Total new-home closings: 5,680
Population: 2,069,681
The good: Those with boots on the ground are betting hard, placing a 45% increase in starts on the table in the first quarter of 2015.
The bad: With lot inventories at all time lows, this town's continued success may lie in the hands of developers who can find land.
The bottom line: With prices rising, closings up in the first quarter of 2015, and just 1.7 months of inventory among single-family homes, everyone's betting on Vegas.
Vegas hit the jackpot with builders in first-quarter 2015, with new home starts up 45% year over year—at their highest level since 2007—contributing to a 7% year-over-year gain in annual starts. With closings down by 14% year over year (though up by 5% quarterly) those increased starts may be a show of confidence among builders in this market's immediate future A key issue is lot supply, which remains historically low and may well be to blame for median prices among single-family product rising by 7.4% year over year in the first quarter of 2015. Median "offer to build" prices among detached single-family units also climbed to $304,000 in the first quarter of 2015, 7.4% higher than just a year prior. Metrostudy reports suggest that the key to this market's continued performance may lie in the hands of developers.
