Rents in southern Nevada are rising at an accelerating pace, outperforming markets across the country as affordability issues loom here and in the US
The typical rental price of a home in the Las Vegas area rose 22.7 percent year-over-year to $ 1,662 in July, compared to a 9.2 percent increase nationwide to $ 1,843, listing site Zillow recently reported .
Rental growth in the valley was the second fastest among the 50 metropolitan regions in the report, behind only Phoenix with 23.1 percent.
Prices here are rising at an accelerating pace as rents in Las Vegas rose 6.7 percent to $ 1,493 in January, Zillow previously reported.
Affordability will become more of a challenge nationwide in the coming months as high demand “puts pressure on rents and incomes can’t keep up,” Zillow economic data analyst Nicole Bachaud said last week.
The rental market in southern Nevada has accelerated amid a broader housing boom fueled by cheap borrowing costs for buyers and the search for more space as people work from home during the pandemic, driving many people from more expensive cities to move here.
Apartment rents in Las Vegas, for example, rose 18 percent year over year in the second quarter to an average of $ 1,322 per month, the Nevada State Apartment Association reported.
Rent increases have doubled since last quarter and will continue to rise as demand continues to rise, “especially from people moving here from overseas,” the association’s executive director Susy Vasquez said last month.
Overall, Las Vegas’ casino-heavy economy has been devastated by the coronavirus outbreak and has a way to go before it fully recovers, despite being more than 1 in winning back jobs since government-ordered store closings last year 3 people in the US valley were unemployed.
Las Vegas’s June unemployment rate was 9.6 percent, still the highest in the country among major metropolitan areas. That said, real estate professionals have said that the demand for rental homes in southern Nevada is strong, inventory has declined, and landlords know that their tenants don’t have many options when they want to move out, which is adding to rent increases.
Nationally, rents are rising fastest in the Sun Belt markets as people have been “drawn to sunny places” for the past year and a half, Zillow’s Bachaud told the Review Journal on Wednesday.
She also found that people who spend more than 30 percent of their income on housing benefit are a burden because they have a harder time paying for other things.
“In Las Vegas you passed that over,” said Bachaud, adding that the typical tenant household in the valley spent about 33 percent of their income on rent in June.
Sharon Dellorco, who moved to Las Vegas from Southern California in March, rents a one-bedroom apartment near Summerlin for a base rent of $ 1,179. If she wants to extend her lease, the base price will go up to $ 1,329.
Dellorco, who is 63 and lives alone, has been looking for another apartment, but rents are high and moving costs have increased, she said.
It looks like she wants to stay in the apartment, but doesn’t know if she can afford the rent increase, she said.
“I guess I’ll sign another lease,” Dellorco said.
Contact Eli Segall at esegall@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0342. Follow @eli_segall on Twitter.
