If New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani wants to lower rents, he should take a look at what’s happened in Las Vegas.
Almost 58 percent of apartments in the Las Vegas area offered concessions, according to Zillow’s July rent report. That’s well above the national average of 39.8 percent. Compared to last year, the percentage of Las Vegas rentals offering incentives jumped by 15.2 percentage points. That was the largest increase in the country among the top 50 metro areas. In some instances, these concessions — such as eight weeks of free rent — can be quite lucrative. Further, rents actually declined slightly in July.
“Property managers are competing for renters, and renters are in the driver’s seat,” Orphe Divounguy, a senior economist for Zillow, said about Las Vegas. This rental relief “is the direct result of years of strong apartment construction in the Sun Belt. More units came online, vacancy stayed elevated and landlords have had to sweeten the deal to fill them.”
Take a moment to consider this. In many cities, socialists such as Mr. Mamdani have swept to power running on “affordability.” Here in Nevada, complaining about high prices is the main focus of Democrat Aaron Ford’s gubernatorial bid. And the public is understandably concerned about this issue.
During former President Joe Biden’s term, inflation jumped more than 21 percent. While President Donald Trump has significantly reduced the rate of inflation from Mr. Biden’s peak, the inflation rate remains elevated and prices haven’t gone down.
That’s why what happened in Nevada is so important. Gov. Joe Lombardo didn’t just talk about affordability. His approach has helped deliver it. But the most important thing Gov. Lombardo did was what he didn’t do. He didn’t support rent control. The governor has consistently vetoed Democrat-backed bills that would introduce rent control in Nevada despite understanding that he’d be attacked politically for it. One example from 2023 was SB275, which would have imposed rent control on manufactured homes.
“As has been noted when similar rent control policies have been implemented elsewhere, this would likely lead to housing shortages, reduced property maintenance and potentially reduced property tax revenue for local governments,” Gov. Lombardo wrote in his veto message.
By standing in the way of rent control, Gov. Lombardo helped create a climate in which companies have an incentive to build more apartments. This construction boom — done in pursuit of profit — increased supply, which has led to lower prices. That’s the power of the free market.
Mr. Mamdani should take note: Gov. Lombardo produced the results that socialists promise by resisting the siren song of destructive socialist policies.
