For the first time in 18 months, Washington state no longer leads the country when it comes to the fastest-rising home prices. New data released by CoreLogic shows that Nevada had the country’s biggest home-price increase in June. Nevada’s home prices rose 12.6% from June 2017; Meanwhile, Washington’s grew 12.1 percent—down from 12.8 percent in May.
As for metro areas, Seattle is just ahead of Las Vegas for largest home price growth in the nation. In the last Case-Shiller home price index for metro areas in May, home prices grew 13.6 percent in the Seattle region and 12.6 percent in Las Vegas.
Despite ranking at one and two, both as states and metro areas, Nevada remains around $100,000 cheaper than Washington for the average home, and Seattle three times more expensive than Las Vegas. In their latest market update, NWMLS reported that the region’s home price-growth slowed to 8.4 percent from June to July, but inventory is up. King County’s inventory has doubled since march, going from 0.8 months to 1.5 months.
The number of active listings in King County surged 48 percent from a year ago, going from 3,465 to 5,115. Snohomish County also saw a double-digit increase of inventory, going up nearly 15.8 percent. Even though inventory has steadily increased over the past few months, it still remains below the 4-to-6 month mark of a balanced market.