Rents in the Las Vegas Valley have increased close to 20 percentage points more than Los Angeles in the past seven years, according to a new study.
In June 2019 before the COVID-19 pandemic started, the median cost of a one-bedroom apartment in the Las Vegas Valley was approximately $1,053, and as of June that now sits at $1,235, or 17 percent increase. However the cost of a one-bedroom apartment in Los Angeles — the top city driving migration to Las Vegas — has fallen 1.3 percent, from $2,230 in June 2019 to $2,200 last month.
Looking at other comparable cities, Portland’s one-bedroom rent in June 2019 was $1,360 and that has now increased to $1,400 (+2.9 percent). In Salt Lake City, it’s gone from $1,170 to $1,200 (+2.6 percent), and Denver has gone from $1,600 to $1,570 (−1.9 percent).
Looking at cities on the other end of the spectrum, one-bedroom prices in Austin, Texas, are up 9 percent since 2019 (from $1,190 to $1,300), and Miami is up a whopping 46 percent (from $1,790 to $2,610).
Crystal Chen, a researcher for Zumper, said changes in rental rates can largely be attributed to one thing.
“These two groups really tell a supply-and-demand story. Denver and Salt Lake City have both seen demand grow quickly over the last few years, but they also permitted and delivered a lot of new units to match it,” she said. “That added inventory absorbed the demand, pulling one-bedroom rents back to roughly their 2019 levels.
“Los Angeles and Portland land in a similar place for overlapping reasons as they both saw a significant wave of new supply come online just as demand softened and some residents moved out, so rents never needed to climb much and have essentially round-tripped to pre-pandemic levels.”
Two of the fastest growing cities in the country, Austin and Miami, have seen rental increases much like Las Vegas for a few reasons, she said.
“They’re affordable, tax-advantaged cities that pulled in sustained population growth,” Chen said. “While both markets have seen new rental deliveries, the supply still hasn’t fully kept up with the demand, so rents remain above pre-pandemic. However, rents in both cities have eased from their 2022 to 2023 peaks, suggesting the new supply has helped relieve some of that pressure.”
Contact Patrick Blennerhassett at pblennerhassett@reviewjournal.com.
