Category Archive : Property Management

LAS VEGAS, NV – With the number of homes being snatched up by Wall Street-backed hedge funds for use as rentals creating a very real housing crisis in Southern Nevada, state lawmakers are attempting to pass legislation aimed at curbing the volume of properties these investors can purchase.

Studies indicate that, by the end of 2023, approximately 15 percent of Clark County’s housing stock – and nearly 25 percent in North Las Vegas – was owned by corporate investors whose vast resources allow them to easily submit insurmountable bids on properties, pricing out middle-class buyers in the process, according to State Senator Dina Neal (D).

There are actual families who do want the American Dream,” she said at a Senate Judiciary Committee meeting last week. “They want to take their pharmacy job, they want to take their teaching job, and they want to translate that money into a mortgage. They want to own a home, and they’re not actually able to do that in this current market.”

To help address this issue, Neal has proposed Senate Bill (SB) 391, which – if passed and signed into law – would establish a corporate landlord home ownership registry to increase transparency, as well as limit the number of single-family homes that corporate investors can acquire. The bill passed the Judiciary Committee last week.

Neal had previously floated a similar bill in 2023 – that was vetoed by Republican Governor Joe Lombardo – that would have limited corporations to purchasing 1,000 housing units a year; SB391 is far more stringent, however, and would set that limit to merely 100 units per year.

Neal was inspired to lower that number based on a 2023 transaction where Starwood Property Trust sold 264 homes that it owned in the Las Vegas Valley to Invitation Homes in a single-day deal worth $98 million.

“I was like, I really need to drop this number because it’s amazing that someone in one day could buy 265 homes and not bat an eye,” she said.

Shelter Realty Property Management specializes in the areas of  Henderson, Las Vegas and North Las Vegas, NV. Feel free to give us a call at 702.376.7379 so we can answer any questions you may have.

Christopher Boyle

Christopher Boyle is an expert investigative journalist for SEARCHEN NETWORKS® and reports for independent news and media organizations in the United States. Christopher keeps a keen-eye on what’s happening in the Vegas real estate market on behalf of Shelter Realty Property Management

www.shelterrealty.com

LAS VEGAS, NV – Enforcement action and penalties against illegal short-terms rentals being operated within the Las Vegas Valley are being ramped up significantly going forward, according to an announcement by Clark County officials this week.

At a council meeting on Tuesday, Code Enforcement Manager Jim Andersen confirmed to the Clark County Commission that efforts to seek out and crack down on violators of short-term rental rules will now be a main focus of his department.

We’ve been reactive in our enforcement up to this point,” Andersen said. “We want to start doing proactive enforcement.”

Among the new aspects of enforcement implemented by the county include recovering fines levied against illegal rentals by means of a lien system.

In addition, the county will be hiring a company whose responsibility it will be to regularly comb through listings on platforms such as Airbnb, VRBO and others in order to root out short-term rentals that are operating without a license; Andersen referred to this as “a significant tool to gaining compliance.”

The county currently employs the Short-Term Rental Education Enforcement Team (STREET), a division originally founded in 2018 to identify and investigate illegal rentals; their goal, Andersen said, is to get homeowners to voluntarily comply with regulations via education. To date, STREET has investigated 5,724 cases, with 93 percent of them eventually closing without fines being levied; currently, the number of cases pending is 590.

Those who are found to be continuing to operate illegal short-term rentals following the initial STREET intervention face fines amounting to anywhere between $1,000 to $10,000 per day; as per the new rules introduced this week, those fines can be recovered by the county with liens on the property in question.

This news comes as Clark County is attempting to improve and speed up their oft-maligned process of approving short-term rental licenses, which critics have said has been far too slow. The county has only issued 174 licenses since August, with 515 still pending.

Shelter Realty Property Management specializes in the areas of  Henderson, Las Vegas and North Las Vegas, NV. Feel free to give us a call at 702.376.7379 so we can answer any questions you may have.

