 567 | $385,000 | $216.37 | 53 | 1,154 | 838 |
| Jun 2018 | 602 | $381,950 | $215.88 | 49 | 923 | 906 |
| May 2018 | 575 | $375,000 | $209.12 | 49 | 725 | 920 |
| Apr 2018 | 491 | $374,000 | $205.34 | 51 | 638 | 891 |
| Mar 2018 | 549 | $375,000 | $200.86 | 50 | 529 | 814 |
| Feb 2018 | 444 | $370,000 | $193.90 | 61 | 528 | 796 |
| Jan 2018 | 406 | $359,950 | $191.74 | 68 | 514 | 782 |
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 – February 6, 2019. Note: This information is deemed reliable, but not guaranteed.
For historical home sale data back to 1998 click here.
