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Southern Nevadans Working to Address Housing Crisis
 Confronting rapidly rising home prices and diminishing apartment options, the Southern Nevada Home Builders Association earlier this month participated in and helped sponsor a one-day conference to find answers for meeting the housing needs of the Las Vegas area, whose population is expected to grow by 1.3 million new residents over the next 20 years.
Presented by the Nevada State Education Association, which represents local school teachers, the conference on workforce housing was attended by about 200 Southern Nevadans representing stakeholders in local housing issues.
"We were interested in participating in the planning and execution of this conference because there is a need for affordable and attainable housing in Southern Nevada," said Irene Porter, executive director of the home builders association. "Ultimately, some of our builders will be called upon to deliver that product. Given those facts, it was important that the home building industry's perspective be included at the conference, and incorporated into the drafting of a plan of action."
Porter added that, "The home building industry's perspective particularly focuses on bringing economies to the cost of a home through a reduction in fees, a reduction in the time frames for the development process and changes in other regulations, such as density, zoning and design standards which, together with other actions, could lead to the delivery of a great affordable product."
Median housing prices in Las Vegas in February were almost $309,000 for a new home, including condo conversions, over $345,000 not counting conversions and $282,000 for an existing home. The median price of a new home, including condos, was up 10.6% last year, following a 38.5% surge in 2004. The median household income in metro Las Vegas’s Clark County, with a population of 1.75 million, was just over $47,000 last year, and about 36% of the households there were renters.
A key objective of the conference was to come up with an action plan to develop an advocacy program to educate elected officials, business people and the public about the need to expand the area’s supply of workforce housing.
Several barriers to affordable housing were identified at the conference:
- The availability and cost of land
- Regulatory barriers such as zoning ordinances, exclusionary zoning, impact fees and processing times
- The lack of “community will” to address the problem
- The cost of construction defect litigation, insurance and legislation
- Lack of incentive programs or mechanisms for securing funding
- Complexities of securing Bureau of Land Management land for workforce housing
- Increasing development costs, including construction costs
Among strategies discussed were the pursuit of non-traditional, less costly housing types and exploring innovations in design and development. At the same time, it was acknowledged that existing home owners need to be reassured that higher density development will not lead to lower property values.
Discussions explored expanding the role of non-profit building groups and financial institutions in resolving the problem, the appropriateness of community land trusts, the usefulness of linkage fees, the role of public and private partnerships and identifying opportunities for employer-provided housing.
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