LAS VEGAS (KLAS) — Home prices have stabilized in Las Vegas over the past two months — a big advantage for buyers, according to information released Tuesday morning by Las Vegas Realtors (LVR).

After prices that jumped or plunged as much as $15,000 from month to month over the past year, Tuesday’s report was an unexpected change: a $5 drop in the median price of a single-family home.

Home prices dropped from a median of $425,000 to $424,995. Prices of condos and townhomes stayed exactly where they were last month: $255,000. The median price is the one in the middle — half are more expensive and half are cheaper.

“The local housing market is much more balanced now than it has been in recent years,” 2023 LVR President Lee Barrett, a longtime local realtor, said.

“Instead of sellers having the advantage, buyers are now in a better position, since prices have stabilized and we have more homes on the market. We’ve now seen two straight months of stable home prices,” Barrett said.

The figures released by LVR are for existing homes — new home sales are not included.

Last year at this time, prices were climbing on their way to May’s peak of $482,000. Condos/townhomes peaked at $285,000 the same month.

Comparisons to February 2022 show prices showing single family homes 5.6% lower than last year, and condos/townhomes down 1.9%.

“It was also encouraging to see sales increase from January to February, while new listings continued to decline. Even with mortgage interest rates reaching 7% recently, this shows a strong underlying interest in owning a home here in Southern Nevada,” Barrett said.

The number of available homes is way up from last year, when people were scrambling to compete with other bidders for less than a one-month supply of houses on the market. Supplies now are nearly three months.

By the end of February, LVR reported 4,665 single-family homes listed for sale without any sort of offer, up 167.9% from the same time last year. For condos/townhomes, 1,155 units without an offer represent a 265.5% jump from one year earlier.

Cash purchases have decreased to about 27% of all local property sales — less than half the March 2013 cash buyer peak of 59.5%.

In February, 61% of all existing local homes and 69% of all existing local condos and townhomes sold within 60 days.