By JENNIFER ROBISON
REVIEW-JOURNAL
 Click image for enlargement. Graphic by Mike Johnson. |
A major real estate trade group has once again ranked Las Vegas among the nation's best markets for housing appreciation, but local housing analysts say the city's blistering price increases have slowed this year and won't match appreciation rates in 2004.
Statistics released Thursday by the National Association of Realtors showed that the median home price in the Las Vegas Valley rose to $291,000 in the first quarter, an increase of 29.4 percent when compared with a median price of $266,400 in the same quarter a year ago. That performance garnered the valley the No. 6 spot on the association's 136-city list of appreciation rates.
"What's driving appreciation is the growth of the city," said Lee Barrett, past president of the Greater Las Vegas Association of Realtors and broker-owner of Century 21 Barrett & Co. "Las Vegas doubles in size every 10 years, and the market's performance is a combination of that population growth and the fact that we became an area where investors saw good opportunities in our community."
The latest rankings also show that the big appreciation increases Las Vegans are accustomed to have spread to other markets. A record 66 cities experienced double-digit increases in housing prices in the first quarter.
