Las Vegas no longer affordable for many residents as election looms

Maria Isabel Macias has had the same dream since she moved to Las Vegas more than a decade ago.

“I want to own a home,” said the 58-year-old who was recently out election canvassing in North Las Vegas for the Culinary Union. “That is the dream, that is the American dream.”

But things haven’t gone according to plan, as Macias has had to move in with her sister, and the cook who works at Caesars Palace said every year her dream gets farther and farther away and her monthly expenses are not keeping up with her wages. She now feels like she might always be stuck renting and not building wealth through a mortgage payment.

“Everything has gone up, water, garbage, electricity,” she said. “It’s just getting harder and harder all the time.”

Macias said she’s voting for Democrat Kamala Harris and one of the main reasons is Harris’ plan to offer first-time homebuyers a $25,000 down payment support for 400,000 Americans so she can get into the housing market.

Las Vegas finds itself in the middle of a housing crisis and affordability has become the top issue with the election just days away. Both Harris and Trump have offered starkly contrasting visions for how they would fix the economy, and voters are now almost divided 50/50 on who is best suited to tackle the affordability issue.

John Restrepo, a principal with Las Vegas-based RCG Economics, an economic consultancy company, said the housing data over the past decade in the valley tells a compelling story and is in line with Macias frustrations.

“While Clark County was seen as having an affordable housing market in for many years, that is no longer the case,” he said. “For example, in 2014, the median resale price was $172,800 and the average interest rate on a 30-year mortgage was 4.3 percent.”

Mortgage rates rose above 7 percent again, according to recent data from Redfin, even after the Federal Reserve delivered its first rate cut in two years, a move that was largely expected to help with affordability for average Americans. While mortgage rates are not directly tied to interest rates, Redfin’s report said elevated mortgage rates now point to a potential inflation risk down the road.

‘Too much’ public land

Albert Avalos, a Henderson resident who attended the Trump rally on Thursday, said Trump’s plans on the economy will help Nevada’s housing crisis.

“Housing will become way more affordable just by fixing the economy and fixing energy,” Avalos said.

Las Vegas resident Justin Trippiedi said he doesn’t know too much about Trump’s housing plans, but he knows rent “is outrageous.” He likes Trump’s plans on doing away with taxes on tips.

Mylissa Kurz, a Las Vegas resident dressed as Morticia Addams, said Trump is hoping to make housing cheaper, but she said there’s more pressing issues to deal with, like the border and “getting rid of the nasty Democrats.”

When told about Trump’s plan to help open up federal land for more housing development, Trippiedi said he believes that’s a good idea.

“There’s way too much of it, to be honest,” Trippiedi said. “There’s way too much of it, to be honest. There’s so much government land out there. If it’s absolutely necessary to the ecosystem, OK. But just to have miles and miles of land, what do we do with it?”

‘It’s beyond my reach’

Ivory Lay, who was out canvassing in North Las Vegas with Macias, has worked at the Starbucks at Vdara Hotel & Spa on the Strip for close to 30 years said her story is one of a stagnant wage and rising cost of living.

“So during the pandemic my rent was $1,200 dollars for a two-bedroom,” she said about her place near Summerlin where she lives with her two kids. “And every year it’s just gone up from there and now I’m at $1,701. They’ve added on all these different fees, they make me pay for the trash now, they’ve tacked on HOA fees. It’s been little by little and I mean, God forbid, I get sick or something and can’t pay my rent.”

Lay, who is also voting for Harris, said much like Macias she has a simple dream, she wants to be able to own a house and give her children a potential leg up economically speaking by passing her equity on to them.

“Right now it really feels like it’s beyond my reach,” she said. “It just doesn’t feel obtainable anymore.”

Redfin recently reported that only one third of renters across the country have a place that costs them less than $1,000, the lowest share on record. In the Las Vegas Valley specifically, in 2019 approximately 32.5 percent of renters had a monthly payment of less than $1,000, a number that now stands at 17.8 percent.

Restrepo said the idea that no one should spend more than 30 percent of their monthly income on rent or a mortgage payment means Las Vegas has shifted economically speaking.

“Assuming that a mortgage payment not be more than the recommended 30 percent of a household’s gross monthly income, than clearly, it can no longer be said that the Las Vegas metro has an affordable housing market, based on the latest mortgage-to-household income percents noted above,” he said.

“This situation has a number of economic, political and social impacts for the region that can only be solved by significantly increasing the supply of housing, improving median household incomes or a combination of both. Obviously, this is easier said than done, especially considering the structure of the labor force and the current very limited supply of private developable land in the metro area.”

Contact Patrick Blennerhassett at pblennerhassett@reviewjournal.com. Staff writer Jessica Hill contributed to this report.