Christopher Boyle

Christopher Boyle is an expert investigative journalist for SEARCHEN NETWORKS® and reports for independent news and media organizations in the United States. Christopher keeps a keen-eye on what’s happening in the Vegas real estate market on behalf of Shelter Realty Property Management

www.shelterrealty.com

LAS VEGAS, NV – Following months of delays and mounting frustration from homeowners missing out on income opportunities, Clark County officials have announced they are looking into ways to increase the speed of their short-term rental licensing process.

Assembly Bill 363 was signed into law by the Nevada legislature in 2021, requiring municipalities to draw up regulations governing the short -term rental industries within their borders.

After approving a short-term rental ordinance in June 2022, Clark County had started a pre-application process for short term rentals in September 2022, with the deadline for submission having been August 2023. 1,169 of the pre-applications they received were deemed eligible and the homeowners that submitted them were subsequently allowed to submit a short-term rental license application.

However, the process of approving these applications has been a slow and arduous one that has found itself ensnared in red tape; as of March 2025, a mere 175 licenses have been approved and 141 denied; 515 are still pending, drawing the ire of homeowners who say they are losing money every day they are forced to wait.

As a result, many homeowners are operating rentals with Clark County illegally; at current count, there are approximately 10,000 short-term rentals currently operating in Las Vegas, with the majority of them doing so without the benefit of a license.

Vince Queano, Clark County’s Director of Business Licensing, said that – in addition to several laws that are currently on the books that serve to hamstring the process – it takes county officials an average of one week to approve six rental units.

With over 500 [pending], just doing basic math, it would take about a year and a half [to process the backlog],” Queano said. “But then again, as we license each short-term rental unit, it creates that 1,000-foot buffer so there may be several hundred that may be denied in the future, which would make the licensing [process] overall shorter.”

Queano is proposing several changes to the process to potentially help make the approval process go faster and smoother, such as introducing a first-come, first-served system for applicants – as opposed to the previously-used random number generator – in addition to pushing back requirements that homeowners have wastewater connections and $500,000 in liability insurance at the time their application is approved, as opposed to when they first apply.

And finally, Queano suggests that the process could be sped up if short-term rental platforms got business licenses, although he did not name which companies he was referring to.

Shelter Realty Property Management specializes in the areas of  Henderson, Las Vegas and North Las Vegas, NV. Feel free to give us a call at 702.376.7379 so we can answer any questions you may have.

Christopher Boyle

Christopher Boyle is an expert investigative journalist for SEARCHEN NETWORKS® and reports for independent news and media organizations in the United States. Christopher keeps a keen-eye on what’s happening in the Vegas real estate market on behalf of Shelter Realty Property Management

www.shelterrealty.com

LAS VEGAS, NV – A large hedge fund based out of New York is the single-largest owner of homes in Clark County at nearly 3,200 units, according to the county’s property records.

Pretium Partners, a hedge fund that manages over $55 billion in assets, is the owner of Progress Residential, a home rental property management company that – as of the end of February, 2025 – owns 3,190 homes in the county, as per officially-confirmed data.

But that number could, in fact, potentially be higher, as typically real estate investors make it difficult to track their dealings by buying properties under the guise of various limited liability companies (LLCs), often with different-yet-similar names. For example, according to Clark County records, at least five of LLCs that have purchased property contain the word “Progress” in their name.

When contacted by local media about the true scope of their stake in Clark County, representatives for Pretium refrained from giving an exact number of the homes it owns, but claimed that it is fewer than 4,500.

U.S. Rep. Steven Horsford (D-NEV) said that corporate and Wall Street-backed investors have snatched up thousands of homes in both Southern Nevada and throughout the nation – mainly targeting starter homes and low-income communities – thereby reducing overall affordable stock and making the dream of homeownership harder for average people to obtain.

Studies indicate that, by the end of 2023, approximately 15 percent of Clark County’s housing stock – and nearly 25 percent in North Las Vegas – was owned by investors.

These predatory practices led by these Wall Street-backed hedge funds are acquiring more properties, pricing out Nevadans and their ability to own their own home,” Horsford said.

