LAS VEGAS (KTNV) — Opportunity zones — where people can invest money for tax-free returns — aren't anything new.
But they can help build new housing, open new businesses and create new jobs, according to Scott Turner, the secretary of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.
WATCH| Steve Sebelius talks to Sam Cherry, a developer benefiting from opportunity zone funds
On a Las Vegas visit on Monday. Turner stressed the efficacy of opportunity zones, which were a feature of the first Trump administration but were made permanent in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act that passed in 2024.
Investors take capital gains, which would otherwise be taxed, and instead put the money into opportunity zones for a period of 10 years, where the money is used to build homes and businesses. After 10 years, any gains are tax free, Turner said. The zones are set up in areas that are depressed or experiencing poverty.
"Since the beginning of Opportunity Zones, almost $100 billion of private money, capital gains, have been invested in opportunity zones [nationwide]," Turner said. "Four hundred thousand new units of housing, hundreds of thousands of new jobs, home values inside of opportunity zones rose about 3.4% while rents maintained."
Here in Las Vegas, there are 22 opportunity zones all across the valley. That includes downtown and West Las Vegas, where developer Sam Cherry has built apartment projects using the zones' benefits.
"It's a big deal for Cherry Development and our brand Share Downtown," Cherry said in an interview outside his Share Westside project, on D Street near downtown. "It's the component that just put the deal over the edge, gets it across the line to make the numbers work. And you can literally go around the skyline of downtown Las Vegas right now, and all the larger housing projects that are being built are being built with opportunity zone funds. So it's a major component."
Cherry said without opportunity zones, builders would need more incentives or different financing to make projects pencil out. In exchange for building in the zone, rents at the Share Westside are capped at $1,476 per month for a one-bedroom unit; Cherry says the average will be about $1,300 per month. Residents can take advantage of the College of Southern Nevada's workforce training facility next door.
Cherry also said another initiative to reduce regulations — included in a presidential executive order issued last week — helps with the bottom line. The process of getting financing "...it's stretched out quite a bit, so anything that we can do that helps shorten that time frame or roll back some of the costs that it can be treated as a layer of the capital stack to get a project off the ground and to the finish line," he said.
Turner said the federal government is aware of the struggles of would-be homeowners in Las Vegas who are trying to buy their first place. "I hear it. You hear it. It's a reality," he said. "The median home price in this beloved state is $480,000, which is way too high. That's not sustainable."
Added Turner: "The President [Donald Trump] is also not just aware of this, but he's making bold steps and executing. He's heard the American people, housing affordability is top of mind for him, myself and other leaders in the administration."
That includes things such as making mortgages more affordable and a ban on corporations buying homes, which many say crowds out homebuyers with mortgages. Members of Nevada's Democrat-controlled Legislature tried to pass a similar measure, but it was vetoed by Gov. Joe Lombardo in 2023. A similar measure failed to pass in 2025 after Lombardo reportedly asked Senate Republicans to kill it.
When asked when Las Vegas locals could expect relief, Turner said it was right around the corner: "These policies, this year, will start taking effect. And so we believe that the American people will see the benefit of these policies this year in 2026, as it pertains to housing affordability, affordability overall, to be a benefit for them and their families, including opportunity zones."
For his part, Cherry said the market would see some changes, including the return of condo construction, which lapsed after the Great Recession. "And it used to be where you could go from an apartment to a condo in ownership, to a townhome to a home," he said. "And there's a gap that's missed currently. So finding those missing components, I think, is a big part of it."