Following the hottest housing year in decades, Southern Nevada homebuilders began 2022 with sales prices at all-time highs.

According to a recent survey from Las Vegas-based Home Builders Research, builders sold single-family houses for a median price of $482,320 in January, up 23.6 percent from January 2021, and condominiums and townhomes for a median price of $348,990, up 25.5 percent.

The figures are for completed deals, and both reached new all-time highs in January, according to Home Builders Research President Andrew Smith.

The majority of builders’ sales in the region are single-family houses.

According to Home Builders Research, builders closed 722 new-home sales in January, up 2% from the same month last year, despite the fact that January is often the slowest month for closings.

In January, builders in Southern Nevada recorded 1,090 net sales, which are freshly signed purchase contracts minus cancellations. According to Home Builders Research, this was the greatest monthly tally since July, although it fell short of the sales totals in January 2021 (1,249) and January 2020 (1,116).

It might take many months after the buyer signs a sales contract for the property to be finished and the sale to close.

Overall, builders in the Las Vegas area “continue to operate at full capacity, selling everything they release,” Smith wrote in the report, but are “holding back” on the number of home sites they release due to high buyer demand, labor, and supply issues, jurisdictional delays, and “looming” interest-rate hikes.

Fueled largely by rock-bottom mortgage rates that let buyers stretch their budgets, Las Vegas’ housing market accelerated last year. Houses sold rapidly, buyers paid above the asking price, supply was tight and fast-rising prices reached new all-time highs practically every month.

For their part, builders put buyers on waiting lists, took bids for lots, regularly raised prices, and in some cases drew names to determine who could purchase a place. Homebuilders also faced higher materials costs and delivery delays amid widespread supply-chain disruptions.

Overall, it was increasingly difficult to buy a home in the Las Vegas area last year, more expensive and, some said, increasingly unaffordable.

Across the country, a lack of resale inventory has “sustained” demand for home construction, but higher costs, including for lumber, and limited availability of materials is “making it more difficult for builders to meet market demand,” Jerry Konter, chairman of the National Association of Home Builders, said this week.

KB Home Chairman and CEO Jeffrey Mezger, who leads a national builder with a big presence in Southern Nevada, said in January that while operating conditions last year “were extremely challenging” with labor shortages and supply-chain disruptions, its teams “remained resilient in working through solutions with our trade partners and suppliers.”

Its profits also soared.

KB booked $564.7 million in net income for the 12 months ended Nov. 30, up about 91 percent from the same period a year earlier.

PulteGroup, another national builder with a big presence in the Las Vegas Valley, earned more than $1.9 billion in net income last year, up 38 percent from 2020.

Ryan Marshall, president, and CEO said last month that strong buyer demand is expected to continue.

“Although ongoing supply chain disruptions continue to challenge our industry, we believe that our size, growing community count and an available inventory of new homes have us well-positioned to grow our business in 2022 while continuing to deliver exceptional returns,” Marshall said.

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