Shelter Realty Property Management specializes in the areas of  Henderson, Las Vegas and North Las Vegas, NV. Feel free to give us a call at 702.376.7379 so we can answer any questions you may have.

Christopher Boyle

Christopher Boyle is an expert investigative journalist for SEARCHEN NETWORKS® and reports for independent news and media organizations in the United States. Christopher keeps a keen-eye on what’s happening in the Vegas real estate market on behalf of Shelter Realty Property Management

www.shelterrealty.com

LAS VEGAS, NV – A homeowner is suing a former tenant he claims had listed his property without his permission on Airbnb back in 2021, and in doing so incurred a whopping $180,000 fine imposed upon him by the city of Las Vegas for operating an unlicensed short-term rental within their borders.

Homeowner Xin Tao, who lives full-time in Oregon, originally bought the five-bedroom, two-bathroom property in the Glen Heather Estates neighborhood in June 2021 for $378,000 as a long-term rental investment property, and went on to lease it to Ryan Murphy in November 2021.

Murphy proceeded to list the home himself on Airbnb; Tao maintains this was done without his knowledge, although Murphy insists that he told his landlord about his short-term rental business, claiming at the time he was renting seven houses in Las Vegas for that purpose.

Following multiple complaints by neighbors over regular disturbances and other issues, Las Vegas authorities conducted over 10 inspections and ultimately Tao was hit with an initial fine of $2,132 in August 2021 for violating Las Vegas’ strict laws governing short-terms rentals within city limits, which include homeowners staying on-site with guests and that properties be at least 650 feet away from other rentals.

Tao unsuccessfully attempted to evict Murphy when he learned of the situation; since he believed the tenant should have been the one to pay the fine, he himself refused to do so. Murphy eventually vacated the property in September of 2023, and on October 5, 2023, Tao found the $180,000 fine notice taped to the home’s front door.

Unfortunately for Tao, Las Vegas’s short-term rental code imposes a $500 per day late fee penalty, by that point causing the fine to swell to $180,000, leading to the very real threat that Tao’s home could auctioned off to satisfy the debt, although Las Vegas officials have yet to go in that direction.

In response, Tao filed a lawsuit against the city of Las Vegas, with the lawyer representing him claiming the city never informed his client that he was accruing $500 per day in late fees for two whole years, denying him of his right to due process under the Nevada Constitution.

Now, this week, Tao has taken legal matters a step further, filing a lawsuit against Murphy himself, demanding he pay the $180,000 fine in addition to $15,000 in damages; the former tenant claims he didn’t know there were any issues.

Tao is also insisting on compensation from Airbnb, with his lawsuit contending that the platform neglected to properly vet Murphy to ensure he was the rightful person to rent out the home on their service.

Shelter Realty Property Management specializes in the areas of  Henderson, Las Vegas and North Las Vegas, NV. Feel free to give us a call at 702.376.7379 so we can answer any questions you may have.

Christopher Boyle

Christopher Boyle is an expert investigative journalist for SEARCHEN NETWORKS® and reports for independent news and media organizations in the United States. Christopher keeps a keen-eye on what’s happening in the Vegas real estate market on behalf of Shelter Realty Property Management

www.shelterrealty.com

LAS VEGAS, NV – Thinking of heading to Las Vegas to enjoy some rowdy Spring Break partying in the coming weeks? If that’s the case, you might want to engage in a more subdued affair when you visit Sin City, because a major local area short-term rental advocacy group is teaming up with authorities to prevent such gatherings from getting out of control.

Greater Las Vegas Short-Term Rental Association (GLVSTRA) founder Jacqueline Flores notes that the Las Vegas valley is home to literally thousands of short-term rental properties, and she wants the neighborhoods they are in to know there’s no need to be worried about crazy keggers next door this Spring Break season.

A lot of these property owners, the last thing they want is to have something like that in their property,” Flores said. “They spend thousands of dollars renovating their houses and getting them ready to rent, so the last thing they want is to have damage to their property.”

