Gerrard Kaonga
While rent prices have pretty much gone up across the board, to live in Las Vegas, renters need to earn a staggering amount.
When most people think of Las Vegas, they think of money going out either on gambling, shopping, events or sports - rarely do we think about the people who actually live there.
But, if you do plan on living in the city of sin, or at least renting in it, you better be bringing in that good money.
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A new report from the real estate marketplace, Zillow, detailed just how the rental market has changed post-covid in the US.
To put these increases into context, the report details just how much rental prices have been going up on average year by year.
“Rental prices have surged 29.4%, averaging an annual increase of 7% over the last four years. However, nearly two-thirds of this increase happened in 2021 alone,” the report stated.
“Currently, rents are up 3.4% compared to last year reaching $1,958 according to the Zillow Observed Rent Index (ZORI). This annual growth rate is significantly lower than the pre-pandemic average of approximately 4.1% observed in 2018 and 2019,”
Now, when you look at the Las Vegas metropolitan area, the income needed to afford rent in Las Vegas has risen 34%. This is the 12th largest percentage increase in income needed to afford rent among the 50 largest US metros.
For context, the largest increases are in Miami at 53 percent, Tampa at 49 percent and the Providence, Rhode Island at 43 percent.
In money terms, a household needs to bring in just under $70,000 annually and $69,810 to afford typical rent in the desert city.
This is considered only the 26th highest income needed among the 50 largest US metros in the middle compared to other major metros.
Despite this whopping number, it is still lower than the total U.S. average income of $78,304. So, I guess that is something.
Using this figure, payments for Las Vegas’ typical rent ($1,745) wouldn’t exceed 30% of the household’s income.
Despite this, the fact that first-time buyers haven't been... well buying, rent prices have remained high.
Brooks Merkle, a realtor at Ansley Real Estate The Stowe Group spoke to Newsweek and explained the ongoing crisis.
"I think most people understand that they would rather be paying down their own mortgage and not their landlords, but for some people, finding the funds for a down payment on a house as well as enough cash flow to make their payments and continue their typical life that they love is a struggle that would spread them too thin.”