LAS VEGAS (KTNV) — Gov. Joe Lombardo on Friday touted the success of a bipartisan housing bill passed in the 2025 Legislature, saying it's already helping build new houses in the state.
But he said there's more work to do, if he's elected to a second four-year term in November.
Meanwhile, Democratic Attorney General Aaron Ford said Lombardo has had four years to work on housing, but has failed to significantly bring down costs. He pledged to do better if he wins the November balloting.
The housing forum featured realtors, homebuilders, lobbyists, and a group that helps people find housing in Southern Nevada.
WATCH | Lombardo discusses first-term successes on housing
Lombardo said Assembly Bill 540 — which passed the Legislature with overwhelming bipartisan majorities — has already brought big changes to the state.
The bill put $183 million toward affordable and attainable housing, with the first $64 million helping to build 358 single-family homes and more than 1,200 rental apartments.
That's on top of $1 billion in state bonds, which have been used to develop or preserve more than 5,500 rental homes, and another $900 million to help more tan 3,300 people afford the sometimes-pricey down payments required to purchase homes in the state.
Lombardo said he was especially proud of a change in the law that expands aid to people who make up to 150% of the median income, which includes public safety personnel.
"That affects our middle-income folks that are usually forgotten, because they make too much, but too little, so they are caught in the middle and they don't have that proverbial dream or the ability to achieve that dream of owning or renting a quality home," Lombardo said at the forum. "And the majority of those folks are our first responders, our police officers, firefighters, nurse, teachers, whoever that may be, along with other middle-income folks that have that vision of stability and longevity as they reside in our state."
One of those people was also at the forum. Carlos Merida said he moved to Nevada from California about a year ago, where he said homes and government policies were not to his liking,
His goal: To get his family — his mom, his sister and his brother — together under one roof. He was able to do it in a four-bedroom, three bathroom home in Las Vegas.
"It means the world to us," he said after the roundtable. "Like I spoke in our meeting, we have an opportunity now to have a united family under one roof and, you know, now we can create those memories like having Thanksgiving, Christmas dinner together. And it's a blessing and a dream come true. "
Lombardo said the state faces some housing challenges that he's prepared to take on in a second term. He said the state needs more federal land transferred to the state for housing development, needs to continue the fight to keep our share of Colorado River water and needs to continue to streamline the process of home approvals in order to keep costs down.
"The inability to expand contracts the economy," the governor said at one point, about the need for additional land.
"So in order to drive down that [housing] cost, you have to have supply, right? And you know, competition upon demand, supply and demand, raises that price," he said. "So without the available land, without the available water, with the ability to drive that cost down with supply, we're just spinning our wheels, right?"
And Lombardo said he was going to propose a bill about corporate housing in the next session of the Legislature, assuming he's re-elected.
Lombardo took criticism in 2023 after he vetoed a bill to cap the number of single-family homes a corporation could own, and he pressured senators in 2025 not to pass a similar measure,(A third attempt to pass the bill in a special session failed by just one vote.).
The governor said the bills as written were unconstitutional, and similar measures had failed to pass legal muster in other states. But he said a working group he put together after the session had come up with a bill that fixed any constitutional concerns, and that he would make it one of his priorities for the next session.
After the governor's vetoes, however, President Donald Trump embraced the idea of limiting corporate homeownership, and that provision became a feature of the 21st Century Road to Housing Act that Congress passed earlier this year.
It wasn't clear how Lombardo's proposed law would differ from the federal law; a text seeking clarification wasn't returned on Friday.
Meanwhile, Democratic Attorney General Aaron Ford said in a statement that Lombardo had missed the opportunity to significantly reduce home prices.
"“Joe Lombardo has had four years to lower housing costs for working Nevadans; for four years, he’s failed to do this. Instead, he vetoed multiple bills that would’ve lowered the cost of housing and prescription drugs before raking in campaign cash from Trump’s ‘billionaire friends,'" Ford said in the statement. "Nevadans aren’t going to give Lombardo an extension on an assignment he has already failed. When I’m Governor, I’ll take immediate action to lower housing costs by slashing security deposits, blocking Wall Street from buying up homes and pricing out Nevada families, and expanding rental and downpayment assistance to help Nevadans afford their rent and achieve the dream of buying a home.”
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