GLVSTRA will be requesting that their approximately 2,000 members pay special attention to rental units across the valley to make sure things aren’t getting out of hand.

Also, the group is reiterating the policies that their members are expected to adhere to, such as properly vetting their guests, displaying strict house rules – including the prohibition of large gatherings – and to have security and noise monitoring measures in-place on each property.

In addition, the Las Vegas Police Department will also be ramping up enforcement during Spring Break season, with officers actively patrolling their respective beats for disturbances at known short-term rental “party locations.” Communities are also being urged to report any instances of large parties or anything else out of the ordinary during Spring Break season.

We take these calls seriously and will respond appropriately when resources are available,” a Las Vegas Metro Police spokesperson said.

Airbnb – which operates approximately 70 percent of all short-term rentals in the valley – will also be pitching in, using AI-based reservation tech to single out reservations that are considered “high risk” to stop wild parties before they happen.

Airbnb prohibits disruptive and unauthorized parties, and we use machine learning to try to identify and block potentially high-risk bookings before they happen,” an Airbnb rep said. “This technology is in effect year-round, globally, and will continue to be in place for the Las Vegas area over Spring break. While issues are rare, we offer multiple ways to reach us to report a concern–like our 24-hour Neighborhood Support Line–and take swift action against users and listings that violate our policies, including so-called ‘party houses’.”

Shelter Realty Property Management specializes in the areas of  Henderson, Las Vegas and North Las Vegas, NV. Feel free to give us a call at 702.376.7379 so we can answer any questions you may have.

Christopher Boyle

Christopher Boyle is an expert investigative journalist for SEARCHEN NETWORKS® and reports for independent news and media organizations in the United States. Christopher keeps a keen-eye on what’s happening in the Vegas real estate market on behalf of Shelter Realty Property Management

www.shelterrealty.com

LAS VEGAS, NV – The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) announced in December 2024 that they would be instituting a ban on so-called “junk fees,” which is a term used to describe bait-and-switch pricing and other tactics used to hide total prices and misrepresent fees in the short-term lodging and live-event ticketing industries.

The Junk Fees Rule requires full up-front disclosure of pricing information “in a timely, transparent, and truthful way” as it pertains to consumers of short-term lodging and live-event tickets; the FTC says that the rule will level the competitive playing field and make it easier for consumers to engage in comparison shopping and ultimately, save money.

As far as the short-term rental industry is concerned, this includes hotels as well as all online booking platforms and websites such as Airbnb and Vrbo. And this rule regarding fee transparency, according to Mark Tremblay, an assistant professor of economics at University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV), is likely to influence host pricing behavior within the industry going forward.

Typically, hosts set the prices for their rentals by comparing them to the prices others on the platform charge for similar properties; however, Tremblay notes, previously hidden fees – such as for cleaning services – may have “tricked” both hosts and renters alike, resulting in “artificially competitive” lower prices.

But now that the new FTC rule has come into effect, these hidden fees have been laid bare, and hosts have started raising their prices after being made aware that they’ve been “under-charging” for their rentals.

What we found is that the reaction on the host side is a bit different depending on the type of host,” Tremblay said. “So, some hosts are reducing their cleaning fees, as you would expect, but we’re seeing other hosts actually increasing their prices by a lot.”

Since the Junk Fee rule went into effect, the average in cleaning fees has been 4 percent, while in-turn other hosts have increased their rental prices by an average of 6 percent to compensate, which Tremblay said was an out-of-left-field discrepancy. This is especially true considering consumers have historically gravitated towards listings with lower cleaning fees.

This was a result we weren’t expecting. And it differs from how we think about how certain other large firms might react to hidden fees,” Tremblay said. “So, if you think of the Las Vegas Strip, how they’re reacting to resort-fee transparency, they probably know what prices to set. A random host in a small neighborhood – they have a couple bookings a month. They’re not a big corporation, and so they might be a little bit less aware of what prices they should set, and this impacts them as well.”

