Industry analyst Brian Bonnenfant said he’s “definitely” seeing real recovery in the region’s long suffering housing sector.  April home prices jumped more than 20 percent compared with last year in the Reno/Sparks market, according to a report.  Once again we believe this is true due to the inventory of for-sale homes being so limited.  As a result this has also affected New home sales.  About 300 new homes were sold, a 150 percent increase, compared to the first quarter of 2012, said Bourdeau, who is a real estate agent with Keller Williams Realty Group One.

As a result of what is happening to the market in the Reno/Sparks area, we have seen a drop in the unemployment to fall below 10%, down from 14% during the recession.  Washoe County’s taxable sales have also increased for three consecutive months in Nevada.  We also had the highest home appreciation in the nation at 24.5 percent.

In little more than 2 years, Washoe’s median sales price has risen more than 60 percent from its recession low of $135,000 in January 2012, but it is still well below the pre-recession high of $350,000 in the third quarter of 2005. Today the median sales price of a home is $222,000 in the Reno area.  Washoe median sales price is $218,000 and Sparks is $195,000.  Many buyers now have higher qualifications guidelines and we are seeing tons of cash where last time there were a lot of people who really should’t have been buying.

With low inventory of homes for sale and a growing buyers market we expect to continue this trend.  This might be the right time for sellers to consider listing their homes.  In Montreux we are seeing lots once again selling  to buyers  who cannot find a luxury home that suites them and are choosing to build their dream home.  Our inventory is so low with only 15 homes on the market at present.