How much do Las Vegas Valley residents need to make to afford a house?

Las Vegas Valley residents need to make at least $115,990 per household to afford the typical home for sale, according to a new report from Redfin.

This is a 4.5 percent increase from the same time last year (end of February) as Redfin has the median home sale price in the valley at $439,301, which is just shy of a record high.

The Las Vegas Valley has become a hotspot for immigration from other less affordable metros, said Chen Zhao, lead economist for Redfin.

“Las Vegas is unaffordable because it attracts buyers from other states, especially California but also even New York, in addition to locals,” she said. “It is a perennially popular migration destination especially for higher income households. After the L.A. fires, that trend may be exacerbated. That is on top of what plagues affordability in the rest of the country, which is chronic under building relative to housing demand as well as some amount of investor activity.”

From January to March of this year, the most popular place people are moving to Las Vegas from are Los Angeles (6,438), followed by San Francisco (1,370) and Seattle (1,180). The top destination Las Vegas residents are leaving the valley to move to are all in Arizona: Phoenix (403), Lake Havasu City (248) and Tucson (164).

Renters in the valley don’t fair much better as Redfin has the median asking rent for all unit types at $1,486, which means a household needs to make $59,440 to afford rent in the valley, a 2.5 percent increase from the end of February of last year.

Nationally, American households need to make $116,633 a year to afford the median priced home for sale, slightly above the valley’s average. This is 81.8% more than the $64,160 they would need annually to afford the typical apartment for rent.

Last year at the end of February, someone needed to make $110,808 to afford the typical U.S. home for sale and two years ago, they needed to earn $101,341 to afford the typical home for sale. Finally, back in 2021, they needed to make $63,925 to afford the typical home for sale in the country, showcasing the drastic increase in housing prices since the onset of the pandemic.

Home prices in the valley have essentially doubled since the start of the pandemic, and Redfin senior economist Elijah de la Campa said this exponential price increase is challenging Americans’ dreams of becoming homeowners.

“It has become increasingly challenging for American renters to make the shift to homeownership thanks to the triple whammy of rising home prices, high mortgage rates and a shortage of houses for sale,” he said. “The gap between what someone must earn to buy versus rent may shrink in the coming months, but only because rents are expected to rise as the number of new apartments hitting the market tapers off due to a construction slowdown.”

The Redfin report also noted that “homebuyers, sellers and renters may face an extended period of economic uncertainty due to President (Donald) Trump’s newly announced tariffs. The tariffs could lead to some mortgage rate relief, but that’s not guaranteed. They are expected to bring higher construction costs, higher home prices, higher unemployment and slower economic growth.”

Patrick Blennerhassett at pblennerhassett@reviewjournal.com.