Record high in July: Reno's median home price tops $459K as demand soars

RENO, Nev. — Due to ever-increasing demand and decreasing supply for residential real estate in Northern Nevada amid the COVID-19 pandemic, median home prices across greater Reno-Sparks set record highs in July.

Specifically in Reno (a submarket that includes the North Valleys), the median sales price for an existing single-family residence was a record-high $459,900, representing a 9.5% increase from July 2019 and a 10.8% uptick from June 2020, according to statistics released Aug. 7 by the Reno/Sparks Association of Realtors.

“The combination of continued strong job growth in Northern Nevada with mortgage interest rates that are near record lows is resulting in one of the region’s most robust residential real estate markets in recent memory,” RSAR reports in the press release.

Meanwhile, the median home price in Sparks (which includes Spanish Springs) in July came in at $415,000, up 8.6% from last year and up 5.3% from June; according to RSAR, it marks the first time ever Sparks’ median home price topped $400,000.

Putting it all together, the greater Reno-Sparks region’s median home price in July was $435,000 — an increase of 7.1% from July 2019 and up 7.4% from the previous month.

“The Reno/Sparks market has an extremely low market supply of homes; our inventory is less than one month supply, which is well below the national average of four months,” Erika Lamb, RSAR presidentand Broker-Owner of Welcome Home Real Estate & Property Management, said in a statement. “As a result of the record-low housing inventory combined with the low interest rates, buyers are moving quickly on newly listed homes, many times competing with multiple offers.”

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Below are other highlights from RSAR’s July report:

• Reno/Sparks recorded 718 sales of existing single-family homes, an increase of 18.3% from last year and a 28.9% increase from June.
• The median sales price of a condo/townhome in Reno/Sparks was $266,995, up 18.7% from last year.
• Reno (including North Valleys) had 475 home sales, up 8.7% from July 2019 and up 27% from the previous month.
• The median sales price of a condo/townhome in Reno was $268,500, up 3.9% from last year.
• Sparks (including Spanish Springs) had 243 home sales, up 42.9% from last year and up 32.8% from June.
• The median sales price of a condo/townhome in Sparks was $249,250, up 22.2% from last year.
• In Fernley, the median home price was $281,000, an increase of 5.4% from last year and up 1.6 % from June. Fernley had 53 home sales in July, down 5.4% from last year and up 1.9% increase from June.

RSAR culls its statistics from the Northern Nevada Regional Multiple Listing Service; go to rsar.net/market-reports for full stats from July and other months.

Report: Average luxury home price in Nevada topped $1.8 million in 2019

On Aug. 3, the Private Bank by Nevada State Bank released the latest edition of its High Net Worth Report series. Issue 1 of 2020 reviews the luxury housing markets in Nevada.

Highlights from the report include:

• The high-value real estate market in Northern Nevada accounted for 418 home sales in 2019, an increase of 4.8 percent over 2018. The average luxury home price was over $1.8 million in 2019.
• A large number of Northern Nevada home purchases over $1 million took place in high-end areas north of Lake Tahoe on the Championship Golf Course, Ponderosa and Lakefront neighborhoods (153 total sales in Incline Village).
• Southern Nevada saw the number of high-value home purchases rise to 851 in 2019, a 15.6 percent increase over the number of similar home purchases the previous year. The average price of these homes was $1.7 million in 2019.
• A large number of luxury home purchases in Southern Nevada were in expanding areas of Summerlin and Henderson. The distribution of new and existing home sales was consistent with 2018, demonstrating home builders’ generally positive outlook on the real estate market overall.

“Nevada saw sustained economic growth in 2019, leading to another increase in luxury home purchases in the state’s two largest urban areas,” said James Rensvold, Executive Vice President and Director of Private Banking. “Although the COVID-19 pandemic has deeply affected our economy, the positive trends of 2019 provide reason for optimism through the crisis and into the future.”

The Private Bank High Net Worth Report is available Nevada State Bank’s website at www.nsbank.com/HNWreport.