With a flurry of buyers looking for a small supply of offers, the Las Vegas real estate market is accelerating rapidly.
Across the valley, however, it is not just homebuyers who face higher prices and fewer choices.
Rental rates in southern Nevada are rising at one of the fastest rates in the country, according to a new report, and real estate professionals say demand is high and inventory levels are minimal.
“It’s really unprecedented,” said Brian Hartsell, owner of Key Property Management.
Rental apartment prices in the Las Vegas area rose 11.3 percent year over year in April to a typical price of $ 1,460 per month. This came out from a report this week from the listing page Zillow.
The valley’s rental growth was the fourth highest among the 50 subway areas listed in the report, only behind Memphis, Tennessee (11.8 percent), Phoenix (13.4 percent), and Riverside, California (14.9 percent). According to Zillow, whose report covers all types of rental housing, prices rose 3 percent nationwide over the past year.
As in other industries, the Las Vegas rental market has seen turmoil and questions after the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic. Many tenants have used unemployment benefits, economic funds, or other programs to pay their rent when there are huge job losses, and landlords face increased competition from the market for sale as mortgage rates at rock bottom are causing a frenzy of home purchases .
But since people work from home without having to commute and sellers who have benefited from the buying frenzy need an apartment until their new home is ready, a lot of people are looking for rental properties.
“There is no worry”
Audri Schultz, leasing coordinator at property management firm Shelter Realty, said that within an hour of a house being listed, 15 agents call to show someone or fill out a rental application.
“People get desperate,” she said. “You don’t look at her first. You are applying unseen vision. “
Schultz also said that at least 50 percent of their landlord customers are now raising rents, compared to perhaps 20 percent at some point before the pandemic.
Low stocks and high demand make it increasingly difficult to find a place. Landlords aren’t worried their tenants will move out, unlike in the past when they were worried about losing a tenant and how long the house would be vacant before someone moved in.
“Don’t worry now,” she said. “Absolutely none.”
Key Property’s Hartsell said the supply of available rental properties across the valley was the lowest he has seen in his 20-year career. As seen by a search for the region’s main listing service Thursday morning, there were only about 990 homes available for rent, he said.
Not every rental goes into this database, but a “comfortable” market would have around 5,000 units available, Hartsell said.
“The demand is unbelievable”
Government-ordered eviction stops, designed to keep people inside their homes amid the pandemic caused by the outbreak and rising unemployment, have likely reduced the number of rental units that may have become available in the past year.
But, as Hartsell noted, there is also an influx of people from more expensive markets in Las Vegas who come here to work from home or to retire.
Landlords know their tenants don’t have many options if they want to move out to drive rental increases, he said.
Robert Broad, senior vice president of western development for American Homes 4 Rent, a dominant landlord in southern Nevada and other markets, said his firm has more than a dozen rental spaces in various stages of development in the Las Vegas area.
Most of his houses in the valley have a signed tenant before the newly built place is ready for occupancy, he said.
“That wasn’t the experience of the past,” he said. “The demand is incredible.”
Contact Eli Segall at esegall@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0342. Follow @eli_segall on Twitter.
