Nevada’s bipartisan housing model sets an example for the nation to follow

For more than 60 years, Nevada's population growth has been among the fastest in the nation. That has created a persistent need for more housing, an urgent shortage in supply and a crisis of affordability. The data underscores the severity.

According to a recent report from the National Low Income Housing Coalition, 88% of Nevada’s extremely low-income renters — those earning 30% or less of area median income — spend more than half of their income on housing and utilities. Even more troubling, there are only 16 affordable rental homes available for every 100 such households statewide, and just 13 per 100 in the Las Vegas metro area. It is a structural imbalance that has left thousands of families struggling to remain housed.

In this environment, it is both encouraging and noteworthy that Republican Gov. Joe Lombardo and Nevada’s Democrat-controlled Legislature worked together to address a crisis that touches every corner of Nevada.

The centerpiece of that effort is Assembly Bill 540, the Nevada Housing Access and Attainability Act. Backed by a $133 million investment, the legislation established the Nevada Attainable Housing Account, designed to spur the construction of new housing and expand access to homeownership. The law is a pragmatic recognition that increasing supply must be central to any long-term solution.

Equally important is the bill’s broader definition of “attainable housing,” which spans households earning from 30% to 150% of area median income. For a four-person household in Clark County, the Department of Housing and Urban Development defines this as $28,470 to $142,350 in annual household income. This range reflects the reality that Nevada’s housing crunch extends well beyond the lowest-income residents. Teachers, health care workers, first responders, hospitality workers and other essential members of Nevada’s middle-income workforce increasingly find themselves priced out of the communities they serve.

Early investments are already beginning to show promise. Millions of dollars have been directed toward a mix of housing developments, including single-family homes, multifamily units and down payment assistance programs aimed at helping Nevadans achieve homeownership. Projects such as the Paradise Trails development demonstrate how public funding can be leveraged alongside private investment to deliver tangible results.

Still, progress should not obscure the scale of the work that remains. While AB 540 has expanded housing opportunities across a range of income levels, only a small share of the units funded thus far are reserved for those at the lowest end of the income spectrum, where the shortage is most severe. Thousands of additional families live on the edge of housing insecurity, vulnerable to rising rents and unexpected financial shocks.

Addressing those gaps will require additional tools, including expanded use of tax credits, deeper subsidies and sustained public investment. Housing at the lowest income levels is often less profitable and thus often does not attract private capital on its own, making government support a necessity.

Moreover, new housing production is not the only issue fueling Nevada’s housing crisis. A 2025 Lending Tree study found that Nevada already has more than 120,000 vacant housing units. The challenge is that most of them are unaffordable due to external forces that are distorting the market and driving up costs.

Institutional investors — corporate entities that bundle together money from a variety of financial investors — are playing an increasingly prominent role in residential real estate. According to The Washington Post, nonoccupant investors bought nearly 1 in 7 homes in the United States in 2022. In some housing markets, that number is as high as 1 in 4.

These entities, armed with significant capital, often purchase homes in bulk and with cash, making it difficult for individual buyers to compete — especially at the lower end of the income spectrum, where financing is almost always necessary. Further complicating the situation is that, unlike human beings, who might sell their home due to a new job, a growing family or even death, institutional investors can hold properties for decades, reducing turnover and further tightening supply.

To address these challenges, Sen. Jacky Rosen, D-Nev., and Rep. Steven Horsford, D-Nev., have introduced the Housing Oversight and Mitigating Exploitation (HOME) Act, which would create greater oversight of institutional investors and prevent market manipulation. Their efforts deserve the same level of bipartisan engagement and cooperation from congressional Republicans as Lombardo and Nevada’s Legislature demonstrated with the Nevada Housing Access and Attainability Act.

Lombardo and the Legislature deserve credit for their willingness to work across party lines to produce real results and set a constructive tone for addressing one of the state’s most pressing challenges.

But the job is far from finished. The path forward will require sustained commitment, continued innovation and an unwavering focus on those most in need. After all, "Home Means Nevada" should be more than just the state song. It should be a commitment to the ideal that every person who calls Nevada home deserves a fair chance at finding stable and affordable housing.