Home Buying Takes A Blow In Las Vegas

According to the Las Vegas Review-Journal, home buying in southern Nevada has been booby-trapped by COVID-19. Buyers are becoming trapped in deals where they have already put a deposit on a home but are now unemployed. Canceling the deal means forfeiting the cash. The question comes down to should they cancel the purchase and risk losing their deposit, stick with the sale, or wait to see what the world looks at closing time. “It’ll take a while for things to get back to normal,” said Klif Andrews, Las Vegas division president for builder Pardee Homes.

In the chaotic month of March, when Las Vegas started rapidly shutting down over fears of the virus, a record 208,869 initial unemployment insurance claims were filed in Nevada – up 2,125 percent from March 2019, state data show.

Southern Nevada builders signed 459 sales contracts and had 215 canceled sales in April – compared with more than 1,000 sales each of the prior three months and a monthly average of 149 cancellations in that time, according to data from Home Builders Research President Andrew Smith.

Andrews, of Pardee, said sales volume was “heavily” affected in March, and his company is “working with” buyers who want to delay their closing date.