Average rents for Las Vegas-area apartments up 4.5%

Las Vegas’ rent growth let off the gas in the apartment market last year as vacancies ticked higher, a new report shows.

Average rents for Las Vegas-area apartments are up 4.5 percent from a year ago, down from an annual gain of 7.4 percent the year before, according to the Nevada State Apartment Association.

The average asking rent at the end of 2019 was $1,080 per month, the group reported.

Meanwhile, the market’s vacancy rate was 6.5 percent at the end of last year, up from 6.2 percent a year earlier.

The shifts come as apartment developers keep packing the valley with projects, mostly in the suburbs. More than 12,000 new units have been delivered since 2015, including 2,173 the past year, the apartment association said.

“Thanks to our improving local economy and ongoing population growth, the demand for apartments remains strong in Southern Nevada,” Executive Director Susy Vasquez said in a statement. “That increased demand has also sparked an increase in the number of apartments being built here.”

The industry group said it pulled the figures for the report from CoStar, a commercial real estate data site.

Contact Eli Segall at esegall@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0342. Follow @eli_segall on Twitter.