Homebuilders Association: Las Vegas Valley Could Run Out of Land to Develop in Eight Years

LAS VEGAS, NV – According to the Southern Nevada Home Builders Association (SNHBA), the Las Vegas Valley – in the span of as little as eight years – could potentially run out of land upon which to develop housing, a serious situation that the organization said needs to be addressed sooner than later to avoid issues in the future.

SNHBA CEO Tina Frias noted that the eight-year timeframe – based on data supplied by a company called Applied Analysis – necessitates government action to free up additional federal desert lands to develop in order to keep Southern Nevada’s housing supply on par with the current level of supply and demand.

At the end of the day, from a homebuilding perspective, we need more land,” Frias said. “So, it’s important for us to have the land to develop in the first place.”

According to officials, the federal government currently owns 88 percent of the land in Clark County, with over half of that property – 2.6 million acres – managed by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM). A BLM spokesperson said that the 1998 Southern Nevada Public Land Management Act Mandated the federal agency to sell select plots of public land within the Las Vegas Valley, and so far nearly 44,000 acres have been sold or leased, with an additional 27,000 acres still pending.

In an effort to do away with the bureaucracy that some say is the cause behind the difficulties in accessing land for development in Southern Nevada, Governor Joe Lombardo recently endorsed a bill called the Accelerating Appraisals and Conservation Efforts Act in an effort to cut through the red tape and get the feds to release more land in the region for badly-needed home construction.

Nevada families deserve access to attainable housing – and that begins with eliminating governmental barriers to development,” Lombardo said.

According to Redfin, the current median sale price of an existing single-family home in the Las Vegas Valley has jumped 9.2 percent year-over-year alone, driven by low inventory and high demand; opening up more land for development, experts say, would help lower home prices in the long run and make the housing market more affordable.

Shelter Realty is a Real Estate and Property Management Company specializing 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.