Shelter Realty Property Management specializes in the areas of  Henderson, Las Vegas and North Las Vegas, NV. Feel free to give us a call at 702.376.7379 so we can answer any questions you may have.

Christopher Boyle

Christopher Boyle is an expert investigative journalist for SEARCHEN NETWORKS® and reports for independent news and media organizations in the United States. Christopher keeps a keen-eye on what’s happening in the Vegas real estate market on behalf of Shelter Realty Property Management

www.shelterrealty.com

LAS VEGAS, NV – The new year ushers in many things, but prime among them is that it’s a time when people are looking for a fresh start on life, and to that end many find themselves searching for the best deals on a new place to call home. With that being said, a new report is highlighting the most popular cities in the nation for prospective transplants, and Las Vegas ranks highly in a variety of eye-opening metrics.

RentCafe – an apartment search marketplace that, according to their website, reports “relevant stats about the pulse of the local markets as well as the national and state level dynamics” – has released their quarterly Rental Activity Report, which is a snapshot of the rental dynamic in 150 largest U.S. cities based on online engagement on RentCafe.com (page views, favorited listings and saved searches) as well as fluctuations of apartment availability.

According to the findings of RentCafe’s Rental Activity Report, Las Vegas ranked in January as the 11th most sought-after major metropolitan area by renters, having skyrocketed an astonishing 69 spots from the position they held just one month prior.

Another factor cementing Vegas’ ranking arises from the devastation brought by the recent wildfires in Nevada’s neighboring state of California, and many Los Angeles residents who have lost their homes due to the disaster are currently looking to relocate to Southern Nevada, on either a temporary or permanent basis. This is evidenced by a whopping 76 percent month-over-month increase in Los Angeles-based searches for Las Vegas apartments on RentCafe.com.

Also, the Rental Activity Report notes that listings in Vegas ranked 9th for most saved searches on RentCafe.com, demonstrating clear intent on the part of renters.  

That Vegas is considered very desirable by renters is solidified by the fact that unit availability in the city increased only 7 percent year-over-year, which is far below the national average; this means that renters have fewer options to choose from, which serves to underscore the strong demand for rental properties within its confines.

Shelter Realty Property Management specializes in the areas of  Henderson, Las Vegas and North Las Vegas, NV. Feel free to give us a call at 702.376.7379 so we can answer any questions you may have.

Christopher Boyle

Christopher Boyle is an expert investigative journalist for SEARCHEN NETWORKS® and reports for independent news and media organizations in the United States. Christopher keeps a keen-eye on what’s happening in the Vegas real estate market on behalf of Shelter Realty Property Management

www.shelterrealty.com

LAS VEGAS, NV – According to a new report by Redfin, as of the end of January rents in Las Vegas have dropped year-over-year, indicating they are potentially on a trajectory to becoming more affordable in a market that is currently still seen as very competitive and pricey.

As of January 31, the median rent for all apartment types – regardless of the number of bedrooms – is $1,470, which represents a 1.3 percent decrease from the same period of time one year ago. However, January’s median rent did increase from December 2024 by 1.7 percent.

Redfin notes that Las Vegas’ rent nonetheless remains below the national median price, which is currently $1,599; it is also lower than Phoenix, Arizona’s price of $1,475, but higher than Dallas, Texas’s price of $1,464.

As for the city that experienced the largest year-over-year median rent price decrease, that honor would go to Austin, Texas, whose 16 percent drop was bigger – by a very wide margin – than the second-place city in that regard, which was Tampa, Florida, with 8.2 percent.

Redfin Chief Economist Daryl Fairweather said that there are several factors that are potentially contributing to rent growth in the Las Vegas Valley showing signs of slowing down.

New construction that started during the pandemic is still coming online,” he said. “But demand for rentals is not as high as it was during the pandemic. That has relieved pressure on rents.”

Redfin Senior Economist Sheharyar Bokhari said that this situation is not exclusive to Vegas; indeed, rental supply and demand essentially being in sync with one another is a phenomenon that is taking place in many major metropolitan areas throughout the nation.

