It’s a challenging time for the Las Vegas homebuilding community and a gathering Thursday gave the industry a chance to share their thoughts on possible fixes and solutions.
Nevada Gov. Joe Lombardo was keynote speaker Thursday when Southern Nevada homebuilders gathered for the annual Las Vegas Housing Outlook at the Las Vegas Realtors Association. This year’s event by Home Builders Research was hosted by Tina Frias, CEO of the Southern Nevada Home Builders Association with Summerlin as the main sponsor.
The conference has come during a major slowdown for the homebuilding industry that’s been hurt by continued elevated mortgage rates and consumer sentiment at a low level nationwide.
Home closings are down 28 percent through the first two months of the year. Net sales in February were down 33 percent by historical averages. The monthly total of 755 was down 22 percent from the 962 in February 2025. Closings and permits fell 20 percent each in 2025.
“It’s been pretty tough out there to start the year,” Home Builders Research President Andrew Smith said.
Smith said the drop in activity can be attributed to elevated interest rates. A year ago, there was a lot of anticipation that rates would come down more than they ended up doing in 2025.
“They haven’t been great so far in 2026; and with the conflicts going on right now that we’re involved overseas are not great for interest rates, overall,” Smith said. “As long as these wars are going on (in the Middle East), the interest rate situation isn’t going to improve.”
Elevated interest rates impact affordability, which continues to be a problem, Smith said. The median price of a single-family home exceeded $582,000 in February, a 4 percent year-over-year increase.
Despite that, there were positives to report at the conference.
“The overall outlook is good for Southern Nevada,” Smith said. “We are still seeing population growth and bringing businesses in. The conversion of buyers into sales is still strong, so it’s not like a lot of people looking and nobody is buying. There’s just not a lot of buyers out there.”
Smith added that there’s still a housing shortage, and it’s up to the industry to figure out how to adapt. The industry always has in the past, he noted.
“It is an interesting time right now,” Smith said.
Frias, given what’s taking place in the homebuilding industry today, called it an important time to get together. Housing is a critical issue for the community and a precursor of how the overall economy is doing, she added.
“It was an important time more than ever to come together to talk about how we can get more Nevadans into homes,” Frias said.
The lineup featured presentations by Smith; Steve Hill, CEO of the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority; Zane Marshall, director of Water Resources for the Southern Nevada Water Authority; and Shawn McCoy, director of the Lied Center for Real Estate at UNLV.
“It was great to get the governor involved and help him address the leaders in the homebuilding industry about the topics important to him,” Smith said. “We’ve brought people who are educated about housing and development.”
Smith said it was important when it comes to water shortages to provide some clarity to the public on what the industry and region faces and updates on agreements for Colorado River water rights.
McCoy has been prolific in his research looking at the land availability in the region.
Frias credited Gov. Lombardo for his involvement in attainable housing.
“He has truly been instrumental to the housing industry, including his work with Assembly Bill 540 and his leadership alongside Clark County and other key stakeholders who have been actively working to streamline the Bureau of Land Management process to work collaboratively on how we can get that land in the hands of developers in an efficient manner.”
Assembly Bill 540 signed by Lombardo in 2025 deals with attainable housing. Some of the $133 million in the legislation has been awarded toward projects that would not have otherwise pencilled, Frias said.
“It has given us some opportunities for some infill projects and some projects that are in the attainable housing project range, starting below $400,000,” Frias said.
