Approximately 115 people move to Clark County each day, and the area’s population is expected to exceed three million by 2050, according to a new report prepared by UNLV for local governments, putting additional pressure on a region that is already seeing A shortage of affordable housing.
Increased public interest in moving to the county, including a surge in high-income, college-educated workers moving here, could also make things worse for the housing market, according to experts and industry executives. According to the UNLV report, some 2.37 million people currently live in the county.
“We need more product,” says Lee Barrett, president of Las Vegas Realtors. “What has kept the values in the Las Vegas market high is that lack of product, so it’s a supply and demand issue.”
The National Low Income Housing Coalition estimates the county is already short of 85,000 affordable housing units. But government leaders and industry executives say the measures are being put in place to hopefully ease the problem for years to come.
Clark County is experiencing a demographic shift with its large influx of new residents, an increase in relocating high-income workers with college educations that began during the COVID-19 pandemic, said Andrew Woods, director of the Center for Business and Economic Research at UNLV, and author of the annual report analyzing population estimates for the county through 2080.
Now, college-educated workers make up more than a quarter of new Clark County residents, according to Woods, an increase of five percent from pre-pandemic numbers.
“The bottom line is that college-educated workers were more likely to choose where they wanted to live during the pandemic, so many of them moved,” he says. We saw that they wanted to get out of large, expensive urban communities and move to places that are more affordable, with a higher perceived quality of life, and with employment opportunities within or outside of their current line of work.” Las Vegas experienced an influx of college-educated workers compared to before the pandemic.”
In addition to a growing number of high-income workers who will need a place to live, the Clark County housing market is already facing a supply problem, as many homeowners who bought at low interest rates are staying. Meanwhile, a construction slowdown caused by rising construction costs has created a perfect storm, leading to record low inventory across the board. So the question remains: where are all these new residents going to live?
change of strategy
Real estate leaders say they are taking steps to increase supply.
Las Vegas Realtors recently partnered with the Southern Nevada Home Builders Association to create an advisory council that will work to ensure a mix of new homes, from entry-level to luxury, are built to meet demand, according to Barrett.
“The idea is to talk to the new homebuilders and see how we can support them politically and everything else to move forward and get more construction started, and also more affordable housing, with a little bit more density,” he said.
Amanda Moss, senior director of government affairs for the Southern Nevada Home Builders Association, said the lack of affordable land, a shortage of construction workers and rising construction costs have all played into creating a tight market now also more hampered by high interest rates.
“Land is probably, as a single aspect, the biggest impediment to development of not just market rate, but also affordable housing,” he said. “And I think the statistic that best demonstrates this is that land use (in Nevada) used to be about 25 percent of the cost of housing, and now it’s closer to 40 percent.”
Local governments are trying to balance market interests and public needs in a housing market still reeling from the pandemic and years of record prices, sales and listings.
Federal interest rate hikes have cooled the market in 2023, but finding a balance has proven more difficult as inflation remains stubbornly high and the cost of a mortgage is the highest since the 2008-09 economic downturn. .
Kathi Thomas-Gibson, Las Vegas’ director of community services, says part of the battle is making sure local jurisdictions don’t lose affordable housing units at the same rate they gain them.
“So the city is always looking at housing preservation,” he said, “in other words, keeping the affordable housing that we currently have, affordable. And we are looking at the acquisitions that we have and taking older buildings and working with the community to acquire them and rehabilitate them so they can be used as affordable housing.”
The City of Las Vegas has a rehabilitation program to preserve and stabilize the community’s housing stock for affordable housing by providing critical home repairs to eligible low-income homeowners.
Federal land to the rescue?
A recently signed deal allowing southern Nevada governments to buy federal public land for as little as $100 an acre to use for affordable housing projects could be the key to unlocking new supply in the city. Clark County has also taken action, announcing this summer $70 million in funding for the construction and rehabilitation of affordable housing through the Welcome Home project. Last year, the county contributed $120 million to build or maintain 3,000 affordable homes.
US Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto, D-Nevada, has worked on a number of initiatives related to affordable housing in the state — raising more than $1 billion so far — including a recent initiative to access cheap federal land.
In an email response to the Las Vegas Review-Journal, Masto said the goal is to make living in the state affordable.
“We need to lower housing costs in southern Nevada and make sure our families have homes and apartments they can afford. That’s why I’ve worked so hard to update outdated federal guidance and make it easier to expand our affordable housing supply in the Las Vegas Valley, and that’s why I’ve led the fight in Congress to increase the number of federal funds available for affordable housing and making homeownership more accessible for families.”
Housing has long been considered a side issue for the federal government, but the issue has become a hot topic when it comes to state and local elections, as candidates are meeting with voter complaints. from rising rents and living costs associated with their homes post-pandemic.
Clark County Commissioner James Gibson said the county is working to answer the call for more affordable housing.
“We know the need in our community is great and the availability in our current housing market is limited,” he said. “We know these developments don’t happen quickly, but we are focused on permanent solutions for our region and these investments help us achieve this goal.” As information becomes available in the coming months on how to apply for this (Welcome Home) funding, I encourage developers who want to make a significant impact in our region to apply.”
