LAS VEGAS (KTNV) — The statistic stands out.
Nationally, 65.1% of people own the home they live in.
But here in Nevada, that rate is 57.5%, putting Nevada at No. 48 in the nation, leading only California, New York and Washington, D.C.
That fact was part of a presentation Monday hosted by the Southern Nevada Home Builders Association, called to discuss the recent legislative session and the economy in general.
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Jeremy Aguero, principal with Applied Analysis, outlined some of the economic factors facing homebuyers, both in Nevada and nationally.
Nevada's unemployment rate sits at 5.2%, No. 3 in the nation behind only Michigan and Massachusetts, Aguero said. Consumers feel the economy is worse now than during the Great Recession, and thus less likely to make major purchases such as a new home.
In fact, Aguero said, consumers are so stressed, they are doing fewer loads of laundry to save money on detergent.
Contributing to the stress is household debt, including everything from mortgages, car loans, student loans and credit card debt, which averages nearly $9,000 per household.
Interest rates also affect consumers buying homes, according to Aguero: The difference between a 3.1% rate and a 6.7% rate of a $400,000 home is nearly $700 per month, or more than $8,000 per year in payments, he said.
And with a savings rate of 4.4%, it could take 19 years to save up for a 20% down payment on a home in Las Vegas, Aguero said. Fully 78.7% of households in Nevada are unable to afford a median-priced home, above the national average of 74.9%.
But even with the challenges, Aguero said the industry in Southern Nevada directly employs more than 50,000 people, paying $5.3 billion in wages and represents an economic output of $15 billion.
Other factors
Other speakers at Monday's event highlighted other challenges the home building industry faces, both locally and nationally.
One of those factors is labor. Sam Gilboard, director of legislative affairs at the National Association of Home Builders, told the crowd that the industry has about 200,000 open jobs in any given month.
That lack of labor cost the industry about 19,000 homes last year, and extended the timetable for home construction by about two months.
"I can't overstate just how significant the workforce shortage is impacting home building," Gilboard said. "So we're able to quantify that. We estimated that it was about $2 billion in carrying costs from those two months of timetable extensions alone."
Gilboard encouraged the association and builders in the room to partner with community colleges and trade programs that train young workers in construction trades. He praised Nevada U.S. Sen. Jacky Rosen for a bill that provides grants for construction training.
Another aspect of the labor shortage can be addressed through comprehensive immigration reform, which Gilboard predicted would be taken up right after debate ends on the current budget reconciliation bill.
"The mood has changed around the issue of immigration in Congress now, and I think we're going to see some real, powerful bipartisan efforts in Congress now to introduce legislation that is going to address undocumented workers in this country, and how do we put them on a pathway to legal status?"
Efforts to pass immigration reform in recent years has stalled in Congress, including a bipartisan bill proposed in 2024 that went nowhere after President Donald Trump urged Republicans to vote against it.
But there are some bright spots: Lobbyist Greg Ferraro, president of the Ferraro Group, says a housing bill advanced by Gov. Joe Lombardo would make a difference in getting people into homes. The bill is especially targeted at the "forgotten middle," or working-class people who make too much to afford housing aid, but not enough to meet the valley's housing prices.
"[Assembly Bill] 540, I think, was the crowning achievement of the legislative session, one, because it dealt with housing," Ferraro said. "Housing is not a red or a blue issue, it's a real kitchen table issue, and it's one that in the Assembly, where the bill originated, it passed unanimously, 42 to nothing."
In addition, bills passed to provide rental assistance to people struggling to stay in their homes, and a bill that would give would-be renters transparency in fees that they'll be charged when they move in to a new home.
But one thing that all speakers agreed on was the need for more land for home development. Most of Nevada's territory, including here in Clark County, is owned or managed by the federal government, and efforts to get more of that land turned over for development have increased in recent years.
Aguero pointed out that not only is federal ownership a barrier, but also land set aside for conservation, under the Multi-Species Habitat Conservation Plan.
"We talk about how many acres there are available within the disposal [barrier], we talk about all these things," Aguero said. "We seem to leave out this most critical element, the elephant that is sitting right in the back of the room, and that is that the Multi-Species Habitat Conservation Plan has a hard cap associated with it, and there's about 16,000 plus or minus acres that are left under that cap."
But asked what one factor would have the biggest impact on home building in Southern Nevada, Ferraro doesn't hesitate in his answer: "It would be land," he says. "I think if we have more land, we have more inventory, more inventory puts downward pressure on prices."
