Good things happen when politicians keep their hands off the free market.
Before the COVID pandemic, the average rent for a one-bedroom apartment in the Las Vegas area was around $1,150. By October 2024, the price had shot up more than $400, in part because of government restrictions on landlords imposed during the pandemic. For many, paying around $1,550 for a one-bedroom apartment was simply unaffordable. A family that wanted more room faced higher prices.
Longtime residents had an even greater reason to feel pinched. Coming off the collapse in Las Vegas real estate prices, the average rent for a one-bedroom apartment was just $640 in 2012.
Unsurprisingly, renters wanted relief from this financial pressure. In 2022, the Culinary Local 226 spearheaded a local rent-control initiative.
“North Las Vegans are being pushed out of their homes by rent increases that are among the highest in the nation,” Ted Pappageorge, the union’s secretary-treasurer, said when announcing the campaign. “On top of 8.5 percent inflation in gas and groceries, rising rents are a blow to working families who are still recovering from the COVID-19 pandemic.”
Mr. Pappageorge was certainly right that Bidenflation drove prices through the roof. But he didn’t have the right solution to rising rents. Rent control may be a boon to a select few, but its overall failures are well documented by serious economists. Fortunately, the rent-control initiative stalled. Gov. Joe Lombardo wisely vetoed rent-control bills in Carson City, too.
While the high rental prices were painful, they served an important purpose. They signaled to developers and lenders that they could make money building new apartment complexes. And build they did.
In August 2023, the Review-Journal’s Patrick Blennerhassett wrote about a report from Coldwell Banker Commercial. It showed “2023 will be a record-breaking year for apartment complex completions.” Between 2023 and early 2024, Las Vegas added around 11,000 apartment units. In contrast, fewer than 900 units entered the market in 2022.
As supply increased sharply, prices started to drop. “Las Vegas 2nd in nation for declining rental rates year over year, report says,” Mr. Blennerhassett reported last July.
In September 2025, a report showed “Las Vegas rents are dropping faster than anywhere else in the country,” he wrote. In November, he noted, “Rents continue to decline in Las Vegas Valley, report says.” Last month, a new report showed that more than half “of rental listings in the Las Vegas Valley are offering concessions right now.”
Those concessions include cash back and free rent, according to a Zillow report. It’s a good time to be a renter in Las Vegas — because leaders such as Gov. Lombardo had the wisdom and courage to reject disastrous Democratic rent-control proposals.
