As Nevadans grapple with burdensome rent hikes, wage stagnation and an acute housing shortage, the once-unseemly topic of rent control is making its way into conversations across every level of Nevada government.

The Culinary Union launched a ballot initiative on Wednesday to cap rent increases in North Las Vegas, following what leaders described as unrelenting price hikes and wage stagnation in Southern Nevada. 

Amid punishing rent hikes and an affordable housing shortage, a new Nevada Independent/OH Predictive Insights poll indicates that Nevadans across the political spectrum support rent control policies.

Analysts are offering cautious optimism over plans for a 20,000-seat arena as part of $3 billion entertainment district. The announcement raised concerns about market saturation.

Though Gov. Steve Sisolak and other state leaders have touted Nevada as having the nation’s best economic momentum out of the pandemic, many residents are struggling to make ends meet amid a steep rise in rental and home prices.

As a real estate agent and housing counselor, Shanta Patton has experienced the barriers to homeownership facing Las Vegas’ Black community firsthand and is looking to help even the playing field.

Spurred by supply chain constraints, historically low interest rates, housing inventory shortages and migration changes influenced by the pandemic, Nevada's housing prices skyrocketed to record highs in 2021.

“Starting in 2004 to 2008, it seemed like every piece of dirt in the resort corridor had a proposed condo project planned for it." Except for a handful of projects, the concept failed.

Throughout 2021, the Las Vegas housing market experienced an unprecedented rise in home prices. But the incoming Las Vegas Realtors Association president expects the market to stabilize in the new year.

Across Nevada, an estimated 46,000 households — or about 9 percent of renter households in the state — are behind on rent. Their futures play out every week in virtual and in-person courtrooms.

Summary evictions in the Silver State are a uniquely expedited and murky process, leaving tenants with the burden to defend themselves.

As rent prices increase, university officials are assessing where to allocate resources to keep attracting and supporting students.

Though the high court’s late Thursday decision places hundreds of thousands of tenants across the country at risk of eviction, Nevada tenants are still protect by AB486.

The latest ban from the CDC is meant to give renters time to catch up with the payments using the billions of federal rental assistance dollars that have been allocated, but are trickling out slowly.

An increasing number of cash purchasers are driving up the pressure and squeezing out would-be purchasers reliant on loans and mortgages.  

Gov. Steve Sisolak emphasized that tenants need to take action to access rental assistance funds and begin preparing for the lifting of the CDC eviction moratorium on Saturday.

Frustration over an ineffective ban on short-term rental properties in unincorporated Clark County and a patchwork of rules across municipalities prompted state lawmakers this spring to pass a bill aimed at standardizing rules and holding hosting platforms such as Airbnb or Vrbo liable for noncompliance with local regulations.

Nevada housing advocates claimed a victory this week after the Biden administration declared a 30-day extension of a nationwide eviction moratorium, but also warned that at-risk tenants will continue to fall through the cracks if they are unaware of their rights or the legal protocols they need to follow to get assistance.

Members of the Interim Finance Committee met Tuesday to authorize the governor’s office to accept the full ARP allotment and designate allocations of more than $76 million in federal aid programs, including $39.5 million in rental assistance, $12.1 million in homeowner assistance and $13.9 million for the Department of Education to ensure federal relief funds are properly administered.

In their amicus brief, the attorneys general argued that the moratorium should remain in place because eliminating the ban would “irreparably harm the states,” Ford’s office said. The attorneys general added in the brief that with roughly half of U.S. adults still unvaccinated and children under the age of 12 still ineligible to receive the vaccine, removing the ban could cause cases to surge across the country.