May median sales price and other market metrics

Reno and Sparks, Nev. median home sales price hits all-time record high!

What a doozy of a month May was for area home sales!

The median home price in Reno-Sparks, Nevada skyrocketed to a new all-time record high of $390,000 in May. May’s median home price jumped a whopping 4.0 percent over April’s median of $375,000 — and is, likely, one of the largest one-month increases observed.

Frequent readers of this blog will recall that the previous record median sales price, of $385,000, was reached twice in 2018 (both in July and also in October). May’s new median sales price handily busts through that ceiling.

Year-over-year, May’s median sale price is also up 4.0 percent.

May’s median sold price per square foot (PPSF) also set a new record high — coming in at $221.02/sq.ft. This number is up 3.4 percent over April’s $213.73/sq.ft.

Year-over-year, May’s median sold PPSF is up 5.7 percent.

Homes Sold

The news does not stop with May’s median sales price. The number of homes sold in May jumped a whopping 20.7 percent over the number of homes sold in April. 641 homes were sold during the month of May – a monthly total that this market hasn’t seen since August 2017.

Year-over-year, May’s number of homes sold was up a healthy 11.5 percent over the 575 homes sold in May 2018.

May’s strong home sales helped to mitigate year-to-date lagging sales. As of April’s report, YTD sales were down more than 12 percent compared to the same period in 2018. As of today, YTD sales are down only 6 percent for the same period last year.

Will 2019 total sales catch up and surpass 2018 home sales? We’ll have to watch and see if May’s momentum continues into June and July.

Inventory

Regarding inventory, presently 1,163 homes are available for purchase in the Reno-Sparks market. This number is up a hefty 16.8 percent from the 996 homes available for sale this time last month. Year-over-year, May’s currently available inventory is up a whopping 60.4 percent.

That being said, despite the number of homes currently available for purchase, only 24.2 percent are priced at, or below, the current median sales price. Lack of affordable inventory remains an issue.

Pending sales dropped slightly in May. Presently, 911 homes are pending sale in the Reno-Sparks market. That number is down 1.3 percent from the 923 homes pending sale this time last month. Year-over-year, current pending sales are down 1.0 percent from the number of pending sales in May 2018.

Days on Market

May’s median days on market (DOM) came in at 54 days — a big decrease of 11 days from April’s median DOM. An eleven-day reduction in the median DOM indicates increasing market velocity (a market that is heating up).

Year-over-year, May’s DOM number is up 5 days over May 2018’s number.

Sales by Type

May sales by type, break out as follows:

• REO sales: 1.2% – down from April’s 2.9%
• Short sales: 0.3% – up from April’s 0.2%
• Subject to Court Approval sales: 0.8% – down from April’s 1.0%
• Relocation sales: 0.6% – up from April’s 0.4%
• Equity sales: 96.9% – up from April’s 95.5%

Sales by Price

May sales by price band, break out as follows in the table below…

Sales by Price Segment

sales price ($000’s)	units sold	cumulative % of sales
0 – 99	1	0.2%
100 – 199	7	1.2%
200 – 299	103	17.3%
300 – 399	228	52.9%
400 – 499	119	71.5%
500 – 599	79	83.8%
600 – 699	41	90.2%
700 – 799	14	92.4%
800 – 899	7	93.4%
900 – 999	12	95.3%
1M+	30	100%
total	641

Wow! 30 homes sold for $1M, or more, during the month of May. That is a $1M+ home sale/day.

May’s median sold price for houses and condos combined was $365,000 — a 4.3 percent increase over April’s median sold price of $345,000 for combined sales of houses and condos.

The table below contains the past 13 months of data^[1]…

Past 13 Months of Home Sales Data

Month Year	# Sold	Median Sold Price	Sold Price per Sq Ft	Median DOM	# of Actives	# of Pendings
May 2019	641	$390,000	$221.02	54	1,163	911
Apr 2019	531	$375,000	$213.73	65	996	923
Mar 2019	458	$369,000	$207.92	78	867	815
Feb 2019	362	$372,150	$208.84	89	888	774
Jan 2019	325	$362,000	$210.44	86	961	655
Dec 2018	385	$365,000	$209.82	77	1,079	541
Nov 2018	469	$377,500	$211.75	71	1,237	634
Oct 2018	468	$385,000	$213.86	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

Thank you for taking the time to read this market report. As always, your comments and questions are welcomed.

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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 – Jun 3, 2019. Note: This information is deemed reliable, but not guaranteed.

For historical home sale data back to 1998 click here.