This is keeping rent growth at bay, but that may not last long,” he said. “Apartment construction could be further hampered by new tariffs on building materials. At the same time, demand for apartments continues to grow as high mortgage rates and housing prices push homeownership out of reach for many Americans. Rents will tick up if demand starts to outpace supply in a meaningful way.”

Shelter Realty Property Management specializes in the areas of  Henderson, Las Vegas and North Las Vegas, NV. Feel free to give us a call at 702.376.7379 so we can answer any questions you may have.

Christopher Boyle

Christopher Boyle is an expert investigative journalist for SEARCHEN NETWORKS® and reports for independent news and media organizations in the United States. Christopher keeps a keen-eye on what’s happening in the Vegas real estate market on behalf of Shelter Realty Property Management

www.shelterrealty.com

LAS VEGAS, NV – The first half of 2025 will see more than 100,000 Nevada residents hit with increases to their homeowners and renters’ insurance, with some experiencing huge spikes of up to 25 percent over what they’re currently paying now.

The Nevada Division of Insurance (DOI) has approved twelve insurance companies to institute rate changes through the month of May; most of these companies already bumped up their rates in January, but more – and potentially costly – changes are yet to come for some of their customers.

Before a rate change can go into effect, all insurance companies must run the proposal past the DOI for a detailed and in-depth review. The DOI notes that it only approves rate change requests if they are deemed not to be “excessive, inadequate, or unfairly discriminatory.” Likewise, the agency also makes sure that insurance companies are afforded a degree of protection as well.

The mission of the Nevada Division of Insurance is to protect the rights of Nevada consumers in their experiences with the insurance industry and to ensure the financial solvency of insurers,” said the DOI.

Root Insurance had originally requested to raise tenant insurance rates by 55.3 percent for several hundred Nevadans; however, only a 25 percent increase was ultimately approved. Other insurers that requested rate increases for sundry policies of varying amounts included Hartford, Trumbull, Mercury Casualty, American Modern Property and Casualty, Foremost, Acuity A Mutual, Nevadans with Travellers Property Casualty, Country Preferred, American Economy, and Privilege Underwriters Reciprocal Exchange.

The reason for this round of homeowner and renter insurance rate changes in Nevada, as per the DOI, is due to multiple reasons, not limited to inflation driving up costs related to real estate – such as building, repairing and maintaining residences, including the materials and the labor associated with doing so – as well as older homes in the state needing more upkeep, and the potential threats of natural disasters.

Real estate and home values have risen. Inflation, construction materials costs, and skilled labor availability are driving up the costs of rebuilding and repairing properties,” a DOI spokesperson said. “Nevada’s housing stock is aging, which means key home components – such as roofing, electrical systems, and plumbing – may require updates or maintenance.”

Shelter Realty Property Management specializes in the areas of  Henderson, Las Vegas and North Las Vegas, NV. Feel free to give us a call at 702.376.7379 so we can answer any questions you may have.

Christopher Boyle

Christopher Boyle is an expert investigative journalist for SEARCHEN NETWORKS® and reports for independent news and media organizations in the United States. Christopher keeps a keen-eye on what’s happening in the Vegas real estate market on behalf of Shelter Realty Property Management

www.shelterrealty.com

LAS VEGAS, NV – A proposal implemented by the former Biden Administration’s Federal Communications Commission (FCC) that would have banned mandatory bulk billing arrangements for internet services in apartment buildings – allowing tenants to opt-out of their landlord’s Internet Service Provider (ISP) choice in favor of their own – has been withdrawn by the Trump Administration, effective immediately.

Originally in March 2024, former FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel had put forward the proposal that would have mandated tenants not be required to pay for specific internet services by their landlords in an effort to increase consumer choice in the broadband market.

The ban would not have been sweeping or all-encompassing; instead, it was meant to increase competition in the market by simply allowing tenants in apartments, condominiums and public housing to opt-out of arrangements and seek out their own ISP, potentially allowing them to find more affordable internet access plans.

At the time, the proposal encountered a high degree of blowback on the part of the internet service providers and the multifamily community, and to date had not yet come to a vote.

