Under Joe Lombardo’s failed leadership, Las Vegas housing prices are climbing to record highs and Reno has become less affordable than even Seattle. While Nevadans are unable to afford a home and brace for a “possible recession,” out-of-state corporate investors are lining their pockets.
As Nevadans struggle to afford homes, Lombardo vetoed affordable housing legislation that would have helped stop Wall Street firms from pricing working Nevadans out of home ownership and prevented landlords from abusing tenants. Despite making the housing crisis a central part of his 2022 campaign, the cost of housing has grown more expensive during his tenure.
See more below:
Las Vegas Review Journal: Las Vegas homebuilders sales fall sharply as buyers face affordability hurdles
- Las Vegas homebuilders’ sales fell sharply last month as buyers again paid record-high prices, a new report shows, a sign of the affordability hurdles that many others still face.
- Builders landed 656 net sales — newly signed sales contracts minus cancellations — in August in Southern Nevada, down 37 percent from the same month last year, according to Las Vegas-based Home Builders Research.
- Construction plans also fell, as builders pulled 650 new-home permits last month, down 24 percent from a year earlier.
- All told, builders closed 861 home sales in August, down 26 percent year-over-year, Home Builders Research reported.
- The overall median closing price last month, $536,471, was up 7.6 percent from a year earlier, according to the research firm, which noted the price was the highest it’s ever reported.
- Amid a drop in sales totals this year, this marked the third time in 2025 that builders fetched record-high prices encompassing all types of homes.
- The median sales price last month, $480,000, was just below the all-time high of $485,000, which, the association noted, has been reached several times this year.
- It cited several reasons why demand hasn’t improved yet, including stubbornly high home prices, mortgage rates haven’t fallen far enough, and economic uncertainty, including fears of layoffs or a possible recession.
- Las Vegas, for instance, shed thousands of jobs last month amid an ongoing tourism slump, according to state officials, who found that Nevada’s labor market is “largely stationary.”
Public News Service: New data show corporate investors own 20% of Las Vegas homes
- About one in five homes in the Las Vegas area is owned by a corporate investor, according to new data from Redfin but legislative efforts to rein in the problem are stalled.
- Critics said corporate investors squeeze supply and drive prices up by taking too many homes off the market and turning them into high-priced rentals.
- Sen. Dina Neal, D-North Las Vegas, said first-time homebuyers have a hard time finding affordable options.
- “Limiting corporate investors, that’s a part of the larger play of making sure that there is something available that you can purchase and that you’re not competing against a corporate investor,” Neal explained. “So that you can actually achieve the American dream.”
- Neal’s bill to limit corporate purchase of homes to 100 per year failed in the state Senate in May, in the face of Republican opposition.
- Neal pointed out she has seen corporate investors snap up whole neighborhoods of newly built homes and convert them to rentals.
- A new study from the University of Nevada, Las Vegas found most people in Las Vegas cannot afford to buy a home. The median monthly cost of a mortgage in Las Vegas is almost $3,000. To afford it, a household would have to earn almost $120,000 dollars a year. The median annual household income in the area falls about $40,000 short.
###
