A prominent real estate economist expects the Las Vegas housing shortage to continue this year and possibly next, with the availability of houses for sale continuing o shrink nationwide, and also in Las Vegas and Reno.
The only ways to improve that inventory in this growing market is for builders to put up more homes or for the investors who bought at the bottom of the market to begin selling them.
That’s the assessment of Lawrence Yun, chief economist for the National Association of Realtors at a recent conference of Realtors.
Despite builders reporter high confidence in the market, Yun said, only the big national and regional builders are able to compete because of difficult federal reporting requirements.
Repealing or ease Dodd-Frank restrictions and complicated reporting requirements would allow more money from smaller banks to flow to smaller builders. That would mean more houses built by companies besides the major builders, he said.
“Small home builders are stifled and they aren’t the ones filling out the (confidence) surveys,” Yun said, according to a Nevada Association of Realtors newsletter.
“Just look at the housing starts. That is the true indicator,” Yun said. “If we get more domestic workers going into construction and wages grow, that could help. But it will take time.”
Yun said while 80 percent of Americans value home ownership, it’s at a 50-year low. But he also noted that consumers are more confident, which drives buying decisions, and that Nevada is among the top four states in non-farm job growth.
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