However, new FCC Chairman Brendan Carr – appointed to the position by President Donald Trump – has withdrawn Rosenworcel’s proposal from the FCC’s consideration. When queried about his decision, Carr said that bulk billing arrangements can actually result in making high-speed internet more accessible and affordable to consumers, especially elderly people living in affordable housing or low-income renters.

Experts note that ISP costs when using bulk billing can potentially be up to 50 percent lower for tenants who use it; in addition, barriers such as credit checks and installation fees are often removed from the equation as well.

In contrast, opponents of bulk billing arrangements say they stifle competition in the market; in a previous effort to address this, the FCC in 2022 issued a ban on exclusive revenue-sharing agreements between landlords and ISPs in multi-tenant buildings.

Shelter Realty Property Management specializes in the areas of  Henderson, Las Vegas and North Las Vegas, NV. Feel free to give us a call at 702.376.7379 so we can answer any questions you may have.

Christopher Boyle

Christopher Boyle is an expert investigative journalist for SEARCHEN NETWORKS® and reports for independent news and media organizations in the United States. Christopher keeps a keen-eye on what’s happening in the Vegas real estate market on behalf of Shelter Realty Property Management

www.shelterrealty.com

LAS VEGAS, NV – As the death and devastation brought on by the ongoing Los Angeles wildfires continues unabated in neighboring California – with countless unfortunate residents displaced from thousands of homes at this point – a real estate industry expert is anticipating the tragedy to begin impacting the housing market in the Las Vegas Valley, an area already dealing with a significant housing crisis of its own.

Many Los Angeles residents who have lost their homes due to the out-of-control fires may be considering looking to relocate to Southern Nevada, on either a temporary or permanent basis, according to the Director and Associate Professor of the University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV) Lied Center for Real Estate, Shawn McCoy.

McCoy’s contention that Vegas could be expecting a mass migration of displaced Los Angelinos is based on a previous study conducted by UNLV in 2018 on a series of Colorado wildfires that took place between 2000 and 2012 that destroyed a total of approximately 360,000 homes.

Nevada Department of Motor Vehicles data says that Los Angeles residents make up the majority of out-of-state transplants into the Las Vegas Valley – 43 percent, to be exact – with nearly 158,000 of them opting to relocate to Southern Nevada between 2019 and 2024, the largest number of newcomers out of any other state in the country.

The chief reason cited for the constant influx of Californians into Nevada over the years has been affordability – the cost of living in L.A. is infamously expensive – and that trend is expected to grow as displaced Golden State residents flee to Nevada as the wildfires continue, which McCoy said could also seriously impact an already highly-competitive local rental market.

We may certainly see the fires in L.A. place upward pressure on rent locally in Las Vegas, both as a result of displaced L.A. households whose homes were damaged, but also from two other important groups,” he said. “Households near the wildfires but that were not directly affected by the fires may now hold a heightened awareness or concern of potential future fires and act on that heightened awareness by moving out. This may be especially true given research which shows that about 18 percent of the housing stock in the Palisades is multifamily housing.”

In addition, the valley could also see an increase of arrivals from those who had been thinking of moving to Los Angeles from out-of-state, but are now experiencing second thoughts by the abundance of destructive wildfires.

Think, for example, about households currently outside of L.A. or even the state of California who were in the process of considering a move to L.A.,” McCoy said. “These fires may change these households’ perception of L.A. fire risk and instead of moving to L.A. to rent, they may instead turn to other cities including Las Vegas.”

Shelter Realty Property Management specializes in the areas of  Henderson, Las Vegas and North Las Vegas, NV. Feel free to give us a call at 702.376.7379 so we can answer any questions you may have.

Christopher Boyle

Christopher Boyle is an expert investigative journalist for SEARCHEN NETWORKS® and reports for independent news and media organizations in the United States. Christopher keeps a keen-eye on what’s happening in the Vegas real estate market on behalf of Shelter Realty Property Management

www.shelterrealty.com