Experts Tell Las Vegas Residents “Don’t Worry” About Rise in Housing Notices of Default

LAS VEGAS, NV – Las Vegas Valley property owners have experienced a whopping 28 percent spike in notices of default (NODs) year-over-year, but experts are telling residents “don’t worry” when it comes to the overall residential real estate market, saying it is simply fallout from the economic woes much of the nation is experiencing right now and not anything exclusive to Southern Nevada.

As per a new report released by the University of Nevada, Las Vegas’ (UNLV) Lied Center for Real Estate, the rise in NODs in Las Vegas is a sign that a greater number of low-income residents are encountering growing financial hurdles when it comes to making their monthly mortgage payments.

Since January 2022, approximately 5,400 NODs have been issued to property owners in Vegas, the UNLV report reveals; almost 25 percent of those defaults have taken place in the first half of 2025 alone.

According to UNLV department of economics professor and Lied Center research director Nicholas Irwin, the areas that are feeling the impact of increasing NODs are mainly east and southwest Las Vegas and North Las Vegas.

If you overlaid a map of poverty rates or you overlaid a map of per capita income, these would be areas that generally have lower income, higher poverty,” he said. “So, it’s not unexpected that, if the economy tends to worsen a little bit, these are probably going to be the areas that are going to be first responding to something through an increase in defaults and potential foreclosures.”

But for Southern Nevada residents who may be breaking out in a cold sweat when the current situation reminds them of the mid-2000’s housing crash, Irwin – as well as other real estate experts – is telling them not to worry, as the two situations are far removed from one another.

“This isn’t 2008. We’re not seeing 6,000-plus [NODs] a month being filed,” he said, noting that while defaults are rising in the valley, they are nonetheless nowhere near the historic levels they reached when the housing bubble burst over a decade-and-a-half ago; he also pointed out the fact that just because a NOD is issued, it doesn’t mean that it will actually end in a foreclosure.

As for the next year, Irwin said that depends on what happens with mortgage rates, and if more affordable housing is built in the region.

“So, it’s kind of a wait-and-see approach, I guess, for homebuyers and home sellers,” he 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.