Las Vegas-Based Home Builders Focusing on More Affordable New Homes Amid Fed Rate Cuts
LAS VEGAS, NV – With both high housing costs and home mortgage rates driving affordability concerns upon the part of prospective home buyers, Las Vegas-based builders are hoping that the recent rate cut implemented by the Federal Reserve will make the act of purchasing a home in Southern Nevada more economically feasible going into 2025.
In a report released earlier in October, Las Vegas Realtors (LVR) stated that the cost of townhomes and condominiums had reached $299,500 in September, an all-time record high for the region. In addition, exiting single-family homes also approached record highs as well, reaching $479,900 in last month, just shy of the all-time record set in May 2022 of $482,000.
However, when it comes to the price of brand-new homes in the Las Vegas Valley, Home Builders Research reported that that number in September was $550,000 – yet another all-time record – which represents a year-over-year jump of 8 percent. New Townhomes also peaked in price in September at $393,990.
However, as time goes by and the Federal Reserve releases further cuts to interest rates, builders in Las Vegas anticipate not only the cost of constructing homes to correspondingly go down, but – most importantly – builders’ preferred lenders have the ability to offer buyers lower interest rates; those rates will only go down further as more rate cuts are implemented. This is opposed to sellers of existing homes, who would not have the luxury of lowered rates on par with those of new homes.
This, according to Charlie Dougherty, Wells Fargo Senior Economist, is why the new home market in Vegas is currently outperforming the existing home market; due to the lower rates, buyers are simply able to get more while comparatively paying less.
Builders are able to offer pricing incentives that bridge the affordability gap for buyers,” Dougherty said. “Builders have been able to offer a mortgage rate buy-down that helps attract buyers very concerned about affordability issues. Interest rates are certainly a big part of why existing home sales have been sluggish.”
Shelter Realty is a Real Estate and Property Management Company specializing in the areas of Henderson, Las Vegas and North Las Vegas, NV. Feel free to give us a call at 702.376.7379 so we can answer any questions you may have.