Reno-Sparks Luxury Home Sales Outperform in 2020

Luxury home sales in the Reno-Sparks market outperformed the rest of housing market in 2020.

Entry price point to luxury segment surpasses $1M for the first time.


Reno-Sparks luxury homes sales saw another banner year in 2020. …Not quite as good as what was observed in 2018 (See Reno-Sparks luxury home prices skyrocket in 2018), but outperforming the remainder of the housing market nonetheless.

Luxury sales defined

Luxury home sales are defined dynamically using sale prices to track and identify the luxury tiers over time. In this analysis we look at two luxury home tiers:

  1. “Luxury” – defined as the top 5% (95th percentile) of homes sales; and
  2. “Ultra-Luxury” – defined as the top 1% (99th percentile) of home sales.

Luxury home entry price point, median sales price, and days on market

In 2020, the entry price point for the luxury home tier in the Reno-Sparks market surpassed $1M for the first time.

The entry price point for the luxury home market came in at $1,010,000 for 2020. This was a 12.2 percent increase over the luxury entry price point for 2019 (See table above)

The median sales price of the luxury home segment in 2020 was $1,330,625. This number was 11.8 percent higher than the luxury median sales price in 2019.

Comparing luxury’s median sales price increase to that of the remaining 95% of home sales, we see in the table above that the increase in the median sales price for the remaining 95% of sales was 9.4 percent from 2019 to 2020.

These relative increases in median sales price show the luxury segment out performing the rest of the market by more than 25 percent.

2020 also saw median days on market (DOM) drop to its lowest recorded level.

The table above shows record low DOM numbers in both the luxury and non-luxury segments for 2020.

Luxury home sales by area

The Northern Nevada Regional MLS divides the Reno-Sparks real estate market into 42 different areas. 2020’s luxury home sales occurred in 17 of these 42 areas – with just five areas accounting for more than 82 percent of luxury home sales (see table below).

Reno’s South Suburban area (ArrowCreek, Saddlehorn, Fieldcreek) accounted for 27 percent of luxury home sales — more than any other MLS area. Reno’s Southwest Suburban area (Montreux, St. James’ Village, Galena Forest) took the 2nd spot — accounting for more than 20 percent of luxury home sales in 2020.

Note: Click here for an interactive Google map of the MLS areas.

Ultra-luxury segment

Ultra-luxury sales (the top 1% of home sales) also showed impressive gains in 2020.

The entry price point to the ultra-luxury home segment rose to $1,825,000 — an increase of 12.3 percent over 2019’s entry price point of $1,625,000 for the segment.

2020’s median sales price for the ultra-luxury home segment rose to $2,300,000 — an increase of 12.2 percent over 2019’s median sales price of $2,050,000.

The highest priced residential sale in 2020 sold for $5.2M. This sale surpassed 2019’s highest priced sale of $4.5M by 15.6 percent.

How will luxury home sales fare in 2021? I welcome your comments and questions below.


The residential sales data in the tables above includes Site/Stick Built properties only. Data excludes Condo/Townhouse, Manufactured/Modular and Shared Ownership properties. Data courtesy of the Northern Nevada Regional MLS, January 23, 2021. Note: This information is deemed reliable, but not guaranteed.

2 comments

  1. Catherine

    It really surprised me the past few times I have pulled up area 165 stats to see that there is a shortage of supply even there of million dollar homes. Crazy.

  2. Guy Johnson

    Catherine, yes the extremely low inventory level is being observed across the board.

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