The Nevada Association of REALTORS® (NVAR) has donated $15,000 to help victims of recent hurricanes in Texas, Florida and surrounding areas. NVAR President Greg Martin said NVAR’s donation to the REALTORS® Relief Foundation created 16 years ago by the National Association of REALTORS® (NAR) will be used to help members of the public who need help recovering from Hurricanes Harvey and Irma.

“It’s important to do what we can to help people in need rebuild their lives after these natural disasters,” Martin said. “By donating to the REALTORS® Relief Foundation, 100 percent of the funds go directly to help people affected by these storms. None of this money is used for overhead or administrative costs.” Martin, a longtime REALTOR® based in Elko, Nev., added that NVAR and its members throughout Nevada may donate more to this fund in the coming weeks and months.

NAR launched the REALTORS® Relief Foundation (RRF) as the REALTORS® Relief Fund in 2001, within hours of the devastating Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks – raising more than $8.4 million so that surviving family members could stay in their homes. Since then, more than $25 million has been raised for victims of disasters, including wildfires, tornadoes, floods and hurricanes.

Today, RRF exists as a 501(c)(3) organization established to provide housing-related assistance to victims of disasters and for other charitable purposes permitted under Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code.

The Greater Las Vegas Association of REALTORS® (GLVAR) reported today that local home sales continued to rise while home prices started to level off in August. GLVAR reported that the median price of existing single-family homes sold during August through its Multiple Listing Service (MLS) was $260,000, unchanged from July, but up 10.6 percent from August 2016. The median price of local condos and townhomes sold in August was $137,250, down slightly from July, but still up 19.3 percent from August 2016.

GLVAR President David J. Tina said home prices have been appreciating steadily for several years. For example, he said GLVAR reported that the median single-family home price in August of 2014 was $200,000. It went up to $220,000 in August of 2015, then to $235,000 in August of 2016 before hitting $260,000 last month. “Basically, our local home prices have been going up by about 10 percent per year for the past three years,” Tina said. “That rate of appreciation has been fairly consistent, making for a stable housing market. At the same time, more homes are changing hands as the economy improves.”

As for potential headwinds in the local housing market, Tina said the demand for housing continues to exceed supply. At the current sales pace, he said Southern Nevada still has less than a two-month supply of existing homes available for sale. A six-month supply is considered to be a balanced market. He added that the supply is even tighter for lower-priced homes, condos and townhomes.

By the end of August, GLVAR reported 5,157 single-family homes listed for sale without any sort of offer. That’s down 32.1 percent from one year ago. For condos and townhomes, the 683 properties listed without offers in August represented a 45.1 percent drop from one year ago. If there’s a bright spot in the housing supply, Tina explained, it’s that “at least we had more homes available for sale in August than we did the previous month.”

Meanwhile, more homes are selling each month. The total number of existing local homes, condos and townhomes sold during August was 4,012, up from 3,789 in August 2016. Compared to one year ago, sales were up 5.9 percent for homes and up 6.0 percent for condos and townhomes.According to GLVAR, total sales so far in 2017 continue to outpace 2016, when 41,720 total properties were sold in Southern Nevada. At this rate, GLVAR statistics show that 2017 is on pace to be the best year for local home sales since at least 2012. GLVAR said 25.8 percent of all local properties sold in August were purchased with cash, the same percentage as August of last year. That’s well short of the February 2013 peak of 59.5 percent.

In recent years, GLVAR has been reporting fewer distressed sales and more traditional home sales, where lenders are not controlling the transaction. That trend continued in August, when 3.7 percent of all local sales were short sales – which occur when lenders allow borrowers to sell a home for less than what they owe on the mortgage. That’s down from 4.1 percent of all sales in August 2016. Another 2.4 percent of all August sales were bank-owned, down from 5.5 percent one year ago.

These GLVAR statistics include activity through the end of August 2017. GLVAR distributes statistics each month based on data collected through its MLS, which does not necessarily account for newly constructed homes sold by local builders or homes for